[ARSCLIST] Tape binder heals itself?

["Richard L. Hess" <ArcLists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, fellow travelers through the mystery realms of tape failure, here is
my latest puzzlement.

Last December, I surveyed an archive in an air-conditioned library in
Southern California.

They did not have a recording hygrometer/thermometer. It was warm. They
said it was sometimes humid.

I opened MANY boxes of white-box tape which had clear leaders--not the kind
you splice on, but rather the kind you get from the oxide coating/binder
falling off.

On most tape, clear leader from loss of coating is rare.

I could stretch these tapes about 10% and rub the coating right off.

I transferred one of these tapes in December and returned one CD-R copy to
the archive immediately.

I looked at the tape tonight and could not easily remove the oxide in the
way I had last December. My home office is low-mid 70s F and runs typically
between 30-40% RH.

Anyone have any thoughts on this other than the library needs a recording
hygrometer/thermometer?

Anyone seen this "clear leader" syndrome?

There is no budget to transfer > 1000 reels of this white box tape which
was my recommendation (and it was, by the way, not a self-serving one
because I cannot dedicate the time that 1000 reels would take--that ends up
being a full work year, more-or-less (probably more), with all the
ancillary stuff you need to do).

Thanks!

Richard