Paper Vs. Plastic: Which One Is Better?

If you're tackling a family photo project, you'll need to think about what kind of storage supplies will work best for you.

Basically, you have two choices when choosing an album or photo storage box:

1. Paper.
2. Plastic.

The good news is you can find high quality archival storage products made out of either material.

But the bad news is there are plenty of junky materials out there.

A cheap photo storage box can cause more damage than it prevents.

Whether you choose paper or plastic, the safest supplies are the ones that have passed an independent test called the Photographic Activity Test. Click through to learn more about the test and why the term "archival" is meaningless when applied to consumer products.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both plastic and paper.

Plastic is good at protecting your treasures from fingerprints and spills.

Photo and documents that get handled all the time will be well served by putting them clear enclosures such as polypropelene and polyethelene. You (or third cousin who refuses to wear gloves) can see the images without touching them. Encapsulation is a good choice for fragile or torn paper that you can't afford to have repaired by a conservator.

But for storage, I prefer paper. Here's why:

Paper breathes.

Here in America we tend to put a lot of faith in the protective power of plastic. One visit to a grocery store here in the States will illustrate that fact very clearly. Everything from candy to beef to tomatoes is sold shrink-wrapped in plastic. I've traveled enough to know that this isn't the case in the rest of the world.

When it comes to archival storage, the fact that plastic doesn't breathe can actually cause more problems than it prevents.

Now, don't get me wrong -- plastic is great for keeping bad things out like moisture and fingerprints.

But...

Photographs, film and tape are all made from materials that change over time. When these materials change, they can leach chemicals or give off gases that will loop back and inflict self damage if they are "sealed in their own juices" as my preservation instructor used to say.

Here's a striking visual example of what I'm talking about.


If this tape had been stored in plastic instead of cardboard, the acids and offgassing that burned brown stains into the box would have stayed inside and attacked the tape instead.


Photo of paper bags by tanakawho, some rights reserved.
Photo of tape case by Richard Hess.

*Note! That Richard Hess link will take you to his post that explains in more detail what's going on in the photo, and why he thinks tape has escaped the vinegar syndrome that has plagued film.
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When "acid free" isn't actually acid free: Can you trust archival supplies to be safe?

Photo by Joe Nangle

I've been having some trust issues lately.

There's a popular archival supplier whose products seem to be slipping in quality. Then they sent out an email with claims about CD longevity that were misleading at best, utterly false at worst.

This is a HUGE dilemma for me. If I can't trust the quality of their products, I can't recommend them to my readers. And I know people come here to find reliable information about supplies. (Note: The photo storage boxes for sale in the left column are NOT from this manufacturer.)

I'm digging and doing some research. I'll keep you posted about what I discover.

Anyhoo. When I started digging, I discovered Mark Welch's articles. Mark is a scrapbooker. He's also a skeptic. I like to think of him as The Skeptical Scrapbooker, but his pen name is actually the Scrapbook Critic.

How Reliable is the "Acid Free" Label?

Back in early 2006, Mark learned about pH pens for the first time. Test papers for acid content in the comfort of your own home? What a great idea!

Then he visited several craft and scrapbook stores to purchase one so he could test scrapbooking paper. Turns out, scrapbook stores don't actually sell pH testing pens. Interesting, wouldn't you say? So Mark made several purchases online.

In an odd twist, it turns out some of the pens didn't work at all. See Mark's articles (links below) for more details on why certain pens failed.

Way more shocking, however, was the discovery that some papers sold at scrapbooking stores and via home sales were, in fact, acidic. All of those had been clearly marked as acid free, buffered and/or lignin free. Yeowch!

Acid Free Is Not Enough

Paper needs to be lignin free as well. Lignins are a by-product of the paper making process. It's the lignins that turn non-acidic paper to acidic. In other words, something that is acid free today will become acidic over time if the lignins have not been removed.

Benefit of the Doubt

As for me, I am so obsessed with the independent Photographic Activity Test (PAT) that I've always given manufacturers the benefit of the doubt on the "acid free" label. I figured since it was so easy to test at home, a manufacturer would be crazy to pass something acidic as acid free.

Turns out, I was wrong.

Check out Mark's articles for more details -- including the names of manufacturers he no longer trusts:

• Acid-Free, Lignin-Free, and Buffered Paper: Why You Should Care, What You Can Do
• How to Avoid Bad Acid Trips: Test Your Paper with a pH Pen

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[Mark's] conclusion is that scrapbookers should buy a pH pen and test each paper they use.

• This is not especially cumbersome: it takes just seconds to distress the back of a page and mark it with a pH pen.
• Scrupulous retailers should be willing to do this at the checkout stand while the customer watches.
• It is not enough to test just one paper from a manufacturer, because paper composition and pH levels may change from one print run to the next.
• Unfortunately, a pH pen will not indicate a problem if paper is currently pH neutral, yet contains materials (such as lignins) which will degrade into acids in the future.

Thinking about buying your own pen? Check out the selection of pH pens at Amazon. And when you purchase anything from Amazon via that link (regardless of what it is) it's like leaving a tip for yours truly, without having to fork over any extra money.
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What to keep? What to toss?

There's an interesting article in the Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel called: "What to Keep, What to Throw Away? Think Carefully About What’s Really Important Before You Make a Decision."

Read it soon while it's still free:

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/17374145.htm

Here's an excerpt from author Cindy Larson:

Like many other baby boomers, I suspect, my house is overflowing with boxes of papers, photos and mementos from my parents, who are both deceased. Add to that the stuff I’ve saved from my own marriage and children, and the result is an unorganized mess of boxes in our spare room.

I didn’t have a clue as to what to keep and what to pitch. What was truly a memento, and what was just clutter? What would be valuable or meaningful to my children and possibly, some day, their children?

Here are my comments on the article...

Purging. There is no magic formula for deciding what to keep. At least not one that works for everyone. You have to make some hard decisions, it's true. But making no decisions at all and keeping everything instead is just delaying the problem. Please don't leave the mess for your kids. The bigger the mess, the more tempted future generations will be to just toss it all.

The News-Sentinel article described an interesting sorting system just for sentimental items. Harriet Schechter advises clients to create 4 piles: Happy/Sad/Good/Bad. Seems like it could be super helpful. If you've used this method, please let me know by leaving a comment. Good or bad, I wanna hear it.

Preservation. As for the archival advice, it's not too bad. The article emphasizes the importance of stable temperature and humidity for long term survival of paper memorabilia. That's dead accurate. It also says that paper storage containers are better than plastic, which doesn't "breathe." I agree with that advice. Plus you have no idea how safe that plastic is, unless it's passed the Photographic Activity Test or PAT. But...

Boxes. I would add that the type of box you choose is important. Don't forget the sniff test -- if it stinks, don't put anything valuable in it. Unfortunately, that rules out most of the pretty looking shoebox-style boxes. Between the paper and the glue used to adhere it, you're looking at some awfully scary chemicals. Your best bet is to stick with an archival supplier like Metal Edge or Gaylord or Light Impressions. Thos metal edges are not just for strength -- they also make it possible to construct the box without using any adhesives.

Email. The article claims that letters are slowly being replaced by e-mail, and you should "consider saving at least some of your newsier e-mails." I would argue that this shift occurred years ago. And let's not forget that digital is more permanent than a sand painting, but not much else. The easiest solution is to just print out your most important correspondence. Not everything, of course. Then you end up with the same problem of too much paper.

Best advice in the article. I'm all for purging, but remember that there might be someone in your family who wants what you're about to toss. The older the stuff, the more important this becomes. Family historians are often the family archivist as well, so why not call up the genealogists in your family?

Related posts from The Practical Archivist:

Photo Organizing Tips: What to Keep?

[Double tip of the hat to Randy at GeneaMusings and Meagan at RootsTV]

Flash drives are NOT for long term storage

A while back, I took a first stab at answering a reader's question about flash drives. He wanted to know if they were safe for long term storage. Here's what I said (cue time machine music):

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I got an email from a new subscriber to my newsletter. He was asking me to update my free-with-subscription bonus e-book about how to safely scan family photos. He wanted me to include the option of storing digital photographs on USB flash drives.

Will I make that change? That depends on the answer to some important questions:

• How long can we expect USB-powered flash drives to last?
• How soon will they become obsolete?
• How do these numbers compare to CDs? To hard drives?

Do I have an answer?

Nope. Not yet.

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By way of answer, below is an unedited post from 24/7 Family History Circle, a wonderful Web 2.0 resource from Ancestry.com.

Flash Drive Caveat

I’m an IT director. When we hand out flash drives (which we hand out like candy), we have a little “talk” that goes with them. It goes like this:

“Flash drives are very handy for carrying files from place to place and computer to computer. However, they are relatively volatile storage, so you should never consider them a primary backup for your files. They fail much, much, much more quickly than CDs or hard drives.”

Back up your files on CDs or hard drives. Check them after you back up to make sure the backup works. Check them once in a while to make sure they are still working. Every few years, transfer them to a new CD or hard drive. How many years depends on the conditions in which they are stored. If you have air conditioning, low humidity, and clean air, they will probably last longer than they will in a more humid or dusty environment.

Rae Williams

Wise words from the field. Flash drives are a convenient way to carry files around with you, but they are not for long term storage. Thanks, Rae!

Source: 24/7 Family History Circle
http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=1480

Where exactly should I store my photographs?

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The safest place to store your cherished mementos is an interior closet with some form of climate control.

What do I mean by climate control? Well, archival repositories have very specific parameters for temperature and humidity* but let’s be practical (it is, after all, what I'm known for).

When I say climate control I mean a space that:

• is air conditioned in the summer
• is heated in the winter
• and doesn’t feel noticeably damp.

Basements, attics and garages are terrible choices for several reasons:

1. High humidity encourages mold and mildew and increases the rate of deterioration.

2. Fluctuating humidity causes paper (including photographic prints) to swell and shrink. Each cycle causes stress, and years of it will cause photos to crack because the emulsion layer and the binder layer do not expand and contract to the same degree as the paper backing.

3. High temperature levels speed up the rate of chemical reactions, and lots of deterioration is caused by chemical reactions. Here’s a sobering thought: The rate of decay doubles with each increase in temperature of 18 degrees. Doubles! span>Keep your treasures out of the attic, folks.

4. Insects and pests are more common in basements, attics and garages. No only can they eat your treasures, the bigger (furrier) critters might use it for bedding or leave behind very unpleasant surprises. Ick.

One more tip: Never store your treasures in direct sunlight. UV rays will bleach out the color and fade text and images. Fortunately, two dimensional items like photographs and paper ephemera are easy to copy these days. Create a new copy for display and keep the original in the dark. Or use Plexiglas with an anti UV coating in your frames.

*For those of you who really want to know the numbers, here are the recommendations for most photographs: Temperature of 68 F and relative humidity of 30-40%. Now you know.

Is it safe to scan curled negatives?

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When I did my radio show last week, I got a call at the last moment and answered it off the air. The question was from someone who had inherited a large box of negatives. She had a really smart question and I couldn't answer off the top of my head:

If I force a curled negative flat so I can scan it, will I damage it?

Well, I know it's unsafe to try to unroll a curled paper print. (Very bad idea.) But I wasn't sure if that was also true for film. I asked my buddy David Benjamin for some guidance. He's a photo archivist at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

This is what David told me:

• It's safe to scan.
• It's also OK to store flat in envelopes for a short time with a weight on top. This sometimes relaxes film back to a flatter state.
• He has personally unrolled film and seen no damage.
  
• Re-washing is waaay too dangerous. Don't even think about it.

Thanks, David.
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SLAGIAT

I've created an acronym for something I find myself repeating over and over and over whenever I'm answering questions about how to keep your family treasures safe.

Seemed like a good idea at the time (SLAGIAT).

There are things you can do to a photograph today that won't look like they've caused any damage. But if you worked with historical records for even a short time, you'd see lots of seemingly innocent items that change dramatically over time. Have you ever seen a forty year old rubber band? Blech. And lots of times the items suffer some kind of damage, usually staining. Damage that could have been avoided so easily.

Examples of SLAGIAT:

• encapsulation
• tape
• ink
• bare hands (fingerprints)
• rubber bands
• chemical cleaners

We had a SLAGIAT question on the radio show.

Problem: Fire-damaged prints.

If they are so soot covered that you can't see what's in the photo, you've got (literally) nothing to lose. In that case, you might as well try an extreme measure like chemical cleaners. Once you clean it enough to get a visible image, make a high resolution scan. Print our copies at your favorite photo processor.

If the fire damage is just a little bit of darkening or an occasional smudge, I would recommend scanning the photos and restoring them digitally. Do not apply chemical solvents to the prints. Do not attempt to wipe them off.

Bottom line? There are times when drastic measures are necessary, but just make sure the cure isn't worse than the disease.

Pssst...there's something you should know. My views on chemical cleaners are considered overly cautious to the point of being extreme. Professionals photographers don't think twice about cleaning prints and film. Many scanning companies (especially in the publishing world) clean prints as a matter of routine. Archival supply companies sell the cleaners. But just because you can't see any damage today doesn't mean you haven't caused irreversible chemical damage.

Preservation is all about caution:

• Don't do anything you can't undo.
• Eliminate all known hazards.
  
• Avoid likely hazards.

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Radio Show

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Thanks to everyone who tuned in to the show on Monday night, and a BIG THANKS to everyone who called or emailed questions. Thanks also to Beth for answering the phones and to Ken for being our engineer.

Lisa and I had a blast, and I'm pretty sure that came across. Lisa did such a superb job as my Ed McMahon that I might have to hire her. Ken took that photo of us immediately after the show in the lobby.

It's blurry, but that's not Ken's fault. I've always hated the automatic flash on my camera, so I leave it on manual. You lose a little focus, but you get warm fuzzy shots like the orange-y still life on the right. Those yummy Czech beers were souvenirs from our trip to The Wisconsin Dells last month. A huge chunk of the workforce up there is from Eastern Europe. I bought those beers at a gas station. A gas station! And I had to leave dozens of others behind. For those of you who appreciate fine beer, it's the gas station at the intersection of the strip and Hwy A.

Thispicture is extra blurry because I got it in my head at the last minute to take a shot of Lisa in her radioshow headphones. Of course the red light came on just as I was taking it. D'oh. I haven't listened to the recording yet, but I'm pretty sure we opened with a sort of "Wha? We're on the air...oh!"

Speaking the recording, here's where you'll find it: http://lists.wort-fm.org/parchive
Scroll down a bit till you find the Access Hour from March 5, 2007. WORT has made the show available for listening and/or downloading. You're welcome to keep a copy for yourself and pass it along as long as you don't sell it. This recording will remain online until May 1, 2007.

Links from the show.

Preservation Answer Machine

Photo Scribe

Archival Supply Companies. These are all reputable companies. Gaylord and Light Impressions are the only two who use easy-to-spot "PAT Passed" icons in their catalogs. Hollinger and Metal Edge aren't as slick, but their prices are good. Hollinger's paper catalog contains a lovely photo essay about the history of the company. They pretty much created modern records storage containers. Now you know.

• Gaylord
• Light Impressions
• Metal Edge Inc.
• Hollinger

(UPDATE)

Archival Suppliers in the UK:

• Conservation Resources LLC (Online shopping)
• Request a Conservation Resources catalog

I don't know if they perform the Photographic Activity Test or not -- you'll have to ask.

Caring for the ephemera in your collections

Does your family archive include ticket stubs, programs, licenses or calling cards? Whether they were forgotten in the pages of a book or carefully pasted into a scrapbook, these items are what we call ephemera.

The glossary by the Society of American Archivists defines ephemera as "materials, usually printed documents, created for a specific, limited purpose, and generally designed to be discarded after use."

Marty Weil runs ephemera.com. It's full of fascinating paper treasures and heavily illustrated with color scans. Very "visually appealing" as we used to say in the children's publishing biz. Basically, this guy is an ephemera guru. So you can imagine how excited I was when he invited me to offer storage and handling tips to his many readers. In hindsight, I might have been a little too excited, because I rambled on so much Marty had to publish it as a two-parter.

Part 1: Protecting Your Paper Collectibles

Part 2: Storing Your Ephemera
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Preserving Flowers with Borax

I am not a crafty gal, but lucky for me I have friends who are. Like bekee, who's taking a break from knitting this month, but has created beautiful treasures like this and this. She pointed me to this nifty way to preserve flowers using Borax. Full instructions here.

According to the manufacturer, this preservation method works best for flowers you cut from your own garden. Cut flowers purchased from florists might not work because of the preservative solutions they soak their flowers in to keep the merch fresh.

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