Western Association for Art Conservation
WAAC

Salvage at a Glance

By Betty Walsh
British Columbia Information Management Services

	*Material*	*Priority*	*Handling Precautions*	*Packing Method*	*Drying Method*
Paper Documents & Manuscripts
	Stable media	Freeze or dry within 48 hours.	Don't separate single sheets.	Interleave between folders and pack in milk crates or cartons.	Air, vacuum, or freeze dry.
	Soluble inks (felt pens, colored pens, ball point pens)	Immediately freeze or dry.	Do not blot.	Interleave between folders and pack in milk crates or cartons.	Air or freeze dry.
Maps & Plans
	Stable media	Freeze or dry within 48 hours.	Use extra caution if folded or rolled.	Pack in map drawers, bread trays, flat boxes, on heavy cardboard or poly covered plywood.	Air or freeze dry.
	Soluble media Maps and plans by photoreproductive processes Hand colored maps	Immediately freeze or dry.	Do not blot.	Interleave between folders and pack as above.	Air or freeze dry.
	Drafting linens	Immediately freeze or dry.	Avoid pressure - inks can smear away.	Pack like maps in containers lined with plastic.	Air or freeze dry. Air dry by separating sheets and interleaving.
	Maps on coated papers	Immediately freeze or dry.		Pack like maps in containers lined with plastic.	Freeze drying preferred.
Books
	Books and pamphlets	Freeze or dry within 48 hours.	Do not open or close, do not separate covers.	Separate with freezer paper, pack spine down in milk crate or cardboard box 1 layer deep.	Air, vacuum, or freeze dry.
	Leather and vellum bindings	Immediately dry; or freeze if many books.	Do not open or close, do not separate covers.	Separate with freezer paper, pack spine down in milk crate or cardboard box 1 layer deep.	Air dry.
	Books and periodicals with coated papers	Immediately freeze or dry.	Do not open or close, do not separate covers.	Keep wet; pack spine down in containers lined with garbage bags.	Freeze drying preferred. Air dry by fanning pages and interleaving.
Computer Media
	Tapes	Immediately rinse off tapes soaked by dirty water. Dry within 48 hours if paper boxes and labels; otherwise, tapes can stay wet for several days. Do not freeze.	Do not touch magnetic media with bare hands. Handle open reel tapes by hubs or reel.	Keep tapes wet in plastic bags. Pack vertically in plastic crate or tub.	Air dry or test vacuum drying without heat.
	Floppy Disks	Immediately pack. Do not freeze.	Do not touch disk surface with bare hands.	Keep wet. Pack vertically in plastic bags or tubs of cold water.	Air dry.
Compact Discs & CD ROMs
		Immediately dry discs. Dry paper enclosures within 48 hours.	Do not scratch the surface.	Pack vertically in crates or cardboard cartons.	Air dry.
Sound and Video Recordings
	Sound and Videotapes	Immediately rinse off tapes soaked by dirty water. Dry within 48 hours if paper boxes and labels; otherwise, tapes can stay wet for several days. Do not freeze.	Do not touch magnetic media with bare hands.	Keep tapes wet in plastic bags. Pack vertically in plastic crate or tub.	Air dry or test vacuum drying without heat.
	Ambrotypes Pannotypes	Recovery rate is low. Immediately dry.	Handle with care - glass supports and extremely fragile binder.	Horizontally in a padded container.	Air dry face up. Never freeze.
	Daguerreotypes	Immediately dry.	Handle with care - fragile surface, cover glass.	Horizontally in a padded container.	Air dry face up. Never freeze.
	Tintypes	Immediately dry.	Handle with care - fragile binder.	Horizontally.	Air dry. Never freeze.
Negatives
	Wet collodion glass plates	Recovery rate is low. Immediately dry.	Handle with care - glass supports and fragile binder.	Horizontally in a padded container.	Air dry face up. Never freeze.
	Gelatin dry plate glass negatives	Freeze or dry within 48 hours.	Handle with care - glass.	Keep wet. Pack in plastic bags, vertically in a padded container.	Air drying preferred; or thaw and air dry; freeze dry.
	Deteriorated nitrates with soluble binders	Immediately freeze or dry. Recovery rate may be low.	Do not blot.	Horizontally.	Air dry; thaw and air dry; test freeze drying.
	Deteriorated acetates	Immediately freeze or dry. Recovery rate is low.	Handle carefully - swelling of emulsion.	Horizontally.	Air dry; thaw and air dry; test freeze drying.
	Polyester based film, nitrates and acetates in good condition	Freeze or dry within 48 hours.	Do not touch emulsion with bare hands.	Keep wet. Pack in small plastic bags inside boxes.	Order of preference: 1) Air dry, 2) thaw and air dry, 3) freeze dry. Do not vacuum dry.
Transparencies
		Freeze or dry within 48 hours.	Handle with care - loose binding tapes and glass.	Vertically in a padded container.	Air drying preferred; thaw, and air dry.

	Microfilm rolls	Rewash and dry within 48 hours.	Do not remove from boxes; hold carton together with rubber bands.	Keep wet. Pack (in blocks of 5) in a cardboard box lined with garbage bags.	Arrange with a microfilm processor to rewash and dry.
	Aperture cards	Freeze or dry within 48 hours.		Keep wet. Pack in plastic bags inside boxes.	Air dry, or thaw and air dry.
	Jacketed microfilm	Freeze or dry within 48 hours.		Keep wet. Pack in plastic bags inside pail or box.	Air dry, or freeze, thaw and air dry.
	Diazo and vesicular microfiche	Freeze or dry within 48 hours.		Interleave between envelopes and pack in milk crates or cartons.	Air dry, or freeze, thaw and air dry.

Published as an insert to the WAAC Newsletter, Vol. 19, No. 2 (May 1997), Carolyn Tallent, Editor.

This chart was written as a ready reference to the BCIMS disaster plan. Originally, the chart was modeled on a table of recovery priorities written by Julia Niebuhr Eulenberg, in Handbook for the Recovery of Water Damaged Business Records (Prairie Village, Kansas: ARMA, 1986), 47-48.

edited sw 11/03