My thanks to both David and Sue for responding to my question.  Here are
some additional facts to consider:

-photocopying some of the cards is possible, but most cards have faded
ink/lightly penciled remarks and notations that copier's have problems
picking up.  The same holds true for scanning them.

-I have considered sleeves, but worry about isolating the cards in
plastic so they stew in their own acidic juices, along with mold growth,
etc.  The addition of acid free cards (for support & acid absorption)
along with the catalog card in the sleeves would, necessarily, at least
double the size of our bulging files, and make information on the back
of the cards less acceptable.  I will do so if necessary, but a way
around that would be nice.

-Deacidification is a possibility, I am concerned about the residue from
something like Wei-to (spelling?)making further notations difficult.

-I would also like to stop the problem from growing larger by using acid
free cards in the future.  I know I can probably special order the
stock, but are there any pre-cut, unlined, acidfree 5"x8" cards on the
market?

Thanks once again,

Margaret Lyman
Collections Manager
Mutter Museum
[log in to unmask]

-----Original Message-----
From: David Formanek [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, March 05, 1999 9:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Preserving Catalog Cards?


Perhaps they could be xeroxed, and if necessary, glued to a thicker
stock for
actual handling.

The New York State Library, if I remember properly from two decades ago,
had
microfiched their older cards.

An article about library card catalogs, and that modern abomination,
software
catalogs, in the New Yorker of a couple of years ago, noted that card
files
generate information themselves: The more used and worn the cards, the
more
useful they had been found by researchers over the decades.

Catalog cards dating back two (nearly, these days) are artifacts in
themselves.

"Just the fax, ma'am."
"To protect and preserve."
TGI Sgt. Joe Friday

David Formanek
Cyrus E. Dallin Art Museum
Arlington, Mass. 02476