Shrink wrapping

On the question of shrink wrapping:  If the shrink wrap has a hole
in it, no micro-environment will be created.  If the ambient
temperature and humidity are at "archival" levels, the shrink
wrapping should cause no speed-up in deterioration.

After a sizable earthquake put over 4,500 of our books on the floor,
with many covers shattered and separated from their textblocks, we
shrink wrapped thousands of items to keep the original (now
detached) covers together with the textblocks.  We found it also
keep red rot from soiling neighboring books, it allows us to put a
flag inside the wrap so that we can see the call number easily, it
helps us to spot items in need of repair when we are selecting books
to conserve, it acts as a warning to patrons who call up the books
to handle the items especially gently, it is relatively inexpensive
per unit (once you have purchased the machine), and it is easy and
fairly quick to shrink wrap a book.  The material we use for the
wrap is not damaging, nor is the process of wrapping the books.  Are
there any drawbacks?

Sidney E. Berger
Head of Special Collections
Rivera Library
University of California
Riverside, CA 92517
909-787-3233
Fax:   909-787-3285

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 10:54
                 Distributed: Friday, December 6, 1996
                       Message Id: cdl-10-54-005
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