In a message dated 12/7/2006 10:32:46 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

However,  flattening of 
documents is something that a conservator could work with  laboratory staff 
to do in the right environment and with the right  training.




Lisa and others,
 
I totally agree that this is the best approach to conserving old maps,  field 
notes, etc., as long as there is money to pay for the service. The bugaboo  
is that just about no one in archaeology can scrape up the money to pay a  
conservator for this kind of work. The nightmare grows when you realize that we  
create hundreds of boxes of artifacts with more boxes of paper documentation in 
 our careers (with zero budget for conservation). I recall a symposium on the 
 conservation of leather shoes excavated from archaeology sites and the cost  
estimates ran in the thousands of dollars for a single shoe. 
 
I raised this issue of conservation when my historical investigations  turned 
up a collection of rolled architectural plans drawn by a local architect  in 
the 1920s here in San Diego. Suddenly, I assumed the role of negotiating  
control of the plans from the collector with the promise of giving him hard  
copies of his cache. Even with the generous offer from Brad Holderman to help  
create digital copies, the expense will be a bite out of our December cash flow  
(and we are searching for an angel among contemporary architects). 
 
Now, in another realm of my life, I collect a certain kind of valuable  books 
that were printed on cheap newsprint subject to severe acid degradation.  
Non-conservators buy buffer paper and other chemicals for treating their own  
collections because costs of hiring conservators are prohibitive (most  
collections run in the hundreds of such books). I realize now the best long-term  plan 
is to sell off the dadgum books, rather than watch them disintegrate or  
having to pay for conservation. Unfortunately, this option is not available to  
archaeologist/historians who own historical documents.
 
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.