These guidelines establish criteria for the Conservation Unit's production or use of protective enclosures as a preservation treatment. Specifically, they address when protective enclosure is appropriate and outline criteria for selection of the treatment. Generally, materials will be recommended for treatment upon receipt or through the brittle books review process or any of the various preservation reviews.
Protective enclosures are defined as: envelopes, phase boxes, rare book boxes, encapsulations, portfolios, and other structures designed to enclose archival and library materials.
Only items meeting one or more of the following criteria may be considered for protective enclosure:
1. Dysfunctional structures (e.g., broken binding, detached covers);
2. Fragile material (e.g., maps, loose leaves, magnetic media, slides, vellum bindings, etc.);
3. Brittle paper (i.e., double fold test measure less than six); or,
4. Issues, parts, etc. of a volume which can not be bound.
Protective enclosures are used with rare and archival materials and designated "special collections" -- holdings on-line must indicate: "ARCV"; "BLDN"; "LTDC"; "RARE"; or "SPEC" -- to protect deteriorating or fragile structures from further deterioration or adverse storage or climate conditions. If the item meets one of the checklisted criteria (cf, above), it may be enclosed. Choice of enclosure type is at the discretion and policies of the Conservation Unit. (Note: If the item has brittle paper, notification is also sent to the Brittle Books Program.)
Protective enclosures are used with circulating, reference and reserve materials to extend the useful life of TITLES unique to the University of Florida Smathers Libraries' research collections, to mitigate adverse storage conditions, or to gather materials which cannot be bound. (Cf, Binding Manual. Leaf Attachment Decision Tree.)
Items selected for enclosure must meet one of the checklisted criteria (cf, above). If the item has brittle paper, it must be routed to the Brittle Books Program for review prior to making enclosure decisions.
If the item has been reviewed, replaced or reformatted by a collection manager, it may not be enclosed. The item will be returned to the stacks for continued use and will be re-evaluated every time it passes through circulation. This concept is known as "planned deterioration". (Note: collection managers' decisions are stamped inside the back cover of volume and stamps indicate that the item has been reviewed or microfilmed.) It will be withdrawn IF: (a) it has split into TWO or more pieces and cannot be repaired; or (b) it has a double fold test measure less than one (i.e., all items with a zero (0) DFT measure).
If the item has not been reviewed by a collection manager (i.e., the item is not stamped to indicate that it has been reviewed or microfilmed), and its paper is not brittle enough to pass through brittle book review (i.e., the paper does not break after five double folds), Conservation Unit staff will consider the existence and condition of other copies held by the Smathers Libraries. Unique copies of research value may be enclosed. If a more sound copy or microform exist, the item may not be enclosed. The item will be returned to the stacks for continued use and will be re-evaluated every time it passes through circulation. An item should be routed to the Brittle Books Program for collection manager review if it has split into TWO or more pieces and cannot be repaired.