Deterioration of cellulose acetate microfilm
At Warwickshire Libraries and Record Office, the majority of the microfilm
of parish registers and census returns were acquired 30 or more years ago.
For the past 20 years it has been in very heavy use by the public.
Breaks in these films have been occurring at an increasing rate over the
past few years. We have no figures for the exact number of breakages to
date although from July 1999, they have been recorded in the microfilm
cleaning and checking book kept by the Archives Assistant. The breaks
appear to be caused by a combination of the age of the films and the heavy
use they get. It is difficult to see how we can slow the rate of
deterioration without restricting public access, which is not an option.
Clean breaks in the film are swiftly dealt with by splicing. This running
repair can be done by the searchroom staff. Increasingly however, the
breaks are jagged and often go along the film for several inches. These
are usually dealt with by conservation staff, but a repair is difficult or
impossible without removing the torn film to create two clean edges for
splicing. We now have a number of films which have had sections cut out of
them and are waiting for refilming or reordering.
Are other record offices experiencing similar problems with cellulose
acetate microfilm and how do you tackle the problem.
Jerry Weber
Warwickshire Record Office
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