Re: [ARSCLIST] Disaster recovery- LPs

[George Brock-Nannestad <pattac@xxxxxxxx>]

From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad

Great thanks have to go to you, Steve, for taking the trouble of putting your 
MLA disaster talk on the list (18 September 2005)! Obviously you have also re-
asserted your intellectual rights.

You have now addressed the pertinent question of how high on the activities 
list to put waterlogged commercial LPs (29 September), and I agree from an 
archive point of view. Your description is most apt. This is not how private 
collectors see it, however. And even for archives, the enormous task of 
replacing LPs from a catalogue and using e.g. e-Bay would usually not be 
funded. Possibly it would be better to get in touch with a dealer and let 
him/her do the work and pay accordingly.

As a practical matter, if you separate the records in their inner plastic 
sleeves from the cardboard surround, you generally only need dry space in 
abundance to let the cardboard dry sufficiently quickly to prevent severe 
mold growth. However, everything buckles, and your space requirement will 
grow enormously, even for the dry matter. However, everything depends on the 
type of immersion and the time it has had an effect. Records that I have 
worked on had had 1 inch of immersion for 4 hours, which led to capillary 
drawing up in susceptible cardboard (i.e. not all of it) to about 4 inches. I 
especially noted that early Deutsche Grammophon covers that were usually 
quite luxurious to handle were endangering the vinyl content, because the 
were sewn, and water seeped through each perforation. In these cases, the 
vinyl had to be towel dried. Once everything is dry, due to the buckling, you 
will never be able to put the records back in the covers. However, the 
documentation, liner notes, etc. will be preserved. If necessary, a good 
paper conservator would be able to re-constitute an LP package to appear as 
an undamaged condition, however it is very expensive.

> The question has arisen concerning flood damaged commercial LPs.

Kind regards,

George