Thursday, October 18, 2012

Care of cassette tapes

I'm looking for advice or direction to advice on care of cassette tapes, their longevity and issues on digitisation, many thanks.

 The general advice is to keep cassettes upright (not lying flat), cool, dry and away from sources of magnetic fields or heat. Think about electric motors which generate magnetic fields (such as vacuum cleaners) and remember that sources of heat include lights and windows. So please don't put boxes of tapes on top of cupboards near lightbulbs or on low shelves near the floor (and therefore the vacuum cleaner).
Keep the tapes in a clean environment and protect them from dust and mould. Wipe boxes clean with microfibre cloths.
Handle them carefully. Try to keep temperature and humidity stable. If the conditions in the store are different from the area where they will be played, allow them to acclimatise in the box for several hours before taking them out. 
Do not rewind tapes after playing them - play them to the end and rewind them just before playing.
Make sure the tape heads are clean before playing. Rewind slowly. Do not fast forward.

The US Library of Congress has a good factsheet http://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/record.html

There are some useful illustrations and examples in the National Media Library 1995 report http://www.imaginar.org/dppd/DPPD/126%20pp%20Magnetic%20Tape%20Storage.pdf

The British Library Preservation Advisory Service has very useful booklets on caring for archive collections generally http://www.bl.uk/blpac/publicationsleaf.html

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

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Monday, March 12, 2012

Looking after ephemera (paper, cards, tickets etc)

How can I look after a collection of ephemera? I have a collection of tickets, programmes, cards and posters. What can I use to clean and repair them ?