Saving Family Treasures

This section lists several websites with information on how to care for and store all sorts of heirlooms, media and personal objects. Many of the sites have printable documents that can be used by library staff for distribution to the public.

American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC)
Caring for Your Treasures
You can order printed brochures or print from the website leaflets on caring for books, furniture, metal objects, paintings, photographic materials, documents and works of art on paper (Spanish translation available), videotapes and special objects.

Canadian Conservation Institute
How to Care for…
This site has a lot of interesting and fun information including a 3D tour of a house with heirlooms and short documents on the storage and care of more than 30 different objects: books, paintings, watercolors, china, crystal, statues and sculptures, musical instruments, old tools and utensils, toys, baseball cards, family documents and photographs, records, tapes, cassettes and different kinds of fabrics, including wedding dresses.

Inland Empire Libraries Disaster Response Network
Hold on to the Memories
Three flyers, “Preserving Your Videos,” “Preserving Your Photographs" and "Preserving Your Scrapbooks," have been created by IELDRN. Links here are PDF documents. HTML versions can be found on the IELDRN web site.

Library Media & PR
A site for library professionals involved in public relations and marketing library services. Articles on a variety of issues, including preservation, along with ideas for fundraising, printable bookmarks, CD and DVD inserts, and links to more resources.

Library of Congress Preservation Directorate
Caring for Your Collections
Leaflets are available on the care, handling and storage of: books, Asian bindings, motion picture film, newspaper, photographic collections. Others discuss preserving manuscripts, drawings, prints, posters, maps and documents. There is also a document on preservation photocopying; one on matting and framing; and, one that discusses drying procedures for wet materials.

National Park Service
Conserve O Grams
The National Park Service has created more than 130 “Conserve O Grams” which are divided into 20 topics and are printable. Even though intended for the curator or archivist, most of the leaflets are easy to understand for the general public.

Northeast Document Conservation Center
NEDCC Offers Hints for Preserving Family Collections
A list of helpful hints for preserving family treasures including a section on archival quality enclosures.

Image Permanence Institute
While much of the information on this site can be highly technical, it has several sections which the public will find informative and entertaining. Check out the interactive web pages, “Stored Alive!;" the slide show, “Predicting the Future of Scrapbooks;" and the “Preservation Calculator.”

Society of California Archivists
Preserving Your History Brochure Series
A series of brochures with guidelines for preserving photographs and papers as well as information on historical research about individuals and communities. Titles are available in English, Spanish and Chinese as pdf.

University of California, San Diego
Preservation Education and Awareness for Library Users is a site devoted to assisting libraries in creating a preservation program to educate their users. Educational Web Pages links directly to a variety of preservation topics and the Index navigates around the site to the content in a user friendly manner.

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