7 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

It was the original intent of the project to examine lignins-containing enclosures from the perspective of selecting new products for use in collections. While anecdotal evidence had already resulted in most institutions switching to lignins-free enclosures, the basis for this change had yet to be established experimentally. The reality exists, however, that there are already many lignins-containing enclosures in collections. The photographic materials were either housed before the collection managers understood the need for lignins-free enclosures or housed prior to being received into the collection.

The question arises, then, regarding the priority of improving storage conditions over rehousing materials already in poor-quality enclosures. It is logical that reducing temperature and humidity of the storage environment will slow the harmful reactions between lignins-containing enclosures and photographs. What is not known is the amount of improvement that any change in storage conditions will make. However, reducing ambient temperature and moisture has the added bonus of reducing the decay rates of the objects themselves. It follows that developing good storage conditions may be the priority over rehousing. Future research examining the effect of temperature and humidity on ligninsphotograph reaction rates could give collection managers a better sense of time with regard to making rehousing decisions.

Future research might also examine further variations in box materials including the potential reactivity of semipulp, buffered semipulp, or buffered groundwood boards on photographs or the potential advantages of using various liner materials inside the box to absorb or block the harmful volatiles from the lignins-containing core.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge Creative Memories for their support in the preparation of this manuscript and the American Society for Testing and Materials Institute for Standards Research for the several papers used in this study.