Tidbits from 9Th Annual National Archives Workshop

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Hydration process of Rolled up documents or folded / creased documents- Humidified 2 container process.

Take a large container and pour about 1/2" of distilled water in in. Take a second container that will accommodate the size of your document in a flat position and place your document in it. Then lay this second container in the larger container that has the distilled water in it. Being careful not to splash or wet you document. Then apply a suggested glass top to make a sealed container. Leave the rolled document in this container no longer than 24 hours. This was done and about 5 hours later the document began to relax and unfold on its own.

The photo below reveals the same document 4-5 hours later. You can see how much the document has already relaxed.

After putting stretch bands around the cling wrap it was noted that the cling wrap was not a suitable in this process. That the old fashion method of a glass top worked much better.

A simple low cost set of pliers can be purchased at a local hardware or lumber supply store as shown below. This will be very helpful around your work space for many things.

Please, Please do not try to laminate these pliers. (GRIN)

Cording figure eight process for old pamphlets, magazines, grapevines after staple removal. Use of beeswax for your cording is recommended above other products that are advertised for this procedure. The photo shows pliers that after folding the two staple legs up, they are clipped off with the pliers to allow minimum damage caused by pulling a longer length of staple thought the hole. Rust on staples will be minimized and not be left in the paper. Please be careful when clipping the staple legs. Protect your eyes. Notice the  marking  process on the backside of a document checking the ph of the paper. See the staples that have already been removed. The cording can bee seen in front of the ph pen. A dry cleaning pad along side a bone folding tool is also on the work table. Notice the cutting mat, double sided archivally safe tape, acid free folders, don't forget the cotton gloves.

All documents don't need to be encapsulated. A acid free folder works well for documents that are not as precious as others. It is recommended to deacidify documents before encapsulation.

Never Never Laminate a document.

Tapes.

What to do with them. We have hundreds of tapes. What should we do? Lets make duplicates. Lets copy them on to compact disk (cd). Lets rewind them all at least once a year. Never should we fast forward, for this stretches the tape. Nor should we just let sit for long periods of time without rewinding. This causes irreparable damage and lots of bleed over and background noise. Okay then lets transcribe every tape. Huh! Whew! It is still suggested that all of the most important tapes or those that are nearing a state of loosing the lead to be transcribed. A transcribed tape can be protected on paper for 150 years.

Ph Strips vs. Ph Pens ??

Collecting Oral Histories

What should we concentrate on in our Area or district. Well Archives is all about collecting AA History in your Area. What better way to collect Local AA History is there than Taping the Old Timers of AA. There are many helping guidelines out there that prompts you to ask certain questions the person being taped. Below you will find two different forms. One is from Akron Archives and you will be redirected to there site. The other is a form that has been used at the Area 64 Archives in Murfreesboro. My personal experience has been very rewarding. I contacted a few of the older members and made arrangements to get their oral history. This is a very humbling twelfth step experience. I have found that when you get ready to tape someone, you should think about a few things. Telephones, pagers, alarm clocks, weak batteries in smoke detectors, hourly chimes on watches. Believe me if it can happen it will happen. Other folks sitting in on these wonderful sessions wiggling around, sneezing. The list goes on. Get the idea? Try to use a little common sense here and it will make for a very rewarding tape. I have found that it doesn't take much effort to get the older members to talk about their experience in AA. One thing that is noted in most of the guidelines is that we are not collecting drunkalogs. We are collecting AA History. Remember that is suggested to get release forms that give your Archives permission to handle the tapes as requested by the person giving the oral history. Anonymity is always to be respected. If the talk has many last names, then this tape should be of a classified category. We don't have the right to allow just anyone to hear such tapes. We are charged as Archivists or Archives Chairpersons to Protect The Anonymity at the level of press radio and film.

Don'ts

don't use Hard Lead Pencils. They will cut the fibers in paper. Use Soft Lead Pencils in your Archival work

don't use Scotch Tape.

don't put items in a book. No matter how them they are they will eventually break the spine of the book.

don't handle deacidified documents with bare hands. Always protect the document with preferably cotton gloves.

don't have coffee, drinks, food stuff around your Archives or working area. It will happen. Spills

don't use just any type glue.

don't use just any type tape.

do No Harm

Three Ring Binders

Notice the ink that has transferred off the pages in the three ring binder. There was some talk about certain plastics that give off gasses and causing damage to paper documents. It is obvious of the damage done to the documents that were at one time in this three ring binder.

Attendants from several states.

Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, California, Washington State, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Ohio, Virginia, New York,

Light Box