Re: [ARSCLIST] wire recordings - archival storage

[Angie Dickinson Mickle <angie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Tracy,

It is too bad you hadn't posted this question last week. I was just at U 
of I last Thursday and Friday and would have loved to come by and 
discuss this topic in person with you.

Though I don't have an archive of wires, I've transferred hundreds of 
wires over the last ten or eleven years.  My experience is similar to 
Michaels regarding post and pre-war wires.  Post war wires have come to 
me after being stored in every type of environmental condition you can 
think of for sometimes more than 50 years.  The biggest problems I have 
encountered has been mold in the original cardboard boxes they were 
stored in. These as you'd expect were from a very damp location.  And 
the wire itself was not affected. I have gotten pre-war wires that had 
rust spots on them, but a few discovered in building cornerstone time 
capsules have been just fine.

They seem to have no problems being stored horizontally or vertically. 
Art Shifrin recommends storing them "tails out" which can be difficult 
to do unless you have his machine.  I have my own feelings about the 
necessity of doing this.

My recommendations to clients has been to tape the end of the thread 
leader or bare wire (We add the thread when we transfer) to the outside 
of the spool so that there is no possibility for the wire on the spool 
to become loose.  And in the case of plastic leaders, to keep a rubber 
band around the leader for the same reason.

Hope that helps!

Angie Dickinson Mickle
Avocado Productions
Broomfield, CO
www.avocadoproductions.com
800-246-3811


Tracy Popp wrote:
> Dear ARSC list members:
>
> I have been doing research on archiving wire recordings for a project we are
> working on here at Univ. of Illinois. I have yet to find any  information
> about preferred archival storage of these types of recordings - storage
> orientation, preferred archival containers, etc. I have seen recommendations
> regarding storage environment temperature but nothing definitive on
> container or orientation.
>
>  I'd like to hear about how you and your institution approach archival
> storage of wire recordings and if you have any particular resource you've
> used to guide your decisions. Thank you in advance and I look forward to
> your responses!
>
> Best,
> Tracy Popp
> Graduate Student
> Univ. of Illinois
>
>
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