As a conservator, I would have two considerations.  First, if the "original" artist used staples, I would leave them in place.  Second, if you have good control of your environmental conditions, there should not be any problems with corrosion or rusting of the staples, even if they are not stainless steel.  Only if your RH conditions allow levels above 60% (and the staples are not stainless steel) should there be a problem, and even then, I believe that the level of staining or deterioration caused by the staples would be minor compared to the destruction of information caused by the removal of the staples and disassembly of the composite.  It is always a judgment call, particularly since the exact amount of deterioration can not be predicted accurately.  Loss of relationship is permanent, while staining may disfigure, but will not necessarily destroy relationship.
 
Marc

American Conservation Consortium, Ltd.
     4 Rockville Road
     Broad Brook, CT 06016
     www.conservator.com
     860-386-6058
 
*Collections Preservation Consultation
*Conservation Assessments & Surveys
*Environmental Monitoring & Low-Tech Control
*Moisture Management Solutions
*Collections in Historic Structures
*Collections Care Grant Preparation
*Conservation Treatment of:
     Furniture
     Painted Wood
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     Architectural Interiors
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Marc A. Williams, President
     MS in Art Conservation, Winterthur Museum Program
     Former Chief Wooden Object Conservator, Smithsonian Institution
     Fellow, American Institute for Conservation (AIC)
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">Sylvia Bruner
To: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 3:47 PM
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] staples in documents

in the past at my museum our policy has been to remove metal staples from documents that have been accepted into our archives.  The main reasons are to prevent further staining of the paper by the metal rusting,to prevent the papers from being torn and to place acid free interleaving papers between each piece. 

Recently though, we acquired an original manuscript of a locally written book.  In the last section, there are multiple pages with small colored paper slips stapled on both sides to the letter-sized page.  A question of integrity arose at the collections meeting - if we remove all of those staples and separate all of the paper slips by interleaving them with acid free paper, are we disturbing the original intent of the author who put it together?   And, if they are fairly modern staples and therefore stainless steel and shouldn't rust, do we need to remove them in the first place?  Of course, this still leaves the multiple slips of paper touching the "backing" page - none of which would appear to be acid free.

Suggestions appreciated!

Sylvia

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