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Glove use summary
Two weeks ago, I requested information on glove use. My sincere
thanks to all the respondents. There were responses question from 16
individuals. I hope I have correctly interpreted your responses.
Please forgive misinterpretations.
Of those 16:
- 6 never require gloves for paper items. This response was usually
accompanied by concerns about increased clumsiness and damage to brittle
materials caused by gloves, particularly those with the added grippers.
- 7 always require gloves for photographs and/or negatives. Three of
these people do not use gloves for any other format. Two mentioned that
gloves are not needed when the photographs are in protective housing.
One person mentioned fingerprints on the Mylar sleeves as evidence of the oil
and dirt fingers carry. There was also a regretful note about a
now-permanent fingerprint in the emulsion of an important print.
- 1 requires gloves for vellum-bound books only. Vellum was identified
as more sensitive to body oils than other leathers.
- 1 requires gloves for everything. This policy was cited as a way to
communicate to the public the importance of preserving the collections.
- 1 requires gloves for rare books.
- 3 require gloves for artifacts. A fingerprinted Oscar was
particularly regretted.
- 1 uses gloves only when cleaning books.
One archivist noted the importance of gloves in the museum profession, and
wondered whether glove use in archives had carried over from there.
Another noted that sometimes the gloves were dirtier than the hands in the
gloves. One person mentioned the importance of having support up and down
the organization for the policy, whatever it is.
It is difficult to find mention of glove use to protect collections in
websites concerning archival materials, except for handling photographs.
Glove use is more frequently cited in reference to protecting the archivist, as
in salvage operations and in connection with handling moldy materials.
The variety of policies is very interesting to me. I still need to
resolve several questions before I can create a policy on glove use I can fully
support.
- The effect of finger oils on metal, textiles, leather, and ceramics was
mentioned repeatedly. Is it truly possible to say that clean hands are
enough when handling paper, if it is easy to find evidence of damage to
textiles, the artifact material to which paper is most closely related?
- Almost everyone mentioned the importance of clean hands, free of hand
lotions or other salves. This leaves me puzzling as to how to be sure
hands are clean if we decide not to require glove use. How often do
hands need to be washed? We cannot police the bathrooms. Would a
container of hand wipes in the library allow us to watchdog the cleanliness,
or would they just make litter and add unwanted chemicals?
- If I decide to recommend glove use for handling some archival paper, is
there a valid reason to waive the policy? I am working with two paper
conservators, neither of whom wore gloves when inspecting circus posters in
our archive. The conservators were using their fingers to learn about
the papers on which they were going to be working. Are there other valid
reasons to waive the use of gloves? Does it depend solely on the
perceived value of the paper being handled? Is there a way to make it
less arbitrary?
Again, many thanks to everyone who responded with policies and
examples. I learned a great deal from the answers.
Erin Foley
Archivist
Circus World Museum
550 Water
Street
Baraboo, WI 53913