Lisa, The vinegar is acetic acid which is certainly coming from the deteriorating plastic. The newspapers certainly contain inherent acids in and of themselves but should not be the "vinegar" type. Get rid of the plastic first and foremost. Acetic acid is not a disease - so it won't "catch" in a collection like a pest will. But if an acid-sensitive collections object is stored in close proximity (such as lead tokens / toys, etc.) then deterioration will result. It is always best practice to preserve the information in ephemeral archival collections by either microfilm or digital imaging. I don't think you would have to destroy them - you may be able to take simple steps with the advice of a paper conservator to keep them fairly stable - perhaps in another storage situation. My advice is that in the future you, or another knowledgeable staff person look over everything in a collection before it comes in the door - so you can catch issues like this as well as seeing if there are pests that may hitchhike right in the door. This time spent up front can certainly pay off because once something nasty comes inside it is a bigger issue for everyone. Cheers! Dave David Harvey Senior Conservator Los Angeles, CA On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 6:44 AM, Foster, Lisa C CIV < [log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hi, > > Does anyone know where I can find information about vinegar syndrome and > newspapers? Everything I find about vinegar syndrome deals with film or > photos. I dealt with this at another museum I worked at where hundreds of > do cuments dating from the 1850-1960s were stored in scrapbooks (binders) > in > plastic along with newspaper articles from the 1960s and were nearly > destroyed by acid, so I know it happens, just can't find any info on it. > > We just had some newspapers come in with a collection that are half-way > laminated (for lack of better terms) and show signs of vinegar syndrome. I > need something to back up my claims that they need to be scanned and > destroyed and certainly can't be kept with the rest of our collection. I > thought there would be at least something out there about it but so far > nothing online or in any of the books on my book shelf. > > Thanks, > Lisa > > ========================================================= > Important Subscriber Information: > > The Museum-L FAQ file is located at > http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed > information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message > to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read > "help" (without the quotes). > > If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to > [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read > "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). > ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).