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**ramon** · 05-09-2006, 07:11 PM

Hi, and welcome to the WAF.

Keeping books in a closet has its trade offs. Fresh air is usually not an issue for book storage. You want to be careful of mold and mildew. Books are the same as sponges in the sense that they absorb moisture and odors. You're on the right track about storing your items in sunlight. Fading of book spines is often achieved as a result.

Foxing is a problem we see as a result of higher relative humidity and possibly fungi. Foxing is the brown spotting we see on paper and books.

As far as handling your books, I think the main thing is, keep your hands clean. For the really rare items, you can certainly buy proper conservator's white gloves if you feel you must.

I have found that for my collection of books and magazines, my investment in proper steel shelving has really paid off. I have no worries about chemical reactions of wood finishes interacting with the paper.

If you're fortunate enough to find a book with its original dustjacket by all means invest in a mylar dustjacket protector. You can buy such items by the roll and cut off what you need on a custom basis.

It would be to your advantage to Google book storage and archivist supplies sites to see what might be available to you in products and processes for book/magazine storage and preservation. Read up in these areas and you can help but profit from the free information offered on such sites.

Cheers.

Ramon

**Amor_Fati** · 05-11-2006, 02:11 AM

ok, thanks for your reaction

so its better to not keep them in plastich bags neither? Because moisture cant get out of it (if its in there). And a closed with steel shelves are better as closets with wooden shelves (which i got). Does it matter what type of steel shelvesi got, or can i just go into any store and buy one?

You mentioned the proper white conservator gloves, i will get them anyway. The books might be 'regular' today, but they might become rare in the (near) future. And its history anyway so anything i can do to prevent it from rotting, fading, foxing etc, i will do.

I will have a look on google, and see what info they got on there

**ramon** · 05-11-2006, 05:07 AM

Your existing shelving will be ok, I'm sure. My collection is such that steel shelving was the best for me. I have over a 1000 lbs of newsprint based items so conventional wooden shelving was not an option as I lay my newspapers out flat. The main thing I am concerned about is a photochemical reaction of wood finishes to period papers.

As far as moisture and paper, you definitely do NOT want to trap it. Not good.

Do you smoke? If you do, keep your paper related items away from you. Paper positively absorbs smoke. I hate it when I have a book in hand and it smells like an ashtray.

Finally, the paper of war period publications is not the best paper quality to begin with. The strains on raw materials brought on by the war itself forced printers to use papers that do not stand up well. They become coarser as the war advances. Oftentimes little better than newsprint. Books made of such papers contain a higher precentage of acids that contribute to the embrittlement of pages. Such pages will have a brownish tint to them. Even a deacidifiation bath will not save them. Like leather, once the damage is done, it won't heel.

Good luck with your collecting efforts.

Ramon

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