[MassHistPres] Questionable advice concerning preserving town records

[Dcolebslade at aol.com]

Westport used the services  of Northeast  Document Conservation Center 
(NEDCC)  to preserve three early books.  They found that it was necessary to  
remove the leather cover for each of the books because there has been 
extensive  use of silk tape in an earlier attempt to preserve the books and they 
indicated  they needed to remove that tape to protect the pages from further  
deterioration.  Pages were not placed in plastic.  The books  were 
microfilmed and digitized and the books were put into archival  boxes for protection 
in a vault with the proper environmental conditions.  The books will not be 
accessed except in very special  circumstances.  NEDCC can rebind and 
reattach the  covers.
 
Betty  Slade
Westport
 
 
In a message dated 2/4/2016 11:39:59 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
lee at leewright.net writes:

While I realize we usually focus on structures, I assume some of us are  
involved with the preservation of the earliest records for our communities, so 
 I thought this would be relevant.  It’s certainly concerning.