Re: [ARSCLIST] ?Humidifiers for small institution holdings.

["Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tony,

Omega makes a nice recording hygrometer/thermometer for $350. I just bought
one to place in an archive tomorrow for a three-week log (every three
minutes).

This archive has some incipient binder failure in a large portion of their
3,000 tape archive (based on sampling)--binder failure that appears to have
self-healed in my home over the winter and spring on one sample. We're also
starting a migration to CD-R tomorrow. They have the most pressing problem
I've seen to date--and it's started another small business for me: leasing
good reel players to archives. To that end, I've acquired several pre-owned
Studer A807s that are available to worthy archives for transferring their
reel-to-reel tapes. The lease includes instruction and consultation as well
as a replacement machine should the one they have need service.

In general, I would use the DE humidifier and forget about the humidifier.
The risk of over humidifying is greater than over dehumidifying for tapes
suffering from binder breakdown. Acetate tapes may suffer from over
dehumidification. I have had to hydrate one acetate tape--from 1935.

Cheers,

Richard

Tony Greiner/Mary Grant <greints@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> said:

> Hello folks.  I am a librarian at a public library, with
> responsibility for our local history collection, which includes
> magnetic tapes, standard cassettes and VHS. (Mostly video and oral
> histories of local residents.)
>
> I have been studying on what should be done to preserve these
> materials, and the question of humidity comes up. I am in Western
> Oregon, which is humid but cool from roughly October to May, and arid
> from June to September.  We cannot afford a high-quality humidity
> control system- but the questions come up.
>
> Is it better to have a household room dehumidifier running in
> climates with high humidity than to do nothing, and
>
> In arid climates, is running a room humidifier better than doing nothing?
>
> Thanks for any help you are willing to provide.  This is a great list to
lurk!
>
> Tony Greiner
>
> --
> Tony Greiner/Mary Grant  greints@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>



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