Saving the Past: How Deacidification Safeguards County Records
County land maps from Texas receiving deacidification treatment at our document preservation lab.
Historical documents, especially paper records preserved in county and state government offices, hold critical information—from land ownership rights, historical maps and surveys, and even legal judgments over various social and personal issues.
These form a valuable legacy that must be preserved so that future generations can understand the historical and sociological context of past events.
Time, however, is the ultimate enemy of old and archived paper documents. It threatens the integrity of our historical documents, endangering those vital testimonies to our collective past and our informational heritage. In order to understand how to preserve old documents, we first need to understand how and why they degrade and decay.
Acidification accelerates the natural aging of paper documents. Alkalization—or deacidification—is the counteraction to acidification and is an essential technique to preserve and protect archived paper documents.
In this article, we look at how modern deacidification techniques have helped us take proactive steps to safeguard historical documents and archived county and government records.
RDS offers specialized historical document preservation services for county offices to safeguard legacy records for the future and prevent a potential loss of valuable information. Our team specializes in various document restoration techniques, from cleaning and deacidification to repair and reinforcement to safeguard irreplaceable documents.
Understanding the threat: Acidification of county records
Paper is inherently prone to degradation with time.
Wood pulp is used as a raw material in the commercial manufacturing of paper. The pulp contains three main compounds: cellulose fibers, hemicelluloses, and lignin. Cellulose fibers absorb moisture from the environment and can lead to paper being affected by humid or wet environments. Lignin is highly prone to oxidative reactions and as acid is a by-product of the oxidation process, lignin is one of the primary causes of acidification of paper. Additionally, some of the chemicals used in the production process also increase the acidity of the paper.
Apart from the inherent acidity of these organic components of paper, exposure to excessive humidity, heat, or light in storage environments also accelerates the acidification process. Humid or wet environments can result in mold and other fungal infections that ultimately degrade paper. Pest infestations in dark, dingy or unused storage areas are another factor that can damage archived documents or old paper records in storage areas. Air pollutants such as residual particles from dust or smoke also accelerate degradation.
Over time, exposure to these environmental factors causes the acidic compounds in the paper to multiply, weakening the structure of the organic fibers.
This process of acidification slowly eats away at the paper, making it fragile, causing printing ink to fade, and threatening to turn irreplaceable historical records into illegible pieces of decaying paper. Acidification not only destroys information but can also erase vital clues to an as-yet unknown or less-understood event of the past.
William James Barrow, an American document restorer and a pioneer of library and archives conservation, first introduced the process of conservation of paper through alkalization or deacidification.
Through his research, Barrow estimated that only about 3% of the books published in the first 4-5 decades of the 1900s would survive over 50 years.
In an article published in the 1930s, Barrow introduced the concept of a chemical means of controlling the acid deterioration of paper. He invented the aqueous process of neutralizing acids in paper while depositing an alkaline buffer on the paper. His pioneering research has contributed significantly to the development of modern-day deacidification techniques, which we now consider essential for preserving old documents.
The essential role of preservation: Why deacidification matters
Preserving county records is our collective responsibility. County government offices across the US store vast amounts of historical records that document the past, including land ownership deeds, court records, geological maps, surveys, official government reports, and even correspondence. All these documents have immense socio-political, historical, and cultural significance.
A significant portion of these archives remains in paper format, and a large number have not transitioned to digital form. This situation presents a critical risk: the deterioration of these historical documents, many of which lack duplicates or digital backups, could result in an irreplaceable loss. Such a loss would not only erase essential evidence crucial for understanding historical events, but it would also eliminate key insights into past administrative and legal contexts, depriving us of valuable perspectives necessary for comprehending our history.
Understanding the process of deacidification and the significance of arresting the aging of vital paper documents is the key to preserving these historical records for future generations.
Deacidification is a process that neutralizes harmful acids in paper by adding alkaline compounds to it. It extends the life of cellulose-based sheets of paper by removing or neutralizing acidic components and depositing an alkaline buffer on the paper to arrest further deterioration.
There are various methods to deacidify paper documents:
Immersing the paper documents in an alkaline solution or aqueous bath of calcium or magnesium salts to neutralize acidic components in the paper. This is also called aqueous deacidification.
Spraying alkaline compounds or nanoparticles on the paper documents for deacidification without immersing the documents in a bath. These are also called non-aqueous deacidification sprays.
Mass deacidification—County offices generally have thousands of documents in their archives, making it impractical to conduct deacidification manually. By harnessing the power of technology, we can use specialized equipment to apply deacidification treatments to documents in bulk, making the process more efficient and cost-effective.
It is important to consult with a specialized document preservation services company and their expert conservationists to pick the right deacidification technique for your documents.
Tangible benefits of deacidification for county records
Deacidification of old and archived county records brings several tangible benefits. Let's take a look at some of them:
Extended document lifespan: Deacidification slows down the natural aging process of paper documents, making them more durable. This ensures we don't lose valuable information contained in historical county records.
Enhanced accessibility of information: When paper documents become brittle and fragile, it becomes difficult for researchers to handle them and access the information for further study or scrutiny. Deacidification neutralizes the acidity in paper documents, strengthening them and enhancing their integrity so that they can be handled and used for research and study without the possibility of causing further damage to them.
Accurate records for the right socio-political and historical perspective: Deacidification improves the legibility and clarity of paper-and-print documents so that county officials can have access to accurate records that reflect the true perspective—whether in a social, political, historical or cultural context. Clear and legible records improve our understanding of past events, historical issues, and our cultural heritage.
Proactively prevents further deterioration: The deacidification process stabilizes documents, depositing an alkaline residue to bring down the acidity. It arrests any further deterioration and is, therefore, an effective proactive strategy to preserve valuable county records in their original paper format.
Various deacidification methods are beneficial for historical documents and county records. But ultimately, deacidification is a one-time process.
How do you ensure the continued protection of valuable archives?
Take proactive measures to ensure documents are stored in carefully controlled conditions.
Light, temperature, and humidity in document storage areas must be carefully controlled and maintained at levels that are conducive to paper. Cool, dark, and dry are the ideal conditions for paper archives!
Ensure that storage areas are regularly cleaned and treated for pest control.
Lastly, remember that valuable documents must also be protected from natural disasters such as fires, floods, storms and other adverse events that threaten business continuity. Prepare and implement a disaster preparedness plan and conduct regular risk assessments to identify potential threats and address them appropriately to mitigate damage to irreplaceable documents.
Looking to the future: Challenges, considerations, and technological advances
The preservative effects of deacidification methods also have their downside. Let's look at some of the adverse side effects or challenges in deacidification.
Challenges in deacidification
Aqueous deacidification processes cannot be used on documents printed with water-soluble inks, as the text can fade if the ink starts dissolving in the water.
Aqueous treatments are suitable for separate sheets of paper—this means if you have to treat bound books, you will first need to remove the binding, separate the sheets, and rebind them after treatment.
Non-aqueous methods can be used for bound books without separating the sheets, as the aerosol sprays can reach the hard-to-access gaps within the binding. However, this process can be time-consuming if yuo have a very large number of documents to process.
Most county offices need mass deacidification as the volume of government records they hold in their archives is very high. This requires specialized equipment as well as skilled conservationists who understand the intricacies of treating fragile and valuable paper documents. They must also regularly recheck the condition of the treated documents to ensure that the deterioration has halted and ascertain if any further intervention is needed to safeguard the documents. The entire process is expensive and requires careful planning and allocation of time, effort as well as budget.
County officials must carefully balance these challenges and costs against the benefits of deacidification.
RDS: A step toward the future of document preservation
Talk to RDS and speak with our document management experts to discuss the evolving landscape of document preservation and develop a tailored, proactive approach to safeguarding county records and other irreplaceable historical documents.
Connect with our document preservation experts today and ask for a quote for our document deacidification services!