Hi Julie, This is from the LOC website: http://www.loc.gov/preserv/care/record.html Cheers! Corey Corey Bailey Audio Engineering At 09:25 AM 12/6/2010, you wrote: >Thanks, Tom! I really appreciate your suggestions. This is an >archival collection, so like most archival collections, it would not >circulate beyond our reading room. > >I would really love to get some input from archivists on the list, too. > >Julie > >________________________________________ >From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List >[[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tom Fine [[log in to unmask]] >Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 5:48 AM >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Cleaning Vinyl Records > >Hi Julie: > >One man's opinions here, but a man with a lot of records ... > >1. As for cleaning, YES, do so, before playing any of them, and do >not circulate them (ie let >"common folks" play them). Spring for CD versions of the material, >if it's in print, to circulate. >Figure out some way to make the rest of it available in-house only. >So, for a cleaning system for a >small collection, I really like the SpinClean: >http://tinyurl.com/24yvewn > >Why? Because it's easy to use and doesn't cost a fortune. Perfect >for a small collection and nothing >exotic, strange or sophisticated to learn. > >2. As for the sleeves, just wipe them off with a clean cloth. If >there's mold, there's not much you >can do about it except keep them dry and keep the moldy ones >isolated from the rest by keeping all >of them in plastic jacket-cover sleeves. > >3. After cleaning the records, I recommend you replace the inner >sleeves. I like Sleeve City because >it tends to be a little less costly: >http://sleevetown.com/ >but Bags Unlimited makes fine products too: >http://www.bagsunlimited.com >I like the "rice paper" plastic kind. The cheapo paper ones I don't >recommend. The heavy paper ones >I really don't recommend for LPs as it's very easy to do some >serious scratching just putting the LP >into the sleeves. > >4. From either of those sources, also get plastic jacket covers. >That isolates whatever is going on >with one jacket from the surrounding jackets (besides mold, some >jackets are made of more or less >acidic cardboard than others, so some brown out over time while >others don't). Some on this list >will say, store the inner sleeved record outside the jacket within >the plastic sleeve (so as not to >put any warping edge-stress on the record). That's good advice, >although my experience is that most >records fit in most jackets with room to spare if you take the time >to slide the inner sleeves in >carefully. > >5. For storing the records, both Sleeve City and Bags Unlimited sell >archival LP storage boxes. I've >had good luck with Bags' plastic-ized corrogated boxes, but beware >SHARP edges! > >Records are really neat artifacts, but they fall right apart if >handled by unskilled hands. Public >use is a non-starter since probably everything you got is out of >print and there's some degree of >cost and effort to replacing it. There was a whole business model >back in the day built around the >fact that people wore out records, from both rough handling and >junky playback equipment. One >argument made for the higher cost of CD's was that they wouldn't >wear out, which of course is not >true since they can get scratched or finger-printed to the point of >non-playability. I advise >archive clients not to circulate any out of print CDs, rather use >CDR copies for in-house-only >listening. This would be much less of an issue if the commercial >music business were healthy and >most CD titles were readily available and in-print, but that's not >the case anymore. > >-- Tom Fine > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Grob, Julie" <[log in to unmask]> >To: <[log in to unmask]> >Sent: Saturday, December 04, 2010 6:22 PM >Subject: [ARSCLIST] Cleaning Vinyl Records > > >Hi audio experts, > >I have acquired a small collection of vinyl records from the 1980s >and 1990s for our archive. What >is the best low-tech way to clean the covers and the records >themselves? They are quite dusty... >stored in a garage. > >Sincerely, >Julie Grob > >Julie Grob >Digital Projects & Instruction Librarian >Special Collections >114 University Libraries >Houston, TX 77204-2000 >Ph: 713-743-9744 >Fax: 713-743-9893