Emily
I was a member of the BSI committee that recommended withdrawal of BS 4783, and was very strongly in favour of withdrawing it. This is because I found that different manufacturers make different environmental recommendations for their products - which is hardly surprising. If I recall correctly (it was many years ago) the 4783 recommendations were NOT a sub-set of the manufacturers' recommendations. So that left the possibility of simultaneously following the BS recommendation but NOT complying with the media manufacturer's recommendations - plainly a silly and potentially dangerous outcome.
Not only that, the British Standard is frozen in time for years at a time, while manufacturers are constantly tweaking their formulations and sometimes their environmental recommendations.
So the message is to follow media manufacturers' recommendations. I cannot think of an argument to do otherwise (though I appreciate you will struggle to locate all the recommendations you have for all the media you have collected over the years).
Exactly the same applies to other media covered by 4783 - optical media, magnetic discs etc.
I have not heard of ISO 18923 (not 8923). But IMHO exactly the same argument applies - even more so as 18923 specifies a range of environments WIDER than 3783! I would ignore it in favour of manufacturers' recommendations.
Good luck
Marc Fresko
-----Original Message-----
From: The Information and Records Management Society mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Emily Burningham
Sent: 17 February 2015 12:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Long-term storage of magnetic tape
Dear all,
I am looking for guidance on the recommended temperature and humidity for the long-term storage of magnetic tape.
We have till now referred to BS 4783 Storage, Transportation and Maintenance of Media for Use in Data Processing and Information Storage - Part 4 Recommendations for Magnetic Tape Cartridges and Cassettes, and have therefore regarded 18-22 degrees celcius and 35-45%RH as what is required. However this standard has now been withdrawn by BSI as it is now "no longer relevant". Does anyone know if anything has replaced it?
Also, there is another standard, ISO 8923: 2000 – Imaging Materials – Polyester-base Magnetic tape – Storage practices, last reviewed 2012. The specification is quite different, recommending between 11 and 23 degrees celcius and RH of between 20 and 50% (maximum 11 degrees with a RH of 50%, or 17 degrees with a RH of 30% or 23 degrees with a maximum of 20%).
I would be very grateful for any advice anyone can give on this.
Many thanks.
Regards,
Emily Burningham
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