How to guides - caring for your collections

This section provides some useful how to guides to help you preserve and care for your collections at home or work.

Build your own archival corrugated phase box | Care for books and bound materials | Care for digital images | Build a four-flap photographic enclosure | Care for photographic collections | Preserving motion picture film | A guide to selecting safe enclosure materials | Suppliers and of preservation materials | Counter disaster planning 

Build your own archival corrugated phase box

This versatile box can be used to house many types of objects:

• valuable/heritage books including volumes with fine binding
• damaged books (e.g. spine damage, brittle covers, and/or loose pages)
• documents, photographs and art works on paper - interleave with acid-free, lignin-free tissue or place in polyester or archival paper. Archival corrugated phase box [PDF 207 KB]

Care for books and bound materials

This how to guide provides general guidelines for the care of bound volumes, including printed and manuscript material. It outlines what causes deterioration and methods for minimizing further damage. Books and bound material [PDF 287 KB]

Care for digital images

Digital photography has become an important part of daily life. Many of the photographs we take with digital cameras, mobile phones and iPods will, in time, become historical records. Traditional photographic images can be viewed without the use of any equipment, but digital images require current software and hardware to remain accessible and usable. Digital images [PDF 170 KB]

Build a four-flap photographic enclosure

This simple storage enclosure is suitable for photographic negatives and prints in good condition. Once placed in the four-flap, store vertically in suitable boxing such as polypropylene or archival board storage boxes. Four-flap enclosure [PDF 186 KB]

Care for photographic collections

The twenty-first century marks an important turning point in the history of photography as traditional silver halide photography is rapidly replaced by digital photography. As photographic collections remain a fundamental part of our personal and collective memories, we need to understand them as physical objects and ensure we use and enjoy them in ways that do not contribute to their deterioration. Learn how photographic collections deteriorate and how to provide basic preventive methods to preserve collections for present and future generations to enjoy. Photographic collections [PDF 611 KB]

Preserving motion picture film

Home movie and motion picture film collections are a precious source of memories and entertainment, as well as being valuable historic and social records.This guide will hep you identify the type of film you have and how to preserve it for future generations. Motion picture film [PDF 732 KB]

A guide to selecting safe enclosure materials

Selecting the right enclosure material for the job is important for protecting your precious and historical items. The wrong choice could result in your collections being damaged while being transported or stored. This guide will help you choose the best material for your storage solution. Safe enclosure materials [PDF 248 KB]

Suppliers and  of preservation materials

Having trouble finding preservation materials?This list will help you locate suppliers who specialise in the supply of preservation materials and services. Suppliers of preservation materials [PDF 120 KB]

Counter disaster planning

The template has been produced by the State Library of Queensland’s Collection Preservation program for libraries within the Queensland Public Library network and other cultural institutions to assist with their development of a counter disaster plan for collections held within their facilities. Counter disaster planning [DOC 1.3 MB]