Preservation of Photographic Materials & Scrapbooks

Tips and Resources

Objectives:
 Learn causes of deterioration
 Obtain Best Practices for handling photographs, films, documents,
and books
 Determine how to store materials and when to get outside help

Definitions:
 Preservation – Preservation encompasses the activities which prolong the usable life of archival records.
Preservation activities are designed to minimize the physical and chemical deterioration of records and to
prevent the loss of informational content.
 Deterioration – reduction in quality caused by wear and tear and improper treatment, resulting in damaged
materials
 Conservation – Conservation attempts to preserve records in their original format. Conservators examine
records and assess their condition and the materials which comprise them. Conservators then recommend
remedial treatments to arrest deterioration or to improve condition. As they perform the recommended
treatments, conservators carefully document the condition of the record as well as the procedures performed
and materials used.
 Acidity – after 1840, paper production began using trees (instead of cotton and flax) for pulp; this method, when
introduced to air and moisture, produces acid and results in deterioration over a shorter time period
 Lignin – “Lignin is found in wood pulp and is the substance that exacerbates acidity. Lignin can be removed in
the pulping process. It is expensive, but the resulting paper will remain acid-free much longer than wood pulp
paper in which lignin is present. When newspaper turns brown over time, this is due to the lignin causing acid to
form within the paper fibers.” (www.amigos.org)
 Ultraviolet lights – accelerates deterioration of historical records; weakens paper fibers and make them brittle;
causes the paper or ink to bleach, yellow, fade, or darken (Basics of Archives training course)
 Lossy compression – compression where data is discarded; can be audio, video, and still images
 Lossless compression – allows exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data; no
information is lost (i.e. zipping a file)

Steps to Digitizing and Preserving Treasures:

1. Identify – Find and collect everything you need to save, keeps these in
one location (remember, if a disaster occurred, you might only have a
minute or two to grab items); Consider devices, media, memory cards,
online sites, and emails.
2. Decide – Select valuable items and remove duplication. Is it important to
keep both unedited and final versions of work? Once a decision has
been made, convert the items to open, lossless formats, if possible.
3. Organize – Create a single container with subfolders; use consistent
structure and naming. Add descriptive filenames and metadata (can be
embedded or not); create an inventory/directory for the structure so
that someone else would be able to find materials in the archive.
4. Copy – Keep copies of archive in different storage locations: external hard drives, CD/DVD (try using archival
quality); online storage
5. Confirm – Check to make sure archives are readable at least once a year; migrate to new storage locations at
least every five years

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Causes of Deterioration:

Photographs
 Residual processing chemicals not washed out correctly
 Damaging storage materials, such as acidic scrapbook paper
 Damaging adhesives (don’t use sticky tape!)
 Emergencies (water damage, fire)
 Mismanagement (overexposing images to light in lengthy exhibits, mending tears with pressure-sensitive tape,
writing on prints, folding to fit in boxes or folders)
 Mishandling (bending photos, scratching them, tearing them)
 Environment causes - high (or in some cases even room) temperature, high relative humidity, contaminants in
the air, light. Pictures may buckle or curl (humidity) or fade (light).
 Recommended: 68⁰ F. and 20% - 30% relative humidity.
 Biological and microbial causes – silverfish, roaches, rodents, mold

Books
 Paper – short wood fibers containing lots of acid and with acidic “sizing
 Acidic links
 Glued, rather than stitched bindings
 Acids in leather causing “red rot” as leather breaks down
 Improper shelving resulting in damage to books – i.e., books shelved at a slant causing broken spine, heavy
books placed on top of lighter weight books, tall books shelved next to or on top of short books
 Storage environment - fluctuating humidity and temperature or high humidity and temperature will speed up
the acidic process and produce growth of mold and mildew. The higher the heat, the faster the acids will work
to make the paper brown and crunchy. Fluctuations in temperature and humidity are as bad as, or worse than,
high levels of either, causing paper and bindings to swell and contract and resulting in warping in the structure
of the book. Recommendations: <70⁰ F. and < 55% RH
 Biological agents – rodents, insects (roaches, silverfish),
mold, mildew. Mold spores are EVERYWHERE and just
waiting for the right conditions to bloom.
 Bright sunlight or artificial light causing dyes to fade.

Documents
 Paper – short wood fibers containing lots of acid and with
acidic “sizing”
 Acidic inks
 Storage environment - fluctuating humidity and
temperature or high humidity and temperature speeds up
the acidic process and produces growth of mold and
mildew The higher the heat, the faster the acids will work
to make the paper brown and crunchy. Fluctuations in temperature and humidity are as bad as, or worse than,
high levels of either, causing paper to swell and contract, resulting in warping.
Recommendations: <70⁰ F. and < 55% RH
 Biological agents – rodents, insects (roaches, silverfish), mold, mildew.
 Bright sunlight or artificial light causing dyes to fade.

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Preservation:
DO DON’T
Handling Photographs:
Have clean hands (use soap & water, not alcohol, to wash Touch or have contact with skin or speak directly over
hands). items. Oil, dirt, acidity on hands.

Wear gloves (clean cotton, latex, or nitril). Wash cotton Use gloves with grips.
gloves often to prevent dirt and acid build up.

Use pencil only when writing on photos. Work with ink, even on back or margins, as can chemically
interact with chemicals in photo over period of time

Support photos at all times – use flat of hand, not Put anything on top of photos
fingertips to prevent microdamage (creases, flaking of
photo) and macrodamage (corner breaking off).

Keep tidy workspace to prevent accidental damage or loss. Work near food or drinks.

Be alert about condition problems of photos such as Apply adhesives or tape, especially rubber cement, as the
warped pictures, fragile pictures about to tear, areas with chemicals in these can damage the photo
chemical damage to photo.

Store boxes of photos flat. Can also put them in acid free
files in filing cabinets as long as files are kept upright, not
flopping over.
Marking Photographs:
Record desirable or necessary information.
Use pencil (#2 or softer). Special blue pencil best as easily
erasable and will not show up on photocopy.
Write on enclosures; not picture if possible.
Use inks as little as possible, on back in margin.
Books:
Store books in cool and dry conditions, slowing the acidic
destruction of fibers and discouraging mold growth. The
optimal temperature for books is 65° F with a relative
humidity of 40%.
Air circulation can help prevent mold growth and allow
higher temperature.
Place most valuable books in acid free storage boxes or
use UV filters on windows and lights.
Shelve books vertically. Place large books flat or spine
down and leave space on each shelf and use bookends.
Use flat book marks.
Call conservator for tears to valuable books or purchase
“archival quality” tapes available at supply or scrapbook
stores for modern replaceable books.
Remove books from crowded shelf by pushing books on
either side of book forward and grasping book by the
middle to remove it from shelf.
Roll large photographs and place inside tubes. Roll them
around a large tube and wrap with alkaline paper
polyester film.
Exert pressure.
Write while photo is inside envelope.
Store books in attics (hot in summer, cold in winter) or
basements (damp & moldy)
Expose books to lots of direct sunlight or bright lights as
may cause fading
Leave paper clips, clip bookmarks, post-it notes, pencils or
other foreign matter inside book as closing it can damage
pages or put pressure on spine.
Pull book by head cap (top of book)
Lean books on shelf in lieu of book ends or crowd books
with large books next to very small books (causes
warping).
Use pressure sensitive tapes such as “magic tape” or
“masking tape” as they have acidic adhesives which will
turn the paper yellow and leave a sticky residue.

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Documents:
DO
Store papers in acid free, buffered folders and boxes or
filing cabinets in lieu of boxes.
Make sure files in filing cabinet are upright.
Interleave documents with buffered paper if storing
photos or newspaper clippings in same container.
Store in environment with low humidity and temperature.
(< 70: F. and 55% RH.)
Use plastic paper clips.
Store fragile documents in Milar or polyurethane sleeves
to reduce damage and keep parts together.
DON’T
Store in regular folders/boxes or glue into scrapbooks with
acidic paper.
Allow file folders to fall over, slant, or bend.
Store original newspaper clippings in same folder without
protecting other documents.
Store in basement or attic.
Use sticky notes, metal paper clips, and rubber bands.
Use polyvinylchloride sleeves or leave in folders without
any type of protection.

Handling photographic materials

Safe handling promotes long-term preservation of photographic holdings in original formats. This allows the retention of
information only available from the original.

Rolled photographs: Large prints should never be rolled and placed within tubes as they will expand and suffer damage
in attempts to remove them. Roll them around a wide tube several inches longer than the photo with the emulsion side
in, wrap with alkaline paper previously labeled in pencil, then wrap with polyester film.

Housing for Photographs

The format of photographic materials determines the appropriate housing. The basic principle is to keep photos flat and
try not to handle them too much. Separate photos by format (prints, negatives, transparencies, preservation masters).
Separate color from black & white, sending color to cold storage. (May not be possible at home. Refrigerators have too
much humidity.) Also separate by size to save space on shelves and prevent accidental damage from different sizes
bumping against each other in the same box.

Storage enclosures should be chosen based on the needs of the photograph, such as size or format and condition. Use
window matt only for very valuable or oversized prints or very fragile and high use prints needing more support. Milar
sleeves are stiffer than other types of plastic and offer better handling protection, but are very expensive. Polyurethane
is much cheaper and protects against fingerprints, but allows bending, is cloudy, and can contain anti-slip agents. Do
NOT use either polyvinyl chloride or cellulose acetate sleeves to enclose photos or negatives. Envelops should also not
have thumb holds or adhesives. If you have to have adhesives to hold the photograph in, place it on the sides of the
sleeve.

Labeling Photographs
Mark photographs as little as possible and in as small a way as possible, writing accompanying information on the
enclosure for the photo, not the photo itself, if possible.

Films
There are three broad types of film base photographic materials: cellulose nitrate, the cellulose acetates, and polyester.
These materials have been used as a support for negative, positive transparencies, motion picture, microfilm and other
photographic produces. Cellulose nitrate and cellulose acetates are unstable. Their degradation products can severely
harm and even destroy photographic collections, in addition to posing serious health and safety hazards. If films are not
too severely deteriorated, they may be transferred by a professional film company into a digitized format stored on a
DVD or CD.

Preservation: Deterioration of both cellulose nitrate and cellulose acetate negatives is highly dependent on
temperature and relative humidity. Ideally, should be stored in a freezer to slow down decomposition. Less costly is a
controlled environment with constant 68: F. and RH between 20% and 30%. Consider duplication by printing positive
photograph from negative or by digitization.

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Nitrate Film- produced from 1889 to early 1950’s. Is highly flammable and releases harmful gases when it deteriorates.
A photographic collection that contains any flexible, transparent film negatives from 1890-1950 has nitrate film in it.
These negatives need special attention and should immediately be separated from other negatives. Ways to identify:
 Some manufacturers stamped their name and the word “Nitrate” along one border.
 Tendency to curl into very tight scrolls.
 A “V” notch code (1st from edge) identifies Kodak nitrate sheet film prior to 1949.
 Presence of yellow, mirrored or sticky film with a noxious order.
 Presence of brownish acid powder or film welded to adjacent negative, enclosures , and photographs.

Acetate Film – Manufacture began in mid 1920’s to replace nitrate films.

Became known as “Safety” film because was not as flammable. It does have
stability problems, however. It becomes acetic, shrinks, and gives off a
vinegar odor. Ways to identify:
 Some films have word “Safety” on the border. Those manufactured
prior to 1955 are definitely acetate.
 Negatives may curl and turn red or blue.
 Vinegar odor and shrinkage or brittleness.
 Formation of bubbles or crystals in the film.
 Formation of channeling in the film.

Scrapbooks
Do not remove photos from scrapbooks even if you know the paper is acidic
unless there is a lot of damage to the photographs. Part of the value of the scrapbook is the arrangement of the
photographs and the accompanying other materials that were included. You can reduce the deterioration by keeping
the scrapbook closed so little air reaches the photos. Cover any biological materials with polyurethane film. Put
scrapbooks in boxes and lay flat on the shelves. If the bindings can be expanded, such as scrapbooks with screw posts,
you may interleave the pages with acid free paper to slow down deterioration. Don’t interleave scrapbooks with non-
expandable bindings as this can damage the bindings. If you do decide to unbind the scrapbook for better
preservation, number the pages with pencil so you will know the order they were in.

If you are starting a new scrapbook, use lignin free buffered or 100% rag paper. Use acid free corners to mount
photographs, not glue or paste. Do not use scrapbooks with magnetic, self-stick pages as they are very acidic and will
damage your photographs and make it very difficult to remove photos without damage. If you want to include flowers
or other biological materials in a scrapbook, place them in a sealed polyurethane envelope so they will not damage
photographs or cover them with polyurethane film.

Newspaper Clippings
Newspaper clippings are notoriously hard to preserve due to the cheap quality of newsprint. It is usually very acidic with
extremely short fibers and prone to turning yellow and becoming extremely brittle. While there are sprays available to
reduce the acidity of newspaper, the primarily value of the newspaper clipping is usually the content, not the paper
format.

The easiest way to preserve newspaper clippings is to photocopy them onto acid free, lignin free paper. Scrapbooks
containing newspaper clippings can be unbound so that each page may be photocopied separately. Alternatively, you
can file each page in a separate acid free folder and store them upright in a file cabinet. If unbinding is not possible or
the scrapbook is too large, place the scrapbook in its own box to protect it from environmental changes and slow down
the deterioration process. Trying to remove the newspaper clippings from the scrapbook is not advisable if they are
glued to the pages, unless they are falling out already. Digitization is another option, but preservation of the digital
image becomes, itself, a problem.

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Digitizing:
Photographic
Formats Lossy: JPG, HAM, ICER( Mars Rover), JPG-2000(much better option than JPG), JBIG2, PGF, GIF
Lossless: TIFF, ILBM, JBIG2, JPG-LS, JPG-2000, JPG-XR, PGF, PNG
Equipment Flatbed scanner: photographs; slides (with slides tray); negatives (with negatives tray); Never
attempt to digitize glass slides without considering the condition of the slides. These items are the
most delicate even in perfect condition, and should be handled with care. (Never push down on
the top of the scanner this can crack the slides or the scanner) - They do make special scanners for
glass slides, and several digitization companies will digitize these for you.
Desktop Film Scanner: Film and negatives, depending on the model
Slides Scanner: Kodachrome slides only
Planetary Scanner: All items can be scanned with this type of scanner. The cost of these depend on
the camera’s utilized in the digitization process; typically with this scanning method it is important
to also have proper lighting.
Barrel Scanner: large format scanner...this item is best used for items that are large format images.
This item can be found at large digitization projects.
Items to consider  When digitizing different media it is important to consider the condition of the media. Torn
items, visibly worn, or faded items need special consideration.
 Digitizing will harm your image. You are subjecting your image to high intensity light, and
heat. If you are going to use lighting to digitize realize take into consideration the heat that
your lighting is producing.
 While digitizing do what you can. You might not be able to get the best equipment, but at
least attempt to get item that will follow minimal requirements. These minimal
requirements include: Color saved at 48-bit depth & Black and white 16 bit-depth (the
number of bits or pixels it takes to represent the color, the higher the bit depth the truer
the color); Archival quality images saved as a tiff with no compression; If storage is an issue
use a lossless compression method like zip; Save your file at the largest resolution you can
store.
Video
Formats Lossy: H.261, H.263, H.264, MNG, Motion JPG, MPEG-1,2,4, OGG (no patent restrictions), Dirac,
Sorenson video codec, VC-1
Lossless: AVI, CorePNG, Dirac, JPG-2000, Huffyuv, Lagarith, MSU, SheerVideo
Equipment  Includes the use of video equipment: composite, S-Video, USB, or Firewire
 Software: most equipment that you purchase will have software that comes with you. If it
does not you can use software that comes with your computer. Window Movie Maker, or
QuickTimeboth allow you to convert video. If you want to use high-end software Adobe
Premiere Pro (Mac/PC). Final Cut (the defacto standard in movie editing)
 VHS (VHS to DVD burner, or VHS-USB-Computer): These will either create a DVD of the VHS
tape, or you can buy the items that directly exports the video to your machine
 Film (8mm-16mm): First recognize the type of film that you have. It is expensive to
purchase machines that will digitize this film. They can cost anywhere from 1,000-10,000; It
is best to send this item off to be digitized by a professional. Ensure that they use lossless
methods for digitization, and will provide you with archival quality DVD’s
 Betamax: These items are harder to find, and can be costly; it would be recommended if
you don’t have a large collection to send these off for digitization. A company called
avtransfers does it locally in San Antonio.
 DVD: This is the easiest conversion. To convert this item all that is required is a cd burner
found on all recently purchased computers. Like the other media we have discussed the
quality is determined by the quality of the original. When digitizing attempt to digitize at
the highest resolution, and bit rate: 40 Mbit/s is the highest quality available; 3.5 is
standard definition video; 8-15 HDTV
 LaserDisk: Proprietary format that cannot be digitized

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Items to consider If you take if you take betamax or film to a professional digitization:
 What codes do you encode your film in?
 Lossy or Lossless?
 What type of media do you use for digitization: Archival quality discs, or regular dvds?
 Will you allow me to bring in an external hard drive for digitization?
 What equipment do you use?
 Do you have an referrals that I can call for recommendations?
 Also, use social resources like Yelp, Google Places, Facebook, and Twitter to find out what
other people are using.
When digitizing VHS try to ensure that the machine that you are using at least uses USB, but
attempt to get Firewire.
 Firewire allows you to send data at a faster rate, and VHS can take several hours to digitize.
If you have hundreds of home videos this can take thousands of hours to digitize.
 Ensure that when you digitize your VHS remember that it will not be as high of a resolution
as a born digital item.
 While digitizing purchase a cleaning tape to run through the machine before you digitize
each video
 Make sure to ensure that each tape is in good working condition if it is not visit our
Delicious link, and watch the youtube video on fixing VHS tapes.
Audio
Format Lossy: AAC, MP3, ADPCM, ATRAC, Dolby AC3, MP2, OGG, WMA
i. Lossless: FLAC, WAV, ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codac), apt-X, ATRAC, MGP-4 ALS, HD-AAC, DST,
Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, LPCM, PCM, MLP, Monkey’s Audio, OptimFROG, RealAudio, Shorten SHN,
TTA, WavPack, WMA Lossless
Equipment  Records: Turntable to FLAC or WAV - those are the most commonly used lossless formats;
you can then turn your items into mp3 for daily use; most turntables use a laser to read the
disc. This way you don’t have to worry about your records being damaged in the process
 Tape: if you have a tape player then you have everything that you need to convert your
tapes to a digital format; Y stereo adapter cable with an RCA-style cannel connectors; For
the full list on the different types of equipment that you can use please see our delicious
link
 CD: This is the easiest item to convert. Most computers come with cd burners on their
machines. Items can be burnt at a higher bit rate than tapes, because of the encoding
process. They are still second to Records on sound quality.
Items to consider Always attempt to digitize your items at the highest bit rate possible
 Cassettes: 128kps Bit Rate for audio books & 256 kps
 Records: mp3 320 kbits & WAV/FLAC highest possible(320 minimum)
 CD: most cds are recorded as mp3’s at 120-320 kbits. To burn on to computer consider
burning them as WAV or FLAC

When to call a conservator (action you should not attempt yourself):

 Consolidate flaking or lifting emulsion
 Flatten rolled prints
 Mend tears
 Remove pressure-sensitive tape
 Separate blocked or adhered photographs
 Deal with active mold
 Stabilize physically damaged photographs

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 Additional Resources and Helpful Reads

For access to additional resources about online photo sharing please visit the following link
http://delicious.com/tag/ uthsclib+preservation.

The librarians have included links to resources about online photo sharing as well as information to get
you started. Remember to check back regularly as we continue to add links to this page.

For more information on our Emerging Technologies Series,

use the QR code to go directly to our site.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a
copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second
Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Need Help? Ask a Librarian

(210) 567.2450
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