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Re: Question re: lining wooden shelves for rare books and archive s



I'm in a similar position here with a new job, old archives.  The horizontal
and vertical oversize storage is wooden, as are some old bookcases that
house the book collection of an educational reformer who died in 1926.  I've
just this morning been spending time emptying, cleaning, lining, and
replacing materials since it's what I can do or the time being.
Fortunately, there is still quite a lot of acid-free bristol board in large
sizes here that fits the bill nicely, so we're lining the bottoms and as
necessary the sides of shelves and cabinets.  The other option, and much
more costly, is to wrap everything.  Have you looked into the cost of
getting a large roll of mylar to use for lining? It may be cheaper than
acid-free barrier board. I'm using what I have to protect the books and
oversize stuff until we can get the money to start wrapping or get metal
shelving.

Doing the best I can with what I've got,

Sally Childs-Helton
Special Collections/Rare Books Librarian
Butler University Library
4600 Sunset Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46208
317-940-9265


-----Original Message-----
From: Katherine Johnson [mailto:kbjohnson@LOUISVILLE.EDU]
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2000 10:09 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Question re: lining wooden shelves for rare books and archives


Much of the rare book and manuscript collection that I work with one day a
week at our health sciences library is housed in a lovely room with wooden
bookcases, which is a replica of the original medical school library from
the 1800s.  Everything in that room was chosen 30 years ago for how it
looked.

My concern is that we have these rare materials sitting on shelves that may
be off-gassing and/or causing other problems.  I have suggested, and it has
been approved, that I order acid-free mat or barrier board and have it cut
to fit and line all of the shelves, so that the books and other materials
will not be sitting directly on the finished wood.  My estimates of cost run
from $1500 to $2000 for the board, so before I proceed, I would like to hear
others' opinions.

Have any of the rest of you faced this situation?  Is this a reasonable
solution?  Have you tried anything else that might have worked better?  Any
other ideas?  I need to make a decision by the end of this week.

Kathie Johnson

Katherine Burger Johnson, Associate Archivist
University Archives and Records Center
400 Ekstrom Library
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292
Phone-502.852.6674    FAX-502.852.6673
kbjohnson@louisville.edu

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