Conservation and preservation
All Special Collections holdings are housed in secure, environmentally-controlled stores but a good storage environment is only the first step towards best practice. The preservation of documents for future use also depends upon good housekeeping practices, appropriate packaging and careful handling.
The documents which comprise the Manuscript Album have recently been cleaned and re-packaged by the Robinson Library's Bindery staff. The letters have been placed in Melinex pockets - an archival quality inert material - and these pockets bound into hard-backed folders. This way, the letters can be kept clean, be easily retrieved and are afforded a greater level of protection from handling and reproduction.
