Freeze-drying

I am acting as a consultant for the rescue and recovery of some 5000
plus documents at a site at ground zero, September 11, 2001. The
records for these documents are no longer available, the documents
were wet and there was a severe mold infestation as well as diesel
fuel in the water.  Examination could not be done until the site at
ground zero was cleared and the structure stabilized. The water line
is about 4 feet off the floor. The documents are in file cabinets,
on rolling stacks and some are bundled in plastic. The documents by
and large are still wet from the 9/11 event until today

I am interested in getting information from book and paper
conservators who have worked on items that have printed colored inks
on the pages of the documents and in the books after they have been
freeze-dried.  After freeze drying was it possible to easily
separate the pages? Could the pages be separated without lifting the
ink? Do some inks break down from the freeze-drying process?

The interest here is to preserve the information on the document not
the documents themselves. I would also like to hear the pros and
cons of the freeze-drying process


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:58
                  Distributed: Thursday, April 3, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-16-58-005
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