[ARSCLIST] Disaster recovery- LPs

[Steven Smolian <smolians@xxxxxxxxx>]

The question has arisen concerning flood damaged commercial LPs.

As commonly encountered, mass-marketed LPs are actually a package of the record itself, the inner sleeve, should there be one, and the jacket.  The jacket is made of folded, glued cardboard and the glued on illustrated front and back wrappers.   The part of the inner sleeve that comes into contact with the record surface is either plastic of various types or paper.  The latter is fabricated with glued seams.

Exposure to evaporating, benign water usually means the collection has been shelved in a location with water beneath the records. As the water evaporates, the adhesives holding paper inner sleeves together may become sticky and adhere to the record surface.  A plastic inner should protect it.  In the event of fire and/or high heat or great pressure, however, many types of plastic sleeves adhere to the record surface and, seemingly, irretrievably exchange molecules, ruining the record surface.  

The outer cover may slide around on the cardboard jacket.  I've omitted the complications brought up by inserts.          

Immersion in benign water make things much worse.  Not only do all the "mights" and "maybes" above become more probable, damage becomes more intense.  The bare record may respond to intensive cleaning but the documentation is usually destroyed.  

Commercial LP records damaged by polluted water and/or becoming moldy should be discarded quickly after the mass is videotaped to prove insurance loss.  Leaving them around awaiting third-party inspection allows mould to grow, bugs to breed, etc.  Your insurer knows this well. Talk with him to find a process that protects the interests of both sides.   

We are at a time when most LPs can be easily replaced should you wish to do so.  Ebay, the Ring of Record Retailers, and a bunch of other web based dealers have plenty of stock.  

Thus, in the event of a disaster, recovering and restoring LPs should be way down the priority list. Concentrate on the most unique items first.  

I'm not sure how matters stand with the insurers when the catalog is lost during the same disaster.  Steps should be taken to be sure the question does not arise.  

Steve Smolian