I agree - especially with the tissue buffer - you should be OK in less
than a year.  If you are concerned about the books pressing (from their
weight) on the bottom of the box thus making acid migration more likely,
you could leave a layer of acid free paper (or extra tissue) on the
bottom for additional protection.  An additional consideration here is
that you are going to have many boxes regardless of what kind you use -
you may want to spring for some cheap standard size box (banker's box)
with handles that will provide safer handling for staff, and thus better
safety for the books.  We try to use our $1.75 bankers boxes for all
transporting - as when picking up books and papers from donors when we
do the packing - and for temporary storage, rather than our much more
expensive archival boxes, which come into use in the final stages of
conservation.  It saves on the budget, and we re-use the bankers boxes
until there isn't anything left.

Also, and on a less cheerful note, it might not be as brief a period as
you are hoping.  We've established a 33% rule here - if a donor says
they have about 6 boxes of things to pick up, we try to remember to
bring 8 or nine empties. If we are told a remodeling project will take 2
or 3 months, we try to plan for 4.  So many things can happen that are
beyond anyone's control.

Good luck!

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of American Conservation Consortium, Ltd.
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 2:12 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Packing question

The Q and D answer is that, for a period of less than a year, you don't
need acid-free boxes.  In the ideal world, you may hear differently, of
course, but in the real world of historic houses, you will be fine.

Marc

---- Lenora Henson <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
> We are getting ready for a large construction/renovation project
during
> which, among other things, we plan to remove about 2000 books from the
> shelves in our house museum's period library and store them for 8-10
> months.  The books are collection items and most of them are from the
19th
> century (or earlier).  Since we don't know at this point where the
books
> are going to be stored, we plan to wrap each book with acid-free
tissue
> before boxing it (the theory being that, if the boxes of books wind up
> staying in the house during construction, wrapping them will provide
an
> additional barrier against the inevitable dust).  My question is this
. . .
> if the books are wrapped in acid-free tissue, would it be okay to then
> store them in non-archival boxes?  (Yes, there is, of course, a cost
factor
> here--buying archival boxes for all of these books will completely
wipe out
> my budget!!)
> 
> Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Lenora Henson
> Curator, Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site
> 
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