At the Region of Waterloo Archives, many of the items are rather old, and some items are in rough shape. As such, usual preservation efforts of keeping the item in a place with low, consistent relative humidity and temperature, as well as low light are not enough.
For one plan of Berlin from the early 1900s, I followed the Canadian Conservation Institute’s (CCI) guide for “Dry methods for Surface Cleaning of Paper” in order to “erase” some of the dirt on the plan. Afterwards, I followed the CCI’s guide for encapsulation, which allows the plan to be easily viewed and handled without worrying about the brittle paper crumbling.
For two books published in 1900 and 1938, I created and modified boxes that will allow the books to be handled and shelved without worry. The modified box was made out of a ready made book box, while the one I created was built with an archival map folder and some Velcro.
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