Re: [ARSCLIST] CD cleaning help

[Joe_Iraci@xxxxxxxxx]

Was the disc stored with paper or glossy printed material?  It could be
off-gassing from these materials with the volatiles depositing on the disc.
I have seen this with CDs stored in hot cars.  You could try ethanol to
further clean the disc, but you should be very careful when using solvents
with discs.  If the plastic has been etched then there is not much you can
do unless you treat it like a scratch and remove the affected area like you
would a scratch.  There is equipment that can do this and many used CD
stores will do this for you (basically the disc is sanded a bit to remove
the affected area and then repolished).  First of all, before trying
anything, check to see if the disc plays properly.  You may not have to do
anything.

Joe Iraci
Conservation Scientist
Canadian Conservation Institute




                      Esther Gillie
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                      17/06/2003 10:43
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Dear Collective Wisdom;

We just discovered a CD set in our library that has some sort of white film
on the play side of the disk.  I thought at first it was some sort of mold,
and the usual cleaning procedures (water, soft rag, mild detergent) do
clean off the worst of it, but not all of it.  It doesn't seem to have
eaten into the plastic. I have more experience dealing with instantaneous
disks or reel to reel tape. Is this a common thing, and what do you
recommend? Thank you for your assistance.

Esther Gillie
Music Digital Services Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Library
Administration
Music Library, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
2136 Music Building MC 056
1114 West Nevada Street
Urbana, IL 61801
217.244.4072 gillie@xxxxxxxx
fax 217.244.9097