[PADG:1533] irradiated mail

["Eliza Gilligan" <gilligane@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I am sending this query to a couple of lists, please forgive any cross posting:

Here at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries Preservation and Exhibition Services Department we have just received our first two pieces of first class mail since early October, and I believe our first two pieces of irradiated mail.  The two envelopes contained photocopies of hygrothermograph charts, which we receive on a regular basis from one of our branch libraries.  

The envelopes postmarked Nov. 14 and Nov. 15 were quite yellow and the tape used to seal it was darkened and wrinkled.  The photocopies inside the envelopes were also yellow and in the envelope marked Nov. 14 the toner of the photocopies, where they were folded in on themselves, had fused together.  

The paper of both the envelopes and the photocopies seems to be quite brittle, the top of the Nov. 14 envelope shattered when we tried to tear it open and a corner of a photocopy broke off after 2 double folds.  The Nov. 15 envelope appears to be in slightly better condition but it is still noticeably yellow and brittle.  Photocopies that we received previous to this appear completely normal and the library has always used standard, pH neutral, photocopy paper.

The information prepared by SCMRE and posted on their web site did say "materials of cellulosic composition, especially plant fibers and paper, will be quite seriously affected."  But I must say that seeing an actual sample is quite a dramatic demonstration of the damage inflicted by irradiation.    

My questions to the list therefore are: Have others encountered these results with irradiated mail?  Has the practice of irradiating mail changed any procedures?  How has this affected your Inter Library Loan program?  

thanks in advance for your comments,



Eliza Gilligan
Book Conservator
Preservation and Exhibition Services Department
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
SISC Rm 2H7
Washington, DC 20560-0806

(202) 357-1486

gilligane@xxxxxxxxxx