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Re: Reasons to use gloves



At Wesleyan's Special Collections & Archives, we do not use gloves for any
of our collections, with the only exception being unhoused photograph
collections. We've found they do decrease dexterity and significantly
increase the odds of damage to items, even the gripper gloves. Turning
fragile paper in gloves is a totally different project/challenge than with
bare hands. I've yet to find a glove (say perhaps a latex one) that can
approximate bare-hand dexterity (and I would not use latex gloves in a
reading room environment).

We monitor our users carefully and continuously through video monitors and
at check in - and we will tell people kindly to please go out and wash
their hands if there is _any_ question (i.e. I remember a woman who rubbed
globs of hand creme into her hands right before she checked her purse in
our lockers, then was going to look at architectural drawings and
blueprints).

We've managed to make very good quality digital photocopies of most of our
main photo collections for browsing purposes, and have Mylared the
originals for their later use. Occurrences where readers encounter large
numbers of unhoused photos in our collections are as a result rare, so the
gloves come out very infrequently.


Best,

Jeffrey Makala



Jeffrey Makala
Processing Archivist/Reference Librarian
Special Collections & Archives
Olin Library, Wesleyan University                       860.685.3863
252 Church St.                                          860.685.2661 fax
Middletown CT 06459                                     jmakala@wesleyan.edu

On Thu, 10 May 2001, Erin Foley wrote:

> I have an ongoing problem convincing people to use gloves in my archives.
> Not the genealogists--they are only too happy to do whatever they need to
> have access to materials about their relatives.  My problem is with two
> important individuals, one a curator of a prints collection, the other a
> museum director, who have refused to wear gloves. One told me that damage
> increases with wearing gloves because they are too slippery (I bought the
> gloves with gripper dots for his use, but that hasn't changed his mind).
> The other claims to wash hands frequently, but I can't say that happened
> during her visit.
>
> What I need is evidence that wearing gloves actually helps the items being
> handled, something I can point to when glove use is questioned by a
> researcher.  I have done a quick check of the basic materials here, but
> cannot find more than the statement that gloves should be worn due to the
> possibility that finger oils can stain paper.  Some sources say only that
> hands must be clean and dry before handling archival materials.  A check of
> the listserv archives did not turn up anything substantial.  Does such
> evidence occur somewhere?
>
> Perhaps someone has guidelines on when to use gloves?  We do it by type of
> collection (books do not require use of gloves, but all archival collections
> do except when encapsulated in Mylar).  Is there a better way to decide who
> needs to use gloves?  If you don't require the use of gloves, do you have
> guidelines on the frequency of handwashing?
>
> Thanks for any help. I can be e-mailed at the address below.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Erin Foley
> Archivist
> Circus World Museum
> 550 Water Street
> Baraboo, WI  53913
>
> 608-356-8342, ext. 3283
> fax 608-355-7959
> efoley.cwm@baraboo.com
>
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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>