[Note: This article is in the process of being revised and expanded so check back every now and then to see what's changed.]
This tutorial is intended to give the amateur preservationist (yes, that's you) a basic understanding of the principles of archive conservation so that you will be able to preserve your family heirlooms for future generations. However, since even the experts disagree on what constitutes safe and proper conservation technique, I strongly recommend that you also visit some of the excellent professional sites listed at the bottom of the page, and in Preservation Resources before starting your project. So, let's begin:
- Body oils can cause long term damage. Your hands transfer body oils and dirt to the archive during handling.You can reduce this by washing and thoroughly rinsing your hands and face before handling. Don't put on any moisturizers or makeup after washing. Touch the archives as little as possible while still giving them full support. Cotton photo gloves are the safest option but they are bulky and can make it difficult to work with the archives.
- Dirt can cause long term damage. Before storing, carefully remove loose dirt and dust with a dry lens cloth/tissue, or lens brush. Use a very light touch so you don't grind dirt particles into the item as you clean. If you are tempted to do any cleaning more substantial than this, read on.
- CLEANING AND CONSERVATION PROCESSES CAN DAMAGE OR DESTROY YOUR ARCHIVE!.
I can't emphasize this enough. NEVER attempt any serious cleaning or restoration without consulting a conservation professional. That includes applying cleaning solvents of any kind. If you can't consult someone, settle for arresting further decay with a quality storage environment. NEVER TAKE THE SALESPERSON"S WORD that a certain "archival" cleaning product is safe to use! There are many good products out there but they must be carefully matched to the chemical composition of your archive to be safe.
- Folds weaken archives. Whenever possible, store them unfolded. Be careful though, and consider the condition before unfolding. Old paper is usually brittle and tears more easily at the fold. Some archives are so decayed that they literally fall apart in your hands. Lay paper archives on a sheet of acid free paper, fully supported, to unfold.
- Do not flatten severely curled photographs. Photos can curl if stored loosely and uncurling them dry can cause the image, and sometimes the paper itself, to crack. There are ways around this but you should consult an expert before attempting them.
- Acid and lignin (wood pulp impurities), found in most paper products, are generally harmful. Be sure that anything in intimate contact with your archive is acid/lignin free. Acid can be reduced from an archive by placing a thick sheet of PAT certified (see explanation below) acid free/lignin free paper behind, behind and in front of, or between each archive. Acid leaches from most acidic to least acidic (this is what causes the brown stains you sometimes find on old paper items) so the acid free page will safely absorb harmful acid from the archive. Change sheets every few years until they no longer stain. Depending on the chemical content of your archive, acid neutralizing sprays can actually damage your archive so it's safest not to use them.
- Heat humidity, and light are bad for archives. ANSI recommends storing at 68 F and 30-40% humidity as a baseline but since only museums can afford dedicated, temperature controlled storage rooms you'll likely be compromising here. The point is, keep the optimum in mind when picking "your place." A closet in the house, for example, will have some temperature control and is a better choice than a steamy attic or damp basement.
- Air pollutants harm archives. Store archives in enclosures and away from furnace rooms, open windows etc. Good archival storage boxes will often be buffered with calcium carbonate to neutralize pollutants. Be careful though, direct contact with buffering harms certain archives (i.e..some textiles).
- Friction causes damage. Overlapping archives, tight journal pages, thick archives stored in the same sleeve as thin archives or in too tight a sleeve, etc. can all erode the archive. PAT standard plastic sleeves or acid free negative wrappers can reduce friction.
- Pressure is harmful to stored archives.
- Don't overstuff your binders or boxes, or lay heavier items on top of fragile ones.
- Store binders on their sides unless they have a very rigid spine and cover, and are sized larger than the pages within.
- Don't stack storage boxes or binders unless they are designed not to collapse, and even then, not too high. If stacking, put the heaviest boxes on the bottom, lightest on top.
- Loosen scrapbook and photo album bindings if possible. If you can't loosen the bindings, and there is already serious friction deterioration to the contents - enough that you are in danger of losing the archives within, consider cutting out the pages and storing them loose in a box. The cover can be archived separately if you want. To remove pages from a journal, use a razor or Exacto knife and cut as close to the binding as you can. I don't need to tell you to be careful if you do this, you can easily slice an underlying archive by mistake.
- Most plastics are extremely harmful to archives. They trap humidity, can stick to or lift print from paper, and cause "burn" to fabric. Use only PAT certified plastic sleeves for storage. Textiles should be wrapped in acid free tissue and stored in an archive safe box. You can also wrap the item in clean, white, 100% cotton fabric to store. An old cotton sheet works great for this.
- Do not use glue or tape to fix archives in place. Any glues or tapes, even the "archive safe" ones are stressful or downright harmful to old paper over time. It is best to store them loosely, in a properly sized sleeve or box. If you must fix your archive, use photograph corners, small triangles that glue to the background paper and hold the corners of the photo in place. They are fairly safe but are a source of friction (see above).
- Keep the archive intact if at all possible - cutting pages from a diary, or slicing up newspaper articles so they will fit on the page should only be done only if absolutely necessary. Cuts cannot be undone.
- Don't throw anything away! - well that's the way I do it anyway, but then I do have a houseful of archives. What I'm saying here is that every part of the archive is part of it's provenance. That raggedy envelope that Great Aunt Maybelle kept her obituary collection in tells something about the archive's life, and even something about Maybelle. Keep it with the archives if you can.
PAT certification / ANSI Standard
Unfortunately there is no standard definition for the terms "archival", "archive or photo-safe" and "museum quality" which means that anyone can use these words to describe their product. Additionally, even seemingly safe products like acid free or lignin free interact differently depending on their quality. The Image Performance Institute developed a test called the Photographic Activity Test, or PAT for short, which predicts possible interactions between photographic images and the enclosures in which they are stored. Special detector strips are placed in contact with samples of storage materials which are then artificially aged using temperature and humidity. Materials which causes substantial fading or staining on the detectors can be singled out as harmful to photographs. The PAT is also used to test the components of enclosures, such as adhesives, inks, paints, labels, and tapes. This test, now the ANSI standard, is currently the only standard available for determining how a particular storage material (plastic sleeve, box etc.) is going to interact with your photograph. PAT certification does NOT guarantee that the product it certifies will preserve your archive forever, or even for a known period of time. It does, however, give the humble archiver a sound place from which to start making his or her long term storage choices.
(source: IPI web site; also: Burge, Daniel M. "Just What is the Photographic Activity Test?" Picture Framing Magazine, Feb.1996)
Safe Storage Options ( PAT certified of course!)
The article Long Term Storage: Archival Storage Supplies has excellent recomendations for storage options. Additionally, Archival Suppliers (in Preservation > Resources) lists a number of trusted sources for archival supplies.
References and Resources
PAT Standard
Preservation
Archival Products
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Preservation 
