Beyond Paper: In or Out?: Outsourcing Versus In-House Considerations for Preservation and Digitization Work

Sata Prescott, Northern Illinois University

Materials care and preservation can be tricky, and your institution might not be equipped to handle every possible need for every conceivable situation. Perhaps you are well-equipped to handle vinegar syndrome and mold but have trouble with reformatting audio-visual materials. Perhaps you have an excellent setup for two-dimensional digitization for reflective material, but don’t have much expertise on how to handle transparent items like film negatives. This article offers some of the major issues to consider when approaching whether to attempt care in your own institution or seek outside assistance.

What can In-House Do?

When you perform your preservation tasks in-house, you have ultimate control over the results (for good or ill). When you work in-house, you don’t have to worry that priceless historical materials will be lost or damaged in shipping. You can directly supervise the work. Perhaps you have specific workflows that can be harmoniously performed together, like documenting notes for cataloging while performing stable storage processing. In-house work can tend to be less expensive, especially at smaller scales. Even large scale work will be less expensive so long as you have the workflow, equipped space, and staff knowledge to accomplish scaled work.

What Can Outsourcing Do?

The benefits of sending materials out of house are principally about reclaiming your departmental time. Outsourcing is great for large scale materials that are similar in treatment and scope, especially if you do not already have the equipment or knowledge base to handle the specific treatment needs. Deacidification, digitization, audio-visual reformatting, and simple repairs of larger collections can be good candidates for sending to outsource service providers. 

Outsourcing can also do different levels of work. Sometimes you can send out rolls of microfilm and receive TIF-format digital images, but you may also be able to acquire from the same service provider a certain amount of metadata. You’ll need to ensure that any outsourced service provider can meet your required standards. For instance, it can be easy to find a shop that will “digitize a VHS” for a very modest fee. However, if the audio-visual standards of the collection require that you attempt certain bitrate standards or non-proprietary formats, these businesses may not be an option for you.

Inevitably, outsourcing means giving up a certain amount of control. This needs to be weighed against budgetary limits, and the actual usage needs of your materials. Sometimes outsourcing is a good way to clear an obstinate backlog for a fraction of your staff’s price.

And lastly, sometimes we just don’t have the institutional capability of handling the materials in need. Specialty conservation firms are well-equipped to handle your more unusual situations with more competence that your space and skills might be adaptable to.

Categorizing Care

Materials care falls broadly into four categories:

• Stable storage
• Preservation
• Conservation
• Reformatting

Identifying the care needed for your preservation work is the first part of identifying whether this should be done in-house or with external assistance.

Stable storage

Stable storage refers to housing, enclosing, or otherwise finding ways to hold the item without further major deterioration. Most of the time, “stability” refers to mechanical stability. Will the paper break off or crumble? Will the case fall apart if sitting upright on the shelf? Will the weight of the sculpture break it at a weak point? Stable storage means designing your storage such that the item has the least risk of damage while in simple storage with low access.

Preservation

Preservation refers to taking specific steps to attempt to halt common deterioration due to mechanical, chemical, or other sources. Preservation might include storage, but typically also includes processes like cleaning, enclosing, gentle mending, and more to prevent any further damage. Some preservation is specifically to aid in handling during tasks like digitization or research. Importantly, preservation does not necessarily seek to restore the item to a pre-damage state and frequently uses modern or non-conservation-grade materials.

Conservation

Conservation attempts to restore the item to its best or most accurate to original state through many diverse processes. Conservation needs to be accomplished by a trained professional using researched and appropriate tools and techniques. Conservation can typically be a time and cost intensive process and is usually limited to materials with specific financial sponsors or items of extraordinary historical, cultural, or other determined value. While there are conservation practices that are efficient or achievable, this category contains an implication of more “effort.”

Reformatting

Reformatting refers to any process that converts the content of the material into another format. Digitization is a very common form of reformatting. This can also be duplication of the material on the same format, as in copying a VHS tape to a new VHS tape. Reformatting as a preservation technique has two big advantages: it provides an alternative to handling the original for many researchers, and it can retain information that will degrade over time in its original format.

What Does In-House Work Require?

Your specific institution will have different assets available to you. Each location will have different capabilities, expertise, staff, and financial needs. Typically, being able to perform the preservation task in-house will often be more efficient and more inexpensive than sending materials out to a third party for the work. However, the number one question to consider is at what scale the work must be completed. If you have one item and have the tools, staff, and expertise to accomplish the work in-house, then in-house is very likely your best option. If you have the ability with some effort, but you have a thousand items on which to accomplish work, then a third party might be competitive in cost. Furthermore, your department or institutional capacity has to be considered: any project taken on is time that cannot be contributed to other needs.

Stable storage

Most institutions manage stable storage in house. This typically refers to creating or using appropriate housing for materials and is often done as part of processing. To manage in-house stable storage, it’s best to have an extra area for storage construction in addition to an area for standard mending, preservation, or processing work. Stable storage should be designed to be as easy to incorporate as possible while processing a large number of items without having to sort them for a secondary workflow.

Case study: Large number of two-dimensional pamphlets.

There are in a collection approximately 1200 pamphlet stories, stapled or sewn, dating from the 1860s-1910s. About half of the collection is in stable condition and could be placed in standard archival boxes, but about half have some degree of brittle paper, folded or dog-eared pages, or other abnormalities that might lead to loss. There is no evidence of mold, pests, or harmful paints, chemicals, etc. The chosen stable storage is archival, acid-free envelopes for all items in the collection, even for materials that are otherwise in “good” condition. This ensures that any staff can process the collection without having to evaluate the status of each item, and all items in danger will have all lossy pieces kept with the item.

• What would make this need to be handled by a third-party vendor?
  • If there is a single staff member responsible for this without any ability to do large-scale processing
  • If the materials involve handling dangerous materials like toxic paints
  • If the location for processing is unsuitable due to environmental concerns
  • If the institution has more money than it has time to accomplish the task

Case study: Medium number of single sheets from university archives.

There is a collection of archival documents in mixed formats from a university employee. There are approximately 600 objects, mostly structured as folders with loose sheets of various paper types. Many of these are onion skin (reprographic paper for machine-typed materials) or copy paper. Onion skin has a tendency to tear, fold, or crumple. Blue carbon copy paper is vulnerable to pressures and putting new marks on contiguous sheets. The chosen stable storage was interleaving archival leaves between individual pages considered “at-risk.” This work had to be done by a more skilled worker but could still be done as part of regular processing.

• What would make this need to be handled by a third-party vendor?
  • If the materials are so damaged that they need more preservation than stable handling and the institution has no ability to provide that care
  • If the environment is unsuitable for processing
  • If the institution has more money than time available

Case study: Small number of very fragile incunabula.

This is a collection of newly purchased incunabula that need to be unboxed but will not be cataloging or otherwise processed at this time. There are only twelve items. Each item is very fragile, and several are missing key components like boards, whole quires, or spinebacks. However, none of the items appear to be crumbling or otherwise likely to lose small pieces. The chosen stable storage is individual four-fold phase boxes using archival folding boards. This work can be done by a technician without much guidance and can process all twelve items with some safety.

• What would make this need to be handled by a third-party vendor?
  • For such a small number of materials, there is almost no situation in which a third-party vendor would be needed, especially if only stable storage is being pursued

Preservation

In-house preservation will depend very much on what materials, staff, and abilities are present. If your institution has a dedicated preservation or mending department, some in-house preservation tactics might be very easy to fulfill and some might seem insurmountable. Even with preservation staff, space, and supplies, an institution might want to have some preservation tasks outsourced, especially in cases of limited timeframes and financially supported materials.

Case study: Hundreds of fragile newspapers to be digitized.

This collection of newspapers is brittle, missing several pages in each volume, and very hard to handle. These issues are going to be digitized as part of a large grant project, but the digitization is being handled by workers without any preservation knowledge. Therefore, the papers need to undergo some form of preservation in order to be handled by these workers safely. The institution has a small mending department equipped for handling primarily circulating materials. The preservation decision is to have a technician specifically trained to mend tears and rips common to these materials using purchased archival grade hanging tape. A single technician receives specific training in the process of mending the types of tears and rips common in these materials. The work is completed in tandem with the digitization process, so that digitization technicians work on safer-to-handle materials while the repair worker completes stabilization mending on more damaged materials. In this case, the priority goal is to preserve the newspapers enough for their reformatting rather than preserving the physical paper.

• What would make this need to be handled by a third-party vendor?
  • If the institution has no skilled staff that can train others on preservation techniques
  • If the institution refuses to support, financially or via staff allocation, a workflow that includes non-circulating materials like newspapers
  • If the damaged materials do not need to be included in the project, or those issues could be digitized by a different institution. (Not a third-party option, but a choice to not do the work.)

Case study: Large number of audio magnetic tape materials are showing signs of “sticky-shed syndrome.”

This collection of audio magnetic tape reels are on stock that is vulnerable to “sticky-shed syndrome.” The environment has gone through a period of undesirable humidity changes due to unusual weather. The institution has an obligation to keep the materials in some format; however, the institution cannot repurchase these materials. The preservation decision is to “bake” the tape following correct standards for the process. This will stabilize the audio magnetic tape for approximately a month to allow for reformatting to take place, or for a curator to create a priority list for which materials will be reformatted first.

• What would make this need to be handled by a third-party vendor?
  • If the institution does not have any staff in-house with the appropriate expertise
  • If the institution does not have an appropriate method (lab-grade over) to “bake” the tapes
  • If the institution cannot correct the environmental concern
  • If there cannot be a plan for reformatting due to some other factor

Case study: Small number of very fragile incunabula. (Again, but this time with preservation!)

This is a collection of newly purchased incunabula that need to be unboxed and are to be displayed in the near future. There are only twelve items. Each item is very fragile, and several are missing key components like boards, whole quires, or spinebacks. However, none of the items appear to be crumbling or otherwise likely to lose small pieces. Because the items need to look “their best” for display, special collection staff decide that these twelve items will undergo a minimum of preservation for their temporary display. The preservation needs of each item vary but typically fall into mechanical preservation needs: that is, stabilization of hinges, sewn thread, and re-folding of leaves to be flat. No chemical risks appear to be present. Trained preservation staff must accomplish this work.

• What would make this need to be handled by a third-party vendor?
  • If there are no available trained preservation staff or dedicated preservation workflows
  • If the turn-around time necessary is much too soon for limited staff, but a third-party vendor could commit enough staff to accomplish the work in time
  • If there are other projects deemed more critical for in-house staff to complete before the appropriate timeline
  • If there is financial support for these special materials that could be incorporated into their accessioning

Conservation

Conservation refers to the process of attempting to repair or correct flaws in an item that could bring it back-to or close-to some “original” status. Light conservation might include cleaning and mending tears with period-appropriate materials. More complete conservation might include chemical processes and very fine, highly-skilled labor. As a rule, conservation work tends to be much more specialized and time-intensive and require a more well-equipped conservation department. Overall, as few institutions have full conservation labs, many use third-party vendors based on the specialties involved. Even when institutions have such labs, they might be specific to larger in-house collections. An art museum might have a well-equipped painting restoration lab but might not be able to handle large metal sculptures. A library might have a great setup for paper deacidification but might not be able to handle textiles.

Case study: A 16th century manuscript has sustained water damage.

This item is a prize of the collection in a mid-size library’s special collections. Over a break, this item’s location was affected by a water event. There are toxic pigments in this item, and the materials are difficult to work with successfully. The conservation work involves medieval paper recovery, leather and wood recovery on the boards, and some light pigment work. The institution does have an in-house conservator who is able to work on the paper (parchment) and the ink and pigment areas. However, since the in-house conservator cannot successfully repair the boards, they have decided to separate the text block from the case to prevent continuing damage to the text block. Both items are then placed in enclosures. Perhaps later, another conservation effort can be made for the case, including boards, leather, and cords.

• What would make this need to be handled by a third-party vendor?
  • If there is no in-house conservation staff that knows how to work with these materials
  • If there is financial support, perhaps through crowd-funding, for conservation of this item
  • If there is a good partnership in place with an off-site conservator skilled in these materials that might include “bulk rates” or something akin to “10 books a year” or similar
  • If the available space cannot provide adequate safe handling of materials determined to be toxic
  • If many items have been damaged, and in-house resources are dedicated to different objects (perhaps those that are simpler to conserve)

Case study: A series of large World War II-era posters from the region need repair before display.

Approximately ten large scale WWII-era posters are slated for display in a main hall of the institution. The smallest of these is 30”x40” and the largest is 40”x60”. The conservator determine that while the posters are in relatively good shape (none have large missing pieces, all are whole sheets, and the images are generally in good shape), they have been stored rolled and are a bit brittle. In order to be displayed flat, they need to be rehydrated and treated. One or two need to be backed with more stable papers. As part of the display, the conservation staff also document the conservation process as a video that plays near the exhibit.

• What would make this need to be handled by a third-party vendor?
  • If there is no in-house conservation staff that knows how to work with these materials
  • If the conservation area cannot handle the sheer size of these materials
  • If there is financial support for this exhibit that can include conservation
  • If the more damaged items could be omitted from the exhibit instead of displayed (Not a third-party option, but a choice to not do the work.)
  • If the items could be reformatted instead of directly displayed (Not a third-party option, but a choice to not do the work.)

Case study: A large number of photographic prints that were pasted in a scrapbook need conservation.

An institution is doing work on a collection of scrapbooks that have a wide variety of materials issues, including issues pertaining to unstable pigments (graphite, etc.), embrittled paper, textiles with mobile dyes, and photographs. The primary issue with the photographs is that they were haphazardly pasted into the scrapbooks with unknown adhesives, and face mixed forms of textures on each page, causing contact damage. The conservator determines that the scrapbooks should be dismantled, each page digitized, and then that technicians should deconstruct the photographic pages where the adhesive appears to be contributing to the decay of the photographs. A conservator supervises several technicians doing the work of evaluating the current and potential damage and sorts the materials by the skillsets of the technicians. The conservation team then performs the tasks needed to recover what they can of the photographic prints, while documenting the original construction of the scrapbooks. There are also a number of unique items intentionally collected in the scrapbooks, including in at least one case animal remains.

• What would make this need to be handled by a third-party vendor?
  • If the institution does not have a way to effectively evaluate or identify the chemical properties of the adhesives, either by skillset or lack of needed lab materials
  • If the conservation team does not have the ability to deal with the complex mix of materials overall
  • If the conservation needed would so damage the collection that instead preservation or stable storage is used (Not a third-party option, but a choice to not do the work.)
  • If digitization is deemed to be a suitable representation of the value of the scrapbooks (Not a third-party option, but a choice to not do the work.)

Reformatting

Reformatting is a popular and necessary preservation task for many items. Digitization and reformatting, especially of audio-visual materials, can rescue content from decaying content-holding media. In many cases, the medium itself cannot be rescued; or, through the progress of technology, can no longer be accessed in its original format. Many institutions have some form of reformatting available to them, but very few can handle any and all formats. Audio-visual materials are especially vulnerable in their older forms of magnetic tape or outdated born-digital formats.

Case study: A collection of 5000 slides are stored in plastic sleeves in binders.

An institution holds a collection of approximately 5000 slides that document other, more fragile items in the collections like paintings and three-dimensional artifacts. The institution wants to make these items available as a digital collection without having to re-photograph all the varied items again and so intends to digitize the slides. The institution has a slide digitizing scanner, but it is temperamental and often breaks or jams when the slides are slightly different thicknesses. Luckily, most of the slides are identical in make. Digitization staff decided to digitize 4800 slides in-house with the bulk-format scanner and complete the other 200 items using holders on a flat-bed scanner.

• What would make this need to be handled by a third-party vendor?
  • If there is no bulk scanner available
  • If the digitization team has no scanning method available for transparency media
  • If the digitization team has no staff hours to handle slower scanning by flatbed for all materials
  • If the cost to the institution is greater to complete the work than outsourcing would be, and the standards needed can be clearly communicated

Case study: A collection of public domain books is very brittle and falling apart.

An institution owns a collection of public domain science fiction books printed on highly acidified and embrittled paper. These are primarily thickbooks and pre-pulp magazine materials. The special collections team receives many requests for these. The team raises funds to begin a large-scale digitization project to make these materials more broadly available. The process is likely to cause permanent damage to the books, especially the spines. Most texts will be rendered into individual pages, then returned to permanent storage in envelopes or phase boxes.

• What would make this need to be handled by a third-party vendor?
  • If the institution decides that the expected damage to the materials is unacceptable using the methods of the in-house digitization staff (e.g., in-house only has flat-scanning capabilities, but a vendor can use a V-cradle)
  • If the scale of the project is more than staff can commit to with their other duties
  • If the cost to the institution is greater to complete the work than outsourcing would be, and the standards needed can be clearly communicated
  • If the damage to materials is entirely immaterial to the institution and something like a feed scanner could be used

Case study: A series of reel-to-reel tapes containing institutional output.

A higher education institution owns a collection of reel-to-reel tapes that contain the thesis and dissertation materials from its School of Music and Dance. The university has an obligation to ensure that these materials are not only preserved but also are available for quick retrieval. The university currently has a reel-to-reel player but does not possess a reformatting setup for audio-visual material in this medium. The alumni association raises funds for the purchase of the equipment needed with a promise to make these materials preserved and digitally available.

• What would make this need to be handled by a third-party vendor?
  • If the institution had no staff with audio-visual competencies
  • If the institution was not able to acquire suitable hardware
  • If the institution determined that the project was too complex to accomplish with the allotted time
  • If the cost to the institution is greater to complete the work than outsourcing would be, and the standards needed can be clearly communicated
  • If the institution had a partnership for managing the output of theses and dissertations where the work could be transferred for a significantly lower price (i.e., a contract with ProQuest promised to make all thesis and dissertation materials available under the current subscription price)

A Final Note

Sometimes we begin larger projects in-house and disaster strikes. Equipment can break or staff can leave and take their expertise with them, and we still must accomplish preservation work on a specific timeline. Perhaps there are funders to satisfy, or the risk to the materials is too imminent to wait. In those cases, outsourcing to a competent partner is often a wise decision. Fears about shipping can be allayed by perhaps using staff time to manage transport directly. Fears about satisfactory standards can be allayed with preliminary samples. And so on. Whether a task is best accomplished in-house or outsourced to a partner depends on an endless array of factors, and decisions often need to be flexible to deal with new information and new circumstances.

Building partnerships is a great way to help stabilize your workflows. Keep documentation of work done, so that in the future you know things like:

• “The last time we sent out slides to A___, the images’ exposure was out of whack.”
• “The work that Mx. B____ did on the restoration of those four lithographs was excellent. I wonder if they do other kinds of prints?”
• “When we tried to treat the mold in the south end of the annex in-house, it returned and the area was moldier than ever. But, the library got mold recovery done last year with campus physical plant services, and so far so good.”

Make sure you have a regular workflow for updating your contact information generally and include external services that you might need to call upon in the future. Also keep good records of previous quotes, since sometimes these come in handy when negotiating prices.

And lastly, it can be okay to relinquish some levels of control. Documentation of actions performed can be just as good as having an absolute standard expected. Not everything can be anticipated or planned for in preservation and conservation efforts, but we can document what happened for our future benefit.

View additional articles in the Beyond Paper Blog Series.