Vinegar Syndrome Part 3: What Next?

This is the third installment of a multiple part series about Vinegar Syndrome at Minnesota State University, Mankato.  For more information about Vinegar Syndrome, see our first and second installments.

Oh boy, we DO have Vinegar Syndrome!  What now?  Can we salvage these important negatives without putting the other 14,000+ negatives at risk for decay?  Is it even possible?

Our Archives Area discussed possible options for this threat, such as re-sleeving and re-boxing, freezing and prioritizing the negatives for digitization in-house or the possibility of out-sourcing the digitization of the negatives.  It was determined that we would make a final decision after re-sleeving and re-boxing was complete.

So how do you quickly re-house 14,000+ negatives? AND review each of them for possible Vinegar Syndrome? AND isolate those negatives that somebody decides MAY have the beginnings of Vinegar Syndrome?

Here's what we did:

Supplies Needed: 

24 Card File boxes

7 packs of Index Cards

150 packs of Negative Sleeves

Our Workspace:

Library Group Study Room
with Student Workers

 

Re-Sleeving Instructions &
Vinegar Syndrome Symptoms

Over the semester winter break, December 2015 to January 2016, we managed to re-sleeve, re-box and review 14,000+ 4"x 5" negatives.  The negatives that were deemed as possible Vinegar Syndrome victims were isolated and slated for high priority digitization.  

 The aptly named Negative Room, contained supplies and instructions to complete this labor-intensive project.  Student workers worked in shifts to keep the Negative Room in action 8 hours a day, Monday-Friday.  Staff often joined the Negative Crew and was always available for training and questions.  Over the course of this project students took ownership and pride in helping to rescue these negatives!

Learn more about our experiences with Vinegar Syndrome in our next installment, Vinegar Syndrome, Part 4:  Let's Do This! Digitization as Rescue and Preservation.

Anne Stenzel is an Archives Technician specializing in digitization at Minnesota State University, Mankato.