Stabilization
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After accessioning, collection materials may sit in storage for a long duration of time before they are processed or made available to users. Ensuring the materials are stabilized during this interim period is crucial, as it may be months or years before the materials are handled again. Stabilization, as used in the Best Practices, refers to the actions that ensure materials can be reliably located, safely moved, and protected from needless damage or deterioration until they receive further attention. These stabilization best practices enable future access and use of the collection material.
Accessioning provides the perfect opportunity to assess storage containers for long-term durability, support, and movability. Collections might arrive in sufficiently sturdy containers, especially if sources were given guidance on how to pack their collections or if collections were packed by staff. However, in most cases, basic rehousing is recommended to ensure collections go into either short- or long-term storage in strong, stable containers that will support and protect the collections between accessioning and future interventions, and that can be easily identified, tracked, and moved, even if the collection remains unprocessed for some time.
Stable housing is defined as identifiable, clean, durable containers that hold groups of materials in a way that they are supported within the container, protected from environmental damage (e.g., dust, light, leaks, temperature fluctuations), and can be safely moved without causing damage to either the material or the mover. It’s acceptable (and sustainable!) to reuse clean, undamaged supplies, particularly archival-quality materials; however, dirty and damaged containers should be replaced as they can cause damage to the materials and be hazardous to users or other collections.
Consider the following recommendations:
PRIMARY CONTAINERS
| Recommendations for Stable Housing | Desired Outcomes/Potential Risks |
|---|---|
STABILIZING MATERIALS INSIDE CONTAINERS
Keep users in mind when rehousing, including researchers, processing staff, and reading room staff. The following recommendations can reduce the amount of work needed to make collections accessible:
Materials in each container are easily viewable and accessible to a user following reading room guidelines (e.g., remove one folder at a time, maintain original order). Separate units for removal are clearly identifiable (e.g., groups of archival materials in folders, separate bound items, or items in smaller enclosures).
Fragile materials or special formats should be separated, flagged, or otherwise identified so they can be presented with safe handling instructions and supportive tools (e.g., book cradles, weights, nitrile gloves, handling assistance).
Best efforts have been made to separate or otherwise physically identify and restrict materials containing Personal Identifiable Information (PII), information that violates HIPAA or FERPA, and/or materials that are otherwise restricted.
Material is clean enough that the container and folders do not unreasonably shed paper particles, dust, and dirt onto hands and surfaces (some dirt and debris is to be expected).
Optionally, rehouse collections during accessioning into user-friendly, uniform containers that meet stabilization, storage, transit, and ease-of-use needs.
The following additional recommendations for collection storage containers align closer to final storage recommendations.
PRIMARY CONTAINERS
STABILIZING MATERIALS INSIDE CONTAINERS
The process of rehousing materials, for whatever archival purpose it serves, may be one of the first points in the accessioning process that requires a practitioner to intentionally disrupt the original order of an archival collection. Avoid disrupting the original order where possible, and document any changes to physical order that occur during rehousing.
Changes to original housing and physical arrangement should be noted in the repository’s system of record for collection documentation.
Preservation is a necessary component of archival management as it ensures materials are stabilized and accessible. Accessioning provides an opportunity to address preservation issues and ensures long-term stability of materials. Assessing the physical condition of materials and addressing immediate preservation concerns should be a high priority during accessioning. What is considered an immediate preservation issue will depend on an institution’s resources and desired outcomes.
Stick to baseline preservation actions during accessioning, and focus on immediate threats to the collection or repository, such as mold and pests. Flag secondary concerns for later follow-up. Intensive preservation work is time consuming; in most cases, performing additional preservation tasks should only be done if it is necessary to provide a baseline level of access to the materials.
Identify and document materials that need preservation work. Label or flag materials with preservation concerns, including mold, pests, fragile materials, and deteriorating materials requiring specific conservation treatment. Identify and flag special formats such as audiovisual and born-digital media. These materials may need special handling instructions or may affect future collection management decisions. Document and track preservation concerns and special formats in a central location, noting preservation concern type and/or media format type along with accession and container identifier, at minimum. Steps may include:
Urgent preservation concerns: Quarantine materials with active mold, contaminants, or other significant preservation issues, and consider reappraising materials or restricting access until the issues can be mitigated.
Audiovisual and born-digital media: Identify carrier types and quantities. Record this information in a standardized way that will support future collection work.
If time and resources allow, consider addressing items requiring basic treatment during accessioning. In addition, separating materials and queuing them up for treatment may save time later. Balance the impact of these actions with the time they require, but consider the following steps:
Create detailed tracking of preservation concerns.
Perform minimal physical intervention as time and skill allow to make access safer for users:
Clean materials
Remove dangerous fasteners
Separate materials that need extensive treatment and enter them into the repository’s preservation queue or workflow.
Document the original location of materials within the collection by using flags or separation sheets. Note the type and quantity of material removed, date of removal, and current location within the collection, as well as any additional contextual information that may be useful.
Media formats require additional action prior to use. Separating these materials and queuing them for treatment during accessioning can support future collection work. Housing these materials in format-specific enclosures will further protect the materials.
Practices for audiovisual and born-digital materials are institutionally specific. Archivists should decide whether separating audiovisual and born-digital materials is beneficial to their workflows. Steps may include:
Separate materials
Physically separate AV and born-digital media. House AV and born-digital media in a separate container or group them by format at the end of the collection. When separating material from the collection itself, it is essential to label all materials with the same accession information.
Document the original location of materials within the collection using flags or separation sheets. Note the type and quantity of material removed, date of removal, and current location within the collection, as well as any additional contextual information that may be useful, such as labels or description on media carriers. Doing this preserves original order and context, while enabling triage of challenging formats.
Restrict access to media originals. AV and born-digital original materials should not be provided to users. These items must be reformatted, either as physical use copies or digital surrogates, to facilitate access for both internal and external users.
Identify and document problematic media
Audiovisual: Inspect for the presence of photographic and motion picture film that may pose a risk, such as cellulose nitrate (a fire safety hazard) and cellulose acetate (prone to vinegar syndrome). Refer to film identification resources for help identifying film formats.
Add A-D strips to housing for acetate motion picture film to test for vinegar syndrome and assess the state of deterioration.
Nitrate film may need to be segregated or prioritized for reformatting (followed by safe disposal), depending on local fire regulations and institutional capacity to meet the standards prescribed by the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 40: Standard for the Storage and Handling of Cellulose Nitrate Film.
Born-digital: Identify vulnerable or uncommon formats that may require specialized hardware to access.
Reroute materials removed from original locations
Assign unique identifiers to media carriers at the item level. Labeling physical media ensures that items retain an intellectual connection to their collection of origin.
Create a container-specific list, noting special formats where present, and/or add materials to a primary inventory of all AV and born-digital media present in collections.
Route AV and born-digital media to a preservation or processing workflow.
A package contains the digital content and metadata files, such as a file manifest and checksum values. It provides future archivists with the information they need to identify the provenance and context of the collection. You may opt to use a file packaging format to package your digital content for transferring and storing it. Consider the following guidelines:
Bundle files together in a TAR or ZIP archive in order to encapsulate related files in storage.
“Bag” or package an accession according to a standardized format. There are several advantages to doing so:
Ability to programmatically read files according to a predictable directory structure.
Ability to store data and metadata together while maintaining a clear distinction between the two.
Ability to retain the original directory structure of an accession.
Reduced likelihood of disassociation or loss of context.
Simple validation of generated checksums.
Interoperability with other institutions’ workflows and tools.
More on Bundling Files
Some institutions bundle files together in a TAR or ZIP archive in order to encapsulate related files in storage. One of the motivations for this is compatibility with common types of storage used in digital archives; for example, Amazon Glacier’s asynchronous access model makes it desirable to bundle files that comprise a single intellectual object, accession, or collection.
Establish an institutional policy based on storage needs to support the consistent search and retrieval of archived files.
Digital files or packages should be deposited into a designated storage area. Keep in mind these guidelines:
Deposit packages to temporary storage if it will be processed within a reasonable timeframe.
Deposit packages to preservation storage if processing will be scheduled at a later date or if accessioning is the only treatment the package will receive.
The standard for digital preservation storage is to maintain multiple copies. Redundancy ensures that if corruption or failure affects any one copy, the other copies can be used to replace it. Remember the acronym LOCKSS: Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe! When storing copies, ensure that:
Copies are geographically distributed. Geographic distribution protects from system outages and natural disaster threats.
Copies are contained on different storage media types. Media diversification protects digital content from known vulnerabilities or user error. There are a number of storage options that can be combined, such as hard drives with inbuilt redundancy and recovery, tape storage, and cloud storage. Storage configurations will need to be monitored to ensure data integrity. Staff can automate monitoring, which might entail tracking when files have been changed or moved and checking file fixity through checksums.
| Recommendations for Stable Housing | Desired Outcomes/Potential Risks |
|---|---|
| Recommendations for Stable Housing | Desired Outcomes/Potential Risks |
|---|---|
| Recommendations for Stable Housing | Desired Outcomes/Potential Risks |
|---|---|
Intact, securely fitting lid
Keeps the container closed and protects contents. May enable minimal stacking during storage or transport.
Structurally intact and free of rips, dents, or damaged edges or corners, with a strong secure base
Can be safely moved without risking breakage, holds together on the shelf, and protects and supports contents.
Fits securely on repository shelving, without hanging over the edge
Containers fit fully on shelves without hanging over and risking injury to people and materials. Containers fit on shelves compactly, making the most use of available shelving.
Containers can be shelved with other collections, without resorting to storage on floors, worksurfaces, or other non-standard storage locations that may result in damage or loss.
Clearly labeled with collection name, unique identifier (accession number or call number), and container unique identifier (box number)
Containers can be identified and tracked.
Free of active mold, insects, pollutants, irritants, and excessive dirt or dust
Longer-term stability, avoid damage to contents and other collections, safe for people to handle.
Within appropriate weight limits for safe handling
Containers can be safely accessed, examined, and moved by people.
Materials fit snugly in containers without being overfilled (avoid bowing sides or material that can’t easily be removed)
Bowed, overpacked containers strain the structural integrity of containers and keep lids from fitting securely. Tightly packed containers make it difficult to remove and replace material without damage.
Underfilled containers are supported either with spacers or by rehousing in appropriately sized containers
Underfilled containers without spacers will cause folders and material to slump or bend. Materials may also slide to one end, making the box unbalanced and potentially dangerous for people removing boxes from shelves.
Remove or safely wrap sharp or potentially harmful items
Protects people from injury and protects adjacent materials from damage.
Use archival containers only
Clean, consistent storage containers support long-term preservation and enable efficient stacks management.
Separate material by size into appropriately sized archival containers (e.g., manuscript cases, flat oversized boxes, and archival cartons)
Appropriately sized containers prevent jostling, which can damage materials.
All materials are in folders or secondary enclosures within the box and enclosures are minimally labeled (e.g., box/folder number or title)
Allows a user to distinguish one grouping from another and select and safely remove one folder at a time from a container.
Protects material from abrasion and unnecessary handling that may deteriorate and damage materials over time.
Rehouse AV carriers into specific housing made for AV, particularly carriers not in cases, or for film stored in metal or unvented cans
Protects material from abrasion and unnecessary handling that may deteriorate and damage materials over time, and slows deterioration caused by inherent vice.