Preservation and Conservation
Preservation and Conservation
One of the benefits of cataloguing and digitising this archive material was that since a full description and image of each document would become available online, the need for people to handle the physical documents would be reduced. This helps to minimise the damage which can be caused by wear and tear and therefore preserve the original documents for future generations. Since the manuscripts held by EFDSS are already over 100 years old, some of them are quite fragile and preservation methods were applied to allow them to be stored and handled without causing damage in the long term.
These include: Putting documents in transparent polyester sleeves
Replacing paperclips, pins and butterfly clips with archival brass paperclips
Using acid-free folders and boxes, labelled with reference numbers
A preservation assessment carried out in October 2010 by an external consultant found that while generally the condition of the material was good there were a number of specific conservation issues which needed addressing. These items were sent to a specialist conservator.
The documents held by our partner archives were already well stored and in a good state of preservation.
