Preservation

PRESERconVersATION

Sticky Tape ... arrggghh!!

Adhesive tapes, or sticky tapes as they are so fondly known, have been in use as a quick and convenient repair strip since the 1920's. The world fell in love with them. Repairing torn papers was never so easy. They are now seen as one of the major sources of unsightly damage to important documents and require specialised conservation treatment to remove.

Adhesive tapes are made up of two components: a carrier which is usually paper, plastic, cloth or rubber and an adhesive which is either water or solvent based. Many modern adhesive tapes use pressure sensitive adhesives. When you apply pressure to the tape with your finger, a strong adhesive bond is formed.

Most tapes are made of poor quality materials which will deteriorate quickly. Paper carriers may become yellow and brittle causing the repair to break open again. Plastic carriers may shrink, yellow and become brittle. Rubber based carriers will oxidise, harden, crack and shrink.

Adhesives may yellow and stain documents. Pressure sensitive adhesives may lose their fluidity, harden and lose adhesion. Adhesives may also become more fluid at higher temperatures and leach into the paper surface causing that familiar translucence.

The first cellophane plastic tapes were produced in the 1920's and had a rubber cement based adhesive. Cellophane/rubber cement adhesive tapes are still available on the market today and should be avoided as a repair strip because of its poor ageing properties. If you have an old sticky taped document where the repairs have gone very brown and translucent, the adhesive has transferred into the paper and the carrier has fallen off or become very tacky you probably have a good example of what happens when this type of tape is used.

In the last 30 years acrylic 'magic' tapes have been available and marketed as a non-yellowing tape with good ageing properties suitable for long term repair of documents. The main problems with acrylic tapes are their unsightliness on important documents, and the non-reversibility of the acrylic adhesive. In other words they can't be easily removed, so once they're on that's it. If some of your important documents have a grey/white opaque tape holding them together you probably have acrylic tape.

Over the last five years more "document friendly" acrylic magic tapes have come onto the market. They appear to have less adhesiveness and can be more easily removed. However, the preservation jury is still out on whether these tapes will remain easily removable as they age.

There are some 'archival' quality adhesive tapes on the market today. While these reputably have excellent ageing qualities and can be removed reasonably easily they

still have some major disadvantages.....they are unsightly and can cover up important information.

So how can we avoid the temptation of using poor quality adhesive tapes on our important papers. Adhesive tapes are OK if they are used on something we wish to keep for only a few months, sticking a note on the milk bottles or wrapping a gift but as a rule, avoid using tape on anything you want to retain long term. The main thing to remember is not to use adhesive tapes to repair any paper item that you wish to keep permanently.

If you must use adhesive tapes on any paper item, try to place them in a position where they are not covering information. If a document has information on one side, tape the non-information side. Never use old yellowing tacky adhesive tapes. Discard them and use modern tapes with better ageing properties.

Good storage options such as pocketing documents in inert plastic sleeves and pockets with archival quality support boards. Use polyethylene plastics only. Never use polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics for storage of paper based materials. They have poor ageing properties and can damage paper and ink media over time. Where documents are damaged they may need to be supported with a good quality card. Always use non-acidic (archival quality) card. Most good stationery suppliers sell these materials.

If you use your important documents a lot you should copy them and use the copies instead of the originals, keeping the originals in good quality storage. The less you handle the originals ,the longer they will survive.

There is no easy way to remove many adhesive tapes from paper documents so don't try. If you have an important item that needs adhesive tape removed, consult a conservator and see why they go AAAARRRGGGHHH!!.

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