Artlab Australia provides a team of qualified conservators who specialise in preservation and conservation services for pieces of art and items that are historic.
Archival products
These companies are commercial providers of archival products such as acid photo that is free and archival boxes for storing your papers.
Getting started
People often seek suggestions about how exactly to take care of cherished personal items, handed down through the household, which they hope to pass on in good condition towards the next generation. This LibGuide provides some practical and easy how to look after your records that are personal.
One choice is to donate them to a suitable archival repository, to ensure their long-term preservation and also to make sure they are open to the wider community. The State Library always welcomes the opportunity to appraise original records for the archival collections, once they relate to South Australians or South Australia, are of state significance and also enduring research value.
The Coordinator Archival Collection Development can discuss donating under also the Cultural Gifts Program.
General proper care of your collections
Just use:
- Acid-free containers
- Polypropylene sleeves
- Acid-free paper, tissues and cloth
- Soft pencils approved for writing captions on back of photos
Avoid:
- Lamination
- Sticky glue and tape
- Writing with a ballpoint pen
- Mounting items with glue onto cardboard or masonite
- Sticking post-it notes onto actual items because they may leave a sticky residue
- Old style plastic sleeves, that may cause documents and photographs to rapidly fade and discolour. They could also make removal of your item difficult, due to adhesion that is internal.
- Sunlight or light that is bright directly onto items
- Boxes on the ground (keep them above the floor on clean shelving)
- Extremes and rapid fluctuations of temperature and humidity
- Dust and pests (insects and vermin).
- Keeping archival records in old sheds, or under leaky roofing, or in damp, dusty or dirty areas, or without fire protection.
- Using starch based loose packing materials to safeguard items from breakage (insects is going to be drawn to the starch and produce pest management problems).
Sensible precautions: