[NHCOLL-L:2569] Re: Archiving slide collections

[Shirley S Albright]

Alexandra M. Snyder wrote:

> We are acquiring over 20,000 slides of western US (fish) habitat 
> pictures and wish to archive these in the best way possible.  In the 
> past, we have used archival quality slide pages from PrintFile, with 
> the idea that the sleeves would not stick to the slides nor the 
> plastic, out gas. These slide pages seem to have worked out, i.e., not 
> sticking and I can only trust that the claims that they do not out gas 
> are true. Anyway, we are planning on using them to store this new 
> collection and hang these file pages in cabinets (fire proof, dust 
> proof) and keep the cabinets in a temperature controlled room (about 
> 19 to 22 C). We do not suffer from excessive humidity in the SW 
> desert, so I do not think that is an issue. We will also scan each 
> slide so that the digital image is readily accessible instead of the 
> slide.
>
> I am not trained as a document archivist so I would be very interested 
> in hearing from those with more training and experience as to whether 
> we are making good decisions re: slide archives. Any suggestions on 
> the appropriate cabinets (fire proof and dust proof) would be greatly 
> appreciated.
>
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> Alexandra M. Snyder, Collections Manager
> Division of Fishes  MSC03-2020
> Museum of Southwestern Biology CERIA 83
> University of New Mexico
> Albuquerque NM 87131 USA
> PH/Fax 505.277.6005
> Alexandra.Snyder at msb.unm.edu
>
It's good you're digitizing those images....since Kodak announced it 
would be going out of the slide projector business.   There's only 
maintenace and repair support available for the next few years.    The 
only thing I would suggest is digitize your master images as TIFF files 
(back two copies, one for offsite storage), then produce derivative 
images that would used by staff or researchers.   I wouldn't let anyone 
use your master files.