Re: [ARSCLIST] Disaster recovery- LPs

["Steven C. Barr" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Another failure of plastic-lined sleeves I encountered: about 5 years ago,
> about ten thousand 78s that had originally belonged to the CBC in Halifax
came
> to me from a piano tuner who'd taken them in the 80s and stored them for
> fifteen years. There must have been major variations in storage conditions
and
> temperatures. The shellac 78s were fine, except for varying amounts of
dust and
> oiliness, but a set of the first 20 "Historic Masters" pressings had
severe
> heat damage, and all but one of the plastic-lined sleeves now consisted of
a
> paper sleeve and a detached piece of plastic.
>
Well, I'm currently trying to do some simple digital cataloguing of
the contents of the 300 or so milk boxes full of 78's I moved from
Toronto back in 1997. So far, I've found some water damage in a
couple of boxes (one I expected...it was under water for a couple
of weeks due to a plugged sewer...the other was the bottom half
a dozen records in a box of flat-stored discs).

The biggest problem (or so I thought) was going to be the fact
that the resident felines had liberally marked their shellac
territory. Oddly enough, the only problem I have seen so far
is that discs, sleeves and boxes are, shall we say, odiferous...
even a few records that I found in sleeves damp with...well,
you know...seemed not to have suffered any permanent damage!
It does seem to have rendered a number of labels illegible,
however...

I didn't exactly to make this test, but I thought I might
share the results (in case anyone is offered old 78's by
a cat-loving little old lady?)...

Steven C. Barr