Photographic books and keeping them safe

[Ash]

I've built up a little collection of books, they're filling up most of a 6.5x3ft display cabinet style bookcase.

The bookcase has glass fronted doors on it.

Now the whole thing is in my room, the doors aren't necessarily airtight closing, and so air will pass in and out and I know that humidity levels and temperature will change.

I have a few metal-tin reusable silica gel things. Is it worth placing a desiccant on a couple shelves to avoid the books getting damaged, or is the dryness more likely to cause premature aging since it will dry out the whole bookcase?


A reason I'm considering this is because the room I live in has a draft. There is an air current that flows through from a crack in the wall one side through and out the hole-in-the-wall storage space that connects to the sloping roof. There's literally a free airflow through the room allowing indoor climate change in each weather.

[Ash]

bump... any ideas?

[MIke Sherck]

Ash, you need to find a librarian to ask. If they don't know, they ought to be able to point you at someone who does. Perhaps a librarian at your school?

Mike

[Nathan Potter]

Ash, silica gel things will only be effective if the bookcase is hermetic. If there are any leaks the exchange of humid air is so rapid that the gel will be saturated within a few days. So you'd have to bake them out every few days - not practical. Better bet is to buy a can of foam sealant from Home Depot and seal the room adequately then employ a dehumidifier. The dehumidifier might maintain the room at 35 to 40% RH if the room is adequately sealed, but the limit also depends on the input/output rate of heated or cooled air thru ducts to the room. If your bookcase were about hermetic and the gel was fully active the RH in the bookcase might approach 2 to 4% which might actually be too dry for the books. I think the pages would be too embrittled.

If you want to be fanatical then I would read your books using cotton gloves to avoid finger contaminants such as oil residue being left on the paper. Definitely keep vermin out of the bookcase such as cockroaches, earwigs, mice and rats etc. Even tiny book lice will degrade books over time. Sunlight degrades book bindings and high humidity promotes discoloring molds.

Nate Potter, Boston MA.

[Ed Richards]

If possible, sealing the room is the best start for the books, and maybe for you. Are you in a very wet area, so that you are constantly fighting mold? If not, then once the room is sealed better, you should be OK.

[Ash]

There's no issue of damp, simply that the constant flux in temperature worried me when a Todd Hido started to bow when left flat. Not sure why since it was fine when I had it in a bag on the floor for a few months.


I'll ask a librarian, thanks.

[bvstaples]

First, seal up the crack in your wall. I would think you want to do that for economic/ecological reasons, if nothing else.

Then, ask an antiquarian book dealer. They will probably suggest putting the books in a temperature and humidity neutral room for a week, then placing the books in poly bas designed for storage of ephemera.

Your Hido book started to bow because of excess humidity getting to the binder's board and/or the laminates in/on the cover. To much humidity to the text pages is recognized by the edges scalloping.

[Heroique]

I'll ask a librarian, thanks.

Please let us know what the librarian says!

Plus a few thoughts about books in the sun:

The angle of sunlight spilling through my den window changes dramatically over the seasons – thanks to my northern latitude. Every few months, I have to remember to slide my bookshelf a few feet this way, or that way; otherwise, my nicer books get simmered, baked or broiled.

Perhaps I’m zealously cautious, but I’m also distrustful about indirect sunlight, whether it hits shelf-top, shelf-side, or even the nearby floor, a reflective source for damaging rays that one may not always remember.

[Ash]

Here's the books now they've been rearranged a little.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y43/second-belated/bookcasecopy-1.jpg


Maybe we need a 'show us your bookcase' thread?