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FW: Organization of Photo Collections



This is the second of Brian's postings to me, and my response to his first
one is below it.  I had thought of dehumidifiers, but there's the problem of
drainage - you either have to empty the bucket or pipe it to the outside.
The first is complicated here given my distance to the sinks, the latter
means getting them to knock holes in the walls of a space I may not be in
for a lot longer.

DS

______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:dsokolow@nshs.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: Brian DeLuc a [mailto:bkdeluca@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 8:09 PM
To: DSokolow@nshs.edu
Subject: RE: Organization of Photo Collections


One word...dehumidifiers!!!!  Depending on the size of your room lots of
them!!!  Seriously though, that is a rough envirionment for photos.
I was lucky that the collection I was working on was in a new research
center that had a new HVAC system that operated independently from the rest
of the building.  My biggest concern was the exposure to UV from the
multiple windows and the constantly buzzing overhead lights.

My second biggest concern was the actual location of the collection.  Which
happened to be in standard file folder in a lateral file.  Every time
someone opened or closed the file cabinet photos would fly out of their
folders.

Balancing economy and preservation I ordered some buffered, ligin free
archival storage boxes from Gaylord.  These were basically the stripped down

model, but I was working for a historical society staffed by volunteers, who

were skeptical about the whole concept of preservation.  Considering I got
them to spend about $300 for the whole process I was pretty pleased.  I also

bought some acid free folders.  Both the boxes and the files were certified
to have passed the photo activity test.  I even bought some supposedly acid
free labels for the folders, but I'm rather skeptical of the need or
reliability of said labels.

I figured the boxes would only have a lifetime of 10 years max., and it was
fairly unlikily that the historical society would embark on such a huge
project again. In hopes of stretching out the "service" life of the boxes I
interleafed the photos, within their folders, with basic acid-free computer
paper.  This took up a lot of space, which in turn meant I probably
increased the number of boxes I needed, but I feel it was worth it.  Since
many of the photos had tape and glue residue on them it also prevented
photos from sticking to one another.
Some of the photos had been in plastic sleeves, but no one was sure of the
kind or quality, and may of them had been taped shut.  Under those
conditions, I decided to just eliminate the sleeves.

Doing it by myself, and doing with a collection of probably about 2,500
photos, I was able to complete the project in about 5 weeks.  That was
working 4 days a week, and also fulfilling other duties.

If you would like to no the exact products I used let me know.

Good Luck

Brian DeLuca


>From: DSokolow@nshs.edu
>To: bkdeluca@hotmail.com
>Subject: RE: Organization of Photo Collections
>Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2002 13:50:20 -0400
>
>My assistant shares your opinion of keeping things simple, and it's how I'm
>likely to do it, but I thought it worth asking around in case someone
>brought up something critical I hadn't thought of.
>
>I'd be happy to hear what you have to say on the environment issue, bearing
>in mind that the situation here is lousy and there's nothing I can do about
>it at the moment.  My AVERAGE humidity measurement over the last two weeks
>in one room was over %70; the high was about %83, and I have no idea how to
>do anything about it.
>
>Thanks for the help,
>
>DS
>

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