Types of collection and their physical features
Most of the collections held by Manuscripts and Special Collections at The University of Nottingham contain items made out of paper or parchment. Paper and parchment are made of organic materials. These materials were once living, and include animal skins, textiles, and increasingly wood pulp after around 1850. They continue to react to heat, cold, light and humidity.
Items made from paper or parchment can be found in a number of different formats:
Single documents made from paper and parchment
These items can be the easiest to store, as they can be kept flat. However, seals attached to documents need careful handling so as not to be damaged.
Loose flat items
Bundles or files of papers
Related papers, stored together, may be found within an original wrapper, or attached together by sewing or pinning. Modern papers or files can contain a wide variety of documents of all shapes and sizes. The fact that modern papers are not uniform in their format means that they can be difficult to store and handle
A bundle of papers attached at the top
Maps and plans
Some maps and plans can be very large, and are kept rolled. Others may be folded
Unrolling a large rolled map
Books (bound structures)
The pages of books can be made of parchment or paper. The binding of a book protects the pages from damage and keeps them in the right order, but if the binding is damaged, the inside parts of the book also become vulnerable. Some books are very tightly bound, especially when they have been re-bound. This makes it hard to see the whole page properly, and readers are tempted to force the book open too wide, damaging the spine.
Unbound medieval volume which has suffered damage to its spine and outside pages (WLC/LM/3); and bound medieval volume in good condition (WLC/LM/8)
Modern tightly-bound paperback volume
The collections may also contain other, more specialised, types of material:
Photographs and films
Photographs can be found in many different formats, such as daguerreotypes, prints on paper, negatives, and slides. Many older moving image films are on reels, but in the late 20th century various types of video formats were popular. Each format has slightly different storage requirements. It can sometimes require expertise to identify exactly what type of photograph or film it is, and what chemical processes were involved in creating it.
Engravings
Prints and illustrations may be found on their own, or bound into books. They are often mounted onto or bound next to a different quality paper or card, and the varying acidity levels between the engraving and the neighbouring material can leave both vulnerable to staining caused by chemical run.
(right) Engraving of Lincoln Cathedral, from A Selection of Views in the County of Lincoln (London, 1805), East Midlands Special Collection Oversize Lin1.D28 HOW, showing signs of foxing. (left) reverse side showing bleed-through of ink from the engraving
Audio formats and ‘Born-digital’ items
Audio materials vary in format, from vinyl records, to reel-to-reel tapes, and cassette tapes. ‘Born-digital’ items are not digital copies of other originals (e.g. scans), but items that were created to be read on a computer or other electronic device. Examples include digital photographs, digital audio or video files, word-processed documents, spreadsheets and emails.
A selection of audio materials and electronic media including reel-to-reel and cassette tapes, CD, and floppy disks
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