"David Bilek" <dtbilek DeleteThis @comcast.net> wrote in message
news:p02dq05qrcc9oadnold470a53fj8lpnvh7@4ax.com...
> A quick question for more experienced collectors about the Brodart
> jacket covers: Are the only acid-neutral covers the "Just a Fold III"
> archival quality covers? Or are their other covers okay as long as
> you don't get the kind with the attached adhesive strips? I have
> about 50 Just a Fold IIs and I'm not sure whether to chuck 'em in the
> trash and get the IIIs instead. They are the kind without the
> self-adhesive strips, so I'm unsure whether they are acid neutral or
> not.
>
> Secondly, I assume you should not tape the covers to the paper
> backing, just leave it as a fold? Are dust covers so acid sensitive
> that a piece of tape will bleed through the Brodart paper backing and
> discolor a dust jacket? I assume that takes quite a while?
>
> -David
Most or all of your questions will probably have been answered in
the detailed post Paghat, one of the most knowledegable contributors
to this NewsGroup, made on this topic around two days ago.
There's a lot of more general stuff, which may or may not include these
specific topics on the NewsGroup faq - <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.rcbfaq.com/" target="_blank">http://www.rcbfaq.com/</a>
<quote>
"paghat" <paghatSPAM-ME-NOT DeleteThis @netscape.net>
wrote in message
news:paghatSPAM-ME-NOT-2411041300440001@soggy72.drizzle.com...
These jacket covers come with & without the self-stick strip. The tacky
adhesive is not acid-neutral which is why the covers are available without
it, to appease the long-term archivists. On long-covered books, I have
seen this inch & a half to two inch strip of of tacky substance discolor
the poaper backing & bleed through to the jacket itself, so whenever I was
stuck with milar covers that had this tacky strip, I cut a semi-circle to
remove it before covering a jacket.
On old jacket covers, the glue that held the acid-neutral paper to the
milar was itself NOT acid neutral & caused damage after a great while
along the top edge of the cover, although happily the glue used today is
acid-neutral. One old variety of jacket cover still sometimes encountered
on 1970s library discards actually used black tape along the top edge to
hold paper to milar, & that stuff was a permanently tacky tape that
eventually "bled out" onto the jackets & binding edge; for a while Avalon
hardbacks were sold with these tape-edge jacket covers on them, so the
first-state first-editions would have to include the publisher-provided
jacket protector -- except that the taped edges eventually deteriorated &
damaged the books & jackets quite badly if not removed or replaced.
Some people still mistrust the glue that holds the milar to the paper,
because long-term, acid-neutral paper slowly acidifies from environmental
contact with atmosphere & with the book binding. As paper acidifies over
time, it might interact unpredictably with the thin strip of glue. Milar
does not have the type of molecular exchange with an acidic environment
that paper & glue have. So some collectors prefer the paperless milar that
has to be folded under the jacket top & bottom, & has no paper backing at
all. I suspect this really is the best option, but I'm not personally
worried about the present dry-gums, & the paperbacked milar covers are
easier to use, so I use them.
Fully dry adhesives can be acid-neutral, but the permanently tacky strip
which is called "pressure gum" cannot be acid neutral. For this same
reason book plates should be moisten-&-stick, not peel-&-stick, to be safe
long-term for the endpaper.
The issue of milar covers trapping in moisture that damages the dustcover
is a red herring. The ends of the covers are never sealed tight, & the
paper backing is not sealed tight, so the jacket paper breathes adequately
& moisture does not accumulate under the protector (moisture does
sometimes accumulate between two pieces of milar touching one another if
books are pressed way too tightly into shelves; this can cause two milar
covers to adhere to one another momentarily so that protected books cannot
easily be taken down from the shelf without physically separating one book
from the books on either side. Moisture can also accumulate between a
milar jacket & the end of a painted bookshelf, so bookshelves should be
stained, not painted).
Postage stamp collectors discovered decades ago that if you use those
one-stamp milar envelopes to mount mint stamps in an album (a method of
avoiding marrying the gummed back of the stamps with a stamp hinge), and
if they folded the top insert-edge to the back of the milar envelop to
form an air-tight enclosure, moisture could get in but not out of the
milar stamp-holder & the gum eventually adhered to the paperbacking, so no
longer actually mint. This was completely mitigated by never folding the
thin top edge to the back, which not only meant moisture was never trapped
inside the tiny milar envelope, but it also permitted the stamp to be
removed & re-inserted at will for full inspection. Comic book collectors
also discovered to their horror that completely sealing the top of a milar
or polyethylene comicbook bag lets moisture in but not out, so the top
flap should never be taped closed.
-paghat the ratgirl
--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.paghat.com" target="_blank">http://www.paghat.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
>> Stay informed about: Brodart jacket covers 
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