Hi Will

About 10 years ago I conducted a study here to determine the extent of
our collection that displayed SSS. The result of this, even though not
terribly scientific, showed me that approximately 15 - 18% of our
analogue tapes had SSS. At the time this was mainly confined to 7 inch
reels and I saw fewer problems with the 10.5 inch tape stock. This is
now changing especially now that we are getting more accessions.

It is with the accessions that I see the most tapes with mould. All I
can put this down to is the lack of constant and proper storage
conditions from where they have been previously stored. Our accessions
come from a variety of radio stations, ex-broadcasters and the general
public.

We are currently addressing this problem and are building a purpose
built area for accessions and a 'contamination' room. This room with be
strictly for dealing with mouldy tape. It will have at least one
dedicated machine, probably an Otari MX50-50 (with a backup machine)
that will only have mouldly tape put on it. They will be cleaning
machines only and modified for this purpose.This will be covered by a
fume hood.
 
Also, an oven will be installed and, like Richard, we will need to look
at a second dedicated oven. Also, we will be setting up a cold playing
machine and fridge using Richard Hess's technique, which may be in this
area. It could also contain my isopropyl drip machine.

As we are in the early stages of this I need some expert advice from
some of our colleagues here, such as SpecBros, Richard (who has been
extremely helpful already), etc. Any relevant and helpful suggestions
gratefully accepted!

I will keep you posted about our progress!

Cheers
Marie





Marie O'Connell
Analogue Tape Preservation Archivist
Sound Archives/Nga Taonga Korero
PO Box 1531
Radio New Zealand House
Level 1, 51 Chester Street West
Christchurch
Phone +64 3 374 8443
Fax + 64 3 374 8448
www.soundarchives.co.nz
--- My opinions do not necessarily represent those of my institutions
---

>>> [log in to unmask] 22/07/2008 1:31 a.m. >>>
The following quote is taken from the website of an audio transfer
business in the southwest of Scotland
(http://www.preciousvoices.co.uk/)


"[Mould on tapes is] caused by storing tapes in damp or humid places
during warm moist Summers and its destroying tapes as never before.
Its
as infectious to other tapes as measles is to children and if it gets
onto the recording heads of tape players it destroys them too, as well
as infecting every other tape played on that machine. So its not
surprising that there isn't a professional audio restorer in the World
that will handle mouldy tapes. From a rare phenomena seven years ago
its
now affecting almost ten per cent of all the old audio and video tapes
seen by specialist audio restorers."

Does this reflect anyone else's experience?

Will

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