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Torn
or exceptionally brittle records that are encountered during holdings
maintenance activities should be placed in polyester sleeves sealed
along two adjacent edges to protect them during handling and to prevent
further damage. Polyester sleeves must be larger than the documents
being placed in them so that the records are fully enclosed and protected.
Two or more sleeves should not be used in attempts to enclose a large
document. Care also must be taken when inserting torn or brittle documents
into polyester sleeves to avoid causing further damage.
Polyester
film generates static electricity. Therefore, to avoid alteration or
movement of text or image areas, records containing thickly applied,
flaking, or loosely adhered media (such as charcoal, pastel, or damaged
and lifting photographic emulsions) should not be placed in polyester
sleeves.
The sleeve should be placed on a clean desk or table before a document
is inserted. Polyester sleeves must not be held in mid-air while documents
are being placed in them. To help minimize the static electricity generated
by the polyester film, the top sheet of film should be raised as far
as possible (without lifting the bottom sheet) while the document is
being inserted. When thin, tissue like documents are being sleeved,
it is often helpful to position them on a support sheet of archival
bond paper to help ease the documents into place. The paper support
can be carefully removed after the sleeving operation is complete, or--if
the document contains information on only one side--the support sheet
can be left in the polyester sleeve to provide greater rigidity to the
enclosure.
Only one single-page document should be placed in each polyester sleeve.
If several pages are placed together in a single sleeve, researchers
will try to remove them, and are likely to cause further damage to already
fragile documents. Fasteners should be removed from multi-page documents
that require sleeving, and each page should be sleeved individually.
An exception to the single sleeving rule is presented by batches of
photographs of low intrinsic value that are in good condition; groups
of such photographs may be sleeved together to isolate them from adjacent
textual records.
If necessary, several polyester sleeves may be fastened together with
a staple or paper clip to maintain records in the proper sequence. If
this is done, documents should be placed within the sleeves so that
the fastener comes into contact only with the sleeves, not the enclosed
records.
Polyester sleeves should be used only on loose documents. Damaged pages
in bound volumes should be protected by tying or boxing the volumes.
Polyester sleeves are bulky and can damage binding structures if placed
within volumes; they can also function as sharp edges against which
vulnerable pages can break as they move and flex when the volume is
handled. Volumes containing damaged pages should be scheduled for laboratory
treatment.
Documents should be oriented within polyester sleeves so that the two
adjacent sealed edges are parallel to the left and bottom edges of the
document. That is, when looking at the front of a sleeved document,
the top and right edges of the sleeve will be open. This orientation
assures the protection of the document during storage and handling,
and minimizes the possibility of loose fragments falling out of the
sleeve. Similarly, polyester sleeves should be placed in a folder with
the long sealed edge positioned at the bottom of the folder.
Damaged records should be noted in accord with appropriate record keeping
practices in the custodial unit, withheld from research use when necessary,
and scheduled for conservation treatment.
Under no circumstance should various types of so-called archival or
office pressure-sensitive mending tape be used to effect repairs. These
tapes do not meet conservation standards. Pressure-sensitive tapes disfigure
and damage records. While the aging behavior of different pressure-sensitive
tapes vary, they frequently become discolored, cause inks to bleed,
stain records, and locally embrittle or transparentize records. Removing
pressure-sensitive tapes is not always possible or satisfactory because
of the way in which the adhesive ages, the sensitivity of the media
to the solvents required during treatment, or a combination of factors.
Courtesy
of
US
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
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