Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with preservation

DIY archivist!

liketitanic — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:45:45 -0800

How can I develop a plan to help a small community organization organize its archival materials (something like a self-accessioning plan, I guess)? What should I read? Who should I talk to? I'm not an archivist and have no information science training. There, I said it. But I have a pretty great opportunity to help a small community org self-accession and organize some records that could prove quite valuable to researchers. I don't yet know how big the collection is, nor whether they want physical or digital storage.

How do I go about learning what I might need to know to do this? Or how do I self-educate in archives work? Book recommendations? OpenCourseware recommendations? Software I should learn? Any suggestions?

Help me preserve Grandma's travel scrapbook

rtha — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:02:03 -0800

I'm looking for tips and best practices for scanning the contents of my grandmother's scrapbook. I have my grandmother's excellent scrapbook. It's filled with souvenirs of her life and travels in the US in the 1920s and 30s: snapshots (mostly black-and-white, some sepia - either by design or due to fading); train tickets; menus; postcards; newspaper clippings. And so on. These are mementos of trips to Banff, and San Francisco (before the Golden Gate Bridge was built), and Los Angeles, and DC, and other places.

The pages are held together with a cord looped through two grommets; the photos and other items are held in with either glue or those little photo corners; many items are captioned in white ink.

I have access to a large flatbed scanner. I'd like to be able to scan the entire page when possible, at a large enough resolution that I can go back and crop individual photos and captions if I want to.

I don't know enough about this process to even know quite what questions to ask. What resolution? With photos or other items that are easily detachable from the page, should I just scan them separately (but that would lose some context - most of these are grouped together by event or time period). If you've done a project like this yourself, what do you wish you'd known before you started?

Interviews, Research & Archiving, oh my!

ikahime — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:06:04 -0800

I'm preparing for a massive personal archiving/interviewing trip with my grandparents and need advice regarding many aspects of the project. My grandparents came to America from Lithuania during WWII and have an amazing story that my cousin and I started documenting several years ago. Life being what it is, we really only got a rough outline and are now going for another week long visit with them (now 97 and 90 years old, but still witty and spry). Not only do they have some great/astounding anecdotes that we haven't documented, they also have an amazing collection of photos (some taken by Life Magazine photographers) which are in not such good order (to say nothing of being stored or digitally preserved).

Here are some of my concerns that perhaps y'all could help me with:

History: I'm not a historian, and so have been trying to bone up on the Soviet-Nazi conflict that took place in the Baltic States. Books and online resource recommendations are appreciated.

Preservation: I need to construct a good workflow for organizing/digitizing old photos. How best to store? Should I be uploading to the cloud, or bring an external hard drive with me?

Interview: Getting these stories out of them is not usually too hard, but I'm wondering about tried and true methods of biographical interview. Should we march thru the historical timeline? Jump around and organize later? Are there some good prompts I shouldn't forget to ask them?

Documentation: I would like to either film or audio record or both. I will probably have access to a decent microphone + laptop and a so-so digital video camera. Should I have both roll at the same time, or just favor one vs. the other? This is my weakest link. Is Audacity a good enough program, or should I be throwing down for something else?

In addition to doing this for my own (and my family's) edification, I'm gathering this info now for some sort of creative project in the future (still yet to work out - could be something as mundane as a book, or more outlandish like an interactive sculpture, or hyperlinked map). I've started making things like timelines and maps of their trip from Lith to Germany to Britain to the US; got any other ideas of rich add-ons?

Lastly, I'm looking for other media to bring with me that may enhance their reminiscing, especially music of the era/region (they were in Germany for quite a few years in the late 40s. Got some faves?

Thanks to all in advance!

The portable tofu conundrum

zadcat — Sun, 31 May 2009 14:51:46 -0800

Another "safe to eat" question, this one about tofu. Supposing tonight I make a stir-fry with tofu, using sesame oil, some veg (mushrooms, onions, zucchini), soy sauce and spices. I eat it with rice, mix the leftovers together (tofu, veg and rice) and put it in the fridge overnight.

If I put this mixture in a container around 9 tomorrow and bring it to work, will it be OK to eat around 1 o'clock, without being refrigerated meantime? I don't plan to put any dairy or egg in there. (Although if I were to stir-fry an egg into it, which can be good too, would that make it much more dangerous to eat after 3-4 hours at room temp?)

(I will be walking to work and the weather tomorrow is not expected to get above 16°C.)

Help us eat for the winter!

puckish — Sun, 31 May 2009 05:36:24 -0800

We want to freeze vegetables for the winter. Here's the trick: we don't want to use a refrigerator. So, after a summer of vegetable gardening, we're going to have a ton of produce that we'd like to put up. Not much space in the kitchen, so we're trying to think of "off the grid" ways of freezing vegetables until the winter. Specifically, ways that don't use electricity... Maybe this is a little bit crazy? Here are some of the things we've come up with so far....

- Bury the ice-box -- basically, digging a small hole in the ground, lining it with wood spacers, and creating a mini-icebox that we can access through a trap door. In the summer we'd have to keep it stocked with ice; in the winter it should keep on its own. Downside: Drainage? If we're OK with ice melting, is this going to be a huge mud problem, or will it drain effectively on its own? What are good ways to line / seal something like this?

- Freezing with liquid nitrogen - this gets around the initial "no-fridge" policy, but space is still an issue. (one of my roommates is REALLY excited about this idea). Plus side: no need to buy ice! But is this going to be a logistical nightmare? Downside: Storage is still an issue, obviously.

- Chest freezer in the backyard and just turning it off in December (when stuff gets cold enough to keep on its own). We could also do this in the basement (though it's not technically our space). Upside: No problems with insulation. Downside: It's a refrigerator.

I'm excited about number 1 (buried home icebox), and potentially number 2 (in conjunction with number 1). We're also going to be doing a lot of canning / preservation, but we'd like to have fresh veggies on hand too. Ideally, we want an outdoor setup, so things will just keep naturally once it gets cold.

Ideas?

Where should I go to grad school?

hapticactionnetwork — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:19:08 -0800

What kind of grad program should I go to if I'm interested in the preservation of digital media archives? Museum studies? Information science? Something else entirely? Lately, I have been considering going to grad school. I have a bachelor's in theater, and I've been working at a theater for the past 5ish years.

I've been looking at the University of Texas' School of Information Master of Science in Information Studies, but would that degree prepare me to work with digital media later? (And, I guess, analog electronic media like VHS tapes.).

Are there programs out there that specifically prepare people to work with archives that focus on electronic/digital media?

Should I just get a master's in Art History and find another way to get the preservation experience?

Is this a terrible idea in general?

Jeeze, life is full of difficult decisions. Thanks for helping with this one.

How do I preserve velvety photo album covers?

sapphirebbw — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:08:28 -0800

How do I preserve velvety photo album covers? My mother has a of photo album that my father gave her at least forty years ago that is now in bad condition. I know the best thing to do would be to put the photos in a new archival quality album and discard or discontinue using the old album, but because of sentimental reasons, she wants to preserve the album as it is now. I'm scanning the photos and will try to preserve the originals as best as I can while leaving them in the old albums. I'm not asking how to preserve the photos.

What I'm concerned with is the actual album itself. The whole thing is covered with some sort of velvety coating that is now rubbing off. If I had to describe the velvety texture, I'd say is like those velvety posters that you can buy and color or some velvety wallpapers. Someone has suggested spraying hair spray on the velvety covers but that sounds ify to me. How can I stop or slow down this process?

Preserving a lot of WWI-era papers?

Nomiconic — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:23:48 -0800

I have a big box of very old papers (and other things) I'd like to preserve in a way that facilitates viewing. What's a good way to go about this? I have a quite large box (I'd say it weighs in around 20 lbs.) full of letters, binders, photographs, and various small paraphernalia belonging to a private in the US Army in France in World War I. Most of the letters are dated around 1918, so this stuff is verging on a century old. Right now it's all pretty much unprotected, and I hate the thought of all of it disintegrating and being more or less forgotten. I'd like to preserve it as best I can (though I'd also like to be able to look at it from time to time) and maybe digitize it in the long term. Is this feasible? If so, how should I do it?

Can mold grow on food packed in oil?

aws17576 — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:35:18 -0800

Can mold grow on food packed in oil? There's some "Can I eat this?" context here, but I've fairly well decided at this point not to eat the food in question (some roasted bell peppers that I attempted to preserve 6 weeks ago in a refrigerated jar of canola oil), since having read elsewhere that oil-packing will not prevent the growth of botulism unless the packed food is properly dried and/or acidulated.

But can the white spots which recently appeared on those peppers really be mold? If so, then one of two principles I had thought to be true must be upset: that mold requires oxygen to grow, and that submerging food in oil creates a seal which is impermeable to oxygen. On the other hand, if these spots aren't mold, what else might they be? (Sorry, I would provide a photo if I had a working digital camera...)

Finally, the next time a peck of peppers tumbles my way, what might I do differently to preserve them safely? Is there any way to do it that isn't tantamount to pickling them (and thus changing their flavor significantly)?

Where can I find an cool old house to move onto a lot?

abirae — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:24:18 -0800

Where can I find an cool old house to move onto a lot? A friend of mine is buying a historic house in a small post-industrial city for $10 because a university needs the land for expansion. They are even footing the bill to move the house onto his lot. I was wondering about the feasability of doing something like this in New York City.

I was inspired by this earlier MeFi post which suggested a two places to find older houses for moving. My google-fu has led me to some historic preservation sites, but they are all geared towards keeping the historic building right where it is and I was wondering if the wise me-fi sages could direct me to sites listing old houses needing rescue and relocation. I understand that moving a house and building a foundation is an expensive undertaking, but I was wondering if there are forums or websites where historic/distressed houses that list historic/distressed houses available for relocation.

The World's Most Extraordinary Rooms

foxy_hedgehog — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:24:37 -0800

Strange as it might sound, I am compiling a list of rooms. I am eager to draw upon the travels, explorations, and creative minds of metafilter to help flesh out the list. The main criterion is that the room should have been used for a purpose at one point, and not be used now. In other words, the room (or space) must be frozen in a moment. Along the lines of the rooms in this post:http://www.metafilter.com/73955/Literary-Voyeurism.

This means that the field is gloriously open- I am including everything from Trotsky's house in Mexico, Freud's library in London, and Anne Frank's Annex to the Hareem in Topkapi palace, the reconstructed Amber Room, Pompeii, and preserved rooms in Chernobyl.

And then there's Churchill's War Room, the Stasi Chief's Office in Berlin, and more and more and more. The rooms can be personal or impersonal, and they don't have to involve famous people or empires. I'd be especially interested in suggestions located in non-Western countries.

Thank you so much for any and all suggestions!

How to prevent cheap jewelry from changing color or rubbing off on your skin?

jacquilinala — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:07:03 -0800

How do I prevent cheap metal jewelry from tarnishing? I have a couple of necklaces that I adore, and while they weren't dirt cheap, they are not made of the finest of metals. They have changed color somewhat - are brassy in places, and one looks almost like it could be rusting? - and I would like to recoat them. Is this possible? Someone once told me I could use clear nail polish to prevent this from happening, but that seems like it would just flake off and/or look ridiculous. I'd like to prevent the metal from changing color and from rubbing off on my skin - you know, like green mark that a cheap ring will leave on your finger, gross!

Ideas?

Old tapes worth keeping.

typewriter — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:19:18 -0800

How should I store these 20-year old cassette tapes with historic value? At some point, I plan to transfer the information on the tapes to a digital format and googling tells me it won't be insanely difficult. I've also read this question/answer but I think I am not comfortable sending out the tapes due to some sensitive content. In the meantime, I want to keep the tapes in the best condition possible so that when I have the time/resources to do the transfer they will be in good shape. The microphone used seems to be quite high-quality, as there is a lot of audio detail that obviously I would like to preserve. In a standard home environment, what is the best storage solution for these tapes?

Oh, yeah - it's mammoth , baby!

juliewhite — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:17:56 -0800

What is Paleobond, and can I get a MUCH cheaper substitute? What is this stuff:
http://www.paleobond.com/Products.htm

Specifically, what is the the "PENETRANT AND STABILIZER (PB002)", for use in an application like this:
FOSSIL IVORY REPAIR: We have considerable experience from the paleontology field and the knife making circles that the Penetrant and and Stabilizer (PB002) works wonders. When ivory looses its moisture, it shrinks, hence the cracking. The PB002 seals and bonds the fine openings and cracks and stabilizes the ivory. Just apply PB002 to the complete tooth or tusk and let it soak in.

Is there a substitute that does not cost an arm and a leg? Say, in a 30 gallon drum...

Help! Seasick transmitters!

mykescipark — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:09:14 -0800

I need to do some highly sophisticated pitch-correction on some old reel-to-reel recordings. What software to use? I have a project which requires me to do some rather elaborate pitch correction on some old reel-to-reel tapes which have not aged well. Here's one of the examples.

What on earth can I do with this to make the Morse tone steady? Is there a program which can do some sort of algorithmic calculation to account for the pitch warp (i.e., by taking an "image" of the tone and generating a perfect mirror algorithm)?

I know I could probably get all modern and "vocode" a new tone over it and keep the rhythm of the original recording, but these are historically important radio stations, so I can't just go remixing them for convenience.

Folks in the archival audio world must deal with this all the time. Thoughts?

How should I preserve newsprint pages from old literary magazines?

cadge — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:56:53 -0800

How to best preserve pages taken from old issues of *Fantasy and Science Fiction*, a book-sized literary magazine printed on newsprint? I used to have a subscription to *Fantasy and Science-Fiction*, a small paperback-sized magazine printed on newsprint. Now I have a pile of back issues that I want to pitch, but some of them have specific stories that I want to keep. Does anyone have recommendations for preserving just those pages?

I thought about cutting them out with an Xacto knife and then having them all perfectbound into a single volume, but I don't know how feasible that is. And should I do anything to maintain the integrity of the newsprint pages for long-term?

How to preserve old documents.

thivaia — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:35:42 -0800

What should I do with old family documents? I recently came into a significant amount of old family papers--letters, titles, indentures, poems, essays, journals, assorted detritus, newspapers, broadsheets, magazines and military commissions--dating from just before the Revolutionary War to just after WWI. The family resided for the better part of three centuries in Virginia and Tennessee--but the a lot of the letters are from elsewhere. No one else in the family seems to want them, but I'm inclined to hold on to them--at least as long as it takes to transcribe some of them. At the same time, I'm a little scared of damaging some of the papers. I don't have a sophisticated file system and a lot of letters are already worse for wear.

So, my question is two fold:

(1) What's the best way for me to take care of these papers while they are in my possession?

and

(2) If I choose to pass them on, where should I send them?
I have no celebrities in my family tree, but there were a few governors and legislators back in the day.

How can I preserve and display a tablecloth?

FortyT-wo — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 06:49:20 -0800

For at least 25 years, my grandmother had a table cloth which every person who visited her house signed, and their signature was embroidered onto the cloth. Now my family is looking for a way to preserve and display it. Any cool ideas? The table cloth is kind of thin now, from years of washing. It's covered with, I'd estimate, at least 100 signatures, backstiched into the cloth. My grandparents are still living, but going to have to move into a retirement community, and I'm not sure grandma's capable of sewing anymore, so the tablecloth won't be added to in the future.

The main goals here are a.) to preserve it, and b.) to make it displayable. It's approx 102 inches long, (her table was long, rectangular, and sat 8-10) though the sides that hang down the table were sewed on, and there are no signatures on it, so those could be removed. The signature area is no larger than the top of her table.

Someone came up with the idea of cutting the cloth into squares and somehow pasting it into the pages of a scrapbook type thing, but the names were signed randomly, and I don't think we could cut it without cutting through names.

There was also the idea of somehow forming it into some sort of a throw or quilt, but we're not sure how to do this best (the cloth is too thin now to just throw some batting in and a backing cloth and sew it together). Also, there are holes in the cloth where there have been cigarette burns. My grandma would embroider around the edge of the hole (often in the same color thread that whoever dropped their cigarette had their name embroidered in!), so they're stable, and smaller than a dime, but still, any batting or whatever might come through.

Didn't know if the hive mind could come up with any additional ideas for displaying this? Any companies out there who might handle this sort of thing?

Is this a Food and Drink,, Media and Arts, or Pets and Animals Question?

andoatnp — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 02:56:25 -0800

I got a lamb skull from the supermarket (complete with meat) and I'm looking for the best way to remove all the non-bone parts and then preserve the bone for an art project. I was recently given a lamb's head as a gift and am playnnng on using the skull for an art project. First I have to get all the meat/tissue off of it (which I assume can be done via boiling, but someone please correct me if that's not the best way to get it ready if I need to preserve the skull).

Once I have the bone left, I want to break it up, and then use the fragments for an art project. Once I smash it, what is the best way to preserve the bone? Some type of spray or treatment? I would prefer to have it look as natural as possible, however I end up treating it, but having it not smell or decompose in any way is the highest priority.

Help me preserve my fathers memorabilia

vac2003 — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 02:36:34 -0800

My father passed away recently and in going through his papers, etc. I have come across a large array of letters, receipts, bills, and various photos. I want to preserve these in some sort of scrapbook form, with the emphasis on preservation rather than scrapbooking cuteness, but accessible and respectful nonetheless. What site should I visit for advice, guidance and inspiration?

How to flatten old diplomas?

thinman — Sat, 26 May 2007 20:33:32 -0800

How do I safely flatten old diplomas? I have two diplomas from 1927 and 1931 that I'd like to frame. They were rolled up in a box with other items for many decades. They are a little squished (but not creased), and they want to retain their rolled up squishedness. Both are printed on a heavyish material with a plasticy feel and a slight sheen; I don't know if it is imitation vellum, or actual animal skin. The documents are from the Mary Institute at Washington University at St. Louis (1927) and Mt. Holyoke (1931) if that helps.

Where can i buy preserved lemons?

rorycberger — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 21:26:23 -0800

Where can I buy preserved lemon in the SF Bay Area? I know, I know, I should make my own, but I need it tomorrow so I can't wait for it to cure. Thanks in advance.

How to preserve paintings on plaster walls?

stupidsexyFlanders — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 04:10:07 -0800

The third floor of my neighbor's home was made into a children's playroom many years ago and hasn't been touched since. There's very interesting (and possibly offensive) handpainted artwork on the (plaster) walls he would like to preserve, but hasn't a clue how to do it or who to talk to for advice. How should he proceed?

Presenting newspaper scans as a book

slightlybewildered — Sat, 13 May 2006 16:03:25 -0800

What's the best way to organise a book of old newspaper clippings, quotes and recipes? (Scanned and/or transcribed) My grandmother left me a biscuit-tin full of newspaper clippings. During the 50's, 60's and 70's, she contributed short essays, opinions, hints, and family stories, to local newspapers and magazines. I've also got a hand-written recipe book which she had written out as a young woman, and her 'Treasure Book' in which she transcribed quotes, poems and Bible verses in later life.

I want to compile all of the newspaper clippings and highlights from the other two sources into a book to give to friends-and-relations, at least.

I'm looking for insight on the best way to organise it - not all the pieces are dated, though many are; I could group them by theme, or date, or pen-name. Then there's photos, and so on...

They'll all need to be transcribed first, because the clippings are yellowed, so not all of them will have scans in the book. (although I am planning on scanning them all at a high resolution for archive purposes) There are about 200 newspaper clippings alone.

Bonus points if you can point me at an example where someone has done something vaguely similar before that isn't in the "scrapbooking" genre of prepackaged "craft" materials!

Preserving recorded sound

starscream — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 21:46:21 -0800

In this interesting fpp about the 2005 National Recording Registry, 'audio experts' are quoted as saying "too few people have the skills to preserve many at-risk analog sound materials." Where would one obtain these skills? In a similar vein, are there 'user groups' or online communities devoted to this topic?

I've personally developed some interesting (at least to me) methods of digitizing vinyls and tapes, both old and new; it's a passion of mine. If I could leave working in IT in favor of preserving and restoring our worlds audio treasures I'd be the happiest guy in the world!