Here is a continuation of the ten tips that was written by the Preservation Department at Duke University Libraries.

Tip #3: Handle with Care

Although this may seem rather obvious, there are some rather simple things that you can do to help increase the longevity of your special belongings. Here are a few things that you should  do:

Never eat or drink around your valuables as you could accidentally spill or leave food residue. The food residue can cause premature aging and also can attract insects or small critters that could damage your items.

Always wash your hands before touching your special keepsakes. Even though you think your hands are clean they naturally have oil and can leave a residue behind. One way to use extra caution is to wash your hands, and then put on cotton gloves.

Make sure that you are careful while handling. Pay attention to how you hold your keepsake and that you’re not handling it a way that could damage it. For example, don’t pull a book off the shelf by its spine or leave a bunch of fingerprints on your pictures. You should also be careful where you place your special items as you want to make sure that the surface is clean and free of clutter before setting it down on something.

Tips #4: Display Responsibly

Any time you want to display your special photographs or collections, you want to be careful how you display them. A few things that you want to watch out for are:

Avoiding Light – Exposure to light to cause fading and make your photographs and textiles brittle. Try to avoid hanging your special items, near windows or light where the light could shine on it. Before displaying anything you should also pay attention for light patterns as sunlight will enter your house differently at different times of the day. If there is no way to avoid light, then make a copy or replica of your item and put the original in safe keeping.

Environmental Conditions – Although we’ve said this in other posts, make sure that you keep the temperature and humidity stable. Ideally a temperature of between 60-70 degrees Farenheit and a relative humidity of 40-50% is best (assuming minimum fluctuations).

Framing Carefully – You want to make sure that all of the materials used to frame your picture or collection won’t prematurely age it. That means, you want to use acid free archival products that have a low pH (7.00-8.5) and are lignin free. If you want to be extra careful, you can use UV glass or UV acrylic that are help minimize UV light, however regular glass or plexiglass or acrylic do work fine for most cases.  (If you’re wondering if we offer any frames with UV glass or UV acrylic, currently the majority of our wooden oval frames do have the option of UV glass or UV acrylic and we do plan to offer more frames with this option). Another thing to consider is how your item is secured in the frame. Non adhesive methods are best, however there are options such as linen tape and archival adhesives that can be used if needed.

Stay tuned for tips 5 and 6….