Re: [ARSCLIST] Some questions on long-term storage of audio CDs

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

Jon,

While I don't think RIAA would like this, I would make a gold archive 
CD-R of the original and store it in a separate location along with 
copies of the paper.

I'll answer your questions below.

At 04:52 PM 2007-10-26, Jon Noring wrote:

> 1) What are the degradation mechanisms of typical commercial audio CDs
>    and how can they be mitigated?

There is research by NIST (I believe) and others -- I don't have the 
references handy, but there are major reports on this and I think 
IASA TC04 has some of this in it.

> 2) Since most commercial audio CDs use standard "generic" jewel boxes,
>    our thoughts are for each such CD to remove the contents (the disc
>    and all paper inserts) from the jewel box (which will be recycled),
>    and place the contents into a sleeve or bag (like a Zip-Loc?).

I don't think this is a good idea. The "generic" polycarbonate? jewel 
case is part of the CD system and keeps the disk safer than anything 
you proposed. There are polypropylene? archival jewel box 
replacements available from  Stil Designs in Quebec that was the 
subject of a long discussion on this list back in February. I would 
not use anything that came in contact with the optical surface OR the 
print surface of the CD. There are just too many risks.

If you wish to avoid any degradation products from the paper possibly 
damaging the CD then that can be stored separately using archival 
paper storage techniques -- a well-known science.

>    For a typical commercial audio CD, the contents will reduce down
>    to about 1/8" thick. Not only will this increase storage capacity,
>    but might allow us to more easily mitigate long-term degradation
>    as brought up in #1 above.

I think anything other than suspending the CD in air would be bad. 
Saving the space would be good and you might investigate the thinline 
jewel cases, but then you'd still have to do something with the tray card.


> 3) Barcodes. I notice that the vast majority of commercial audio CD
>    releases I've seen going back a number of years all have bar codes.
>    I assume these barcodes could be of great advantage for cataloging
>    purposes?

Yes and you could also grab the "Gracenote" (ex CDDB) record for the 
commercial CD if you wished.

Hope this helps a bit.

Cheers,

Richard



Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
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