I've gotten a few emails about how I store my vintage magazines and catalogs. Luckily, I've had a few internships in library and museum archives and I've picked-up some tricks along the way. So, here is how I store my vintage documents in an archival manner.
Mending
Firstly you want to go through the magazine/catalog and see if there are any major tears that need to be mended. The type of stuff I mend is if the cover is loose or coming off, large rips, and rips that are located in a place that will only get worse with handling. For mending, you have several options: you can use heat set or cold set. I personally use cold set because I'm not comfortable using the tiny iron needed for heat set. I use Filmoplast P, which is just an archival tape that is nearly invisible. Put together the rip as well as possible, carefully place the Filmoplast and gently rub it down with a folding bone or the back of a spoon. If there are any staples or paper clips that can be removed without damaging or tearing the paper, remove them with a micro spatula.
Protecting
After anything that needs to be mended is, place the publication into a protective sleeve that is properly sized so that it is not belted, bent or tightly in the sleeve. I tend to go with mylar because I like to be able to see what the magazine is without having to pull it out of it's housing, but you can also get archival paper sleeves. What type you go with is personal preference, and there are a lot of variety with both – I normally buy 4 mil. open-end mylar sleeves. Oddly enough, not a lot of archival supply shops offer mylar sleeves, but they are the way to go over polyethylene sleeves. You can normally find mylar sleeves at comic book shops.
Storing
When you have your catalog/magazine in it's protective sleeve, place it in an archival storage box. I prefer the flip-top design with the pull tabs. There are also flat document cases with lift-off tops for larger sized documents. If you go with the flip-top model, but don't have a lot of documents, you may want to get spacers or dividers for the box to prevent the materials from curling onto themselves. This is only really needed for floppy or brittle materials. Keep the box of materials in a cool, dry place, away from sun, humidity and water.
Handling
While handling your documents, you want to wear gloves so that your oils don't transfer to the paper and damage it. The common glove in archival practice is the cotton ones that you can get in a big pack of washable (or disposable) ones or a single pair of good washable ones. One thing about the cotton gloves is that they have little grip, so I tend to wear powder-free Nitrile gloves, which keep oil off the paper without it slipping out of my hands (I don't even want to tell you how difficult it is to try to turn a thin brittle page with those darn cotton gloves!).
Organizing
If you have a large enough collection, you may want to label the boxes and folders. If so, only use pencil. Pen, ink and marker are not archival (unless you buy the fancy archival types). Pencil can easily be erased if you need to relabel or move things. If you want to use sticky labels on your document boxes, they make archival ones that can be fed through your printer.
Super Organizing
If you have a really large collection that you need to reference for research or fun, you may also want to make a finding aid or collection catalog. A simple finding aid is a list of what is in certain folders (which are normally numbered), the year and title of the publication, which folders are in what boxes and what the collection's content is. For a personal collection finding aid, you may want to add notes about certain things you found interesting in the publication, the main topics talked about, or what the feature article was. Check out this finding aid template if you want something to base it off of.
Pests
I have yet to acquire any materials with pest issues (knock on wood)
and in my internships I've always been required to pass on pest issues to the
conservator, so I haven't had to deal with this personally. If you find
pages with holes that may be bug munches, bite marks, insect cavities,
etc. You are going to want to send it off to a conservator that does
private work. If it is not extensive damage or you you want to try it
yourself, there is a book about pest management for archival materials. Although, I would highly recommend that you let a professional deal with it.
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Keep in mind that I am not a professional archivist and this is just
the way I choose to store my vintage magazine collection. All of this
information has been obtained from my various supervisors or in
practice during my internships. You can find more info about personal archiving and archiving practices check out the AIC's .pdfs on caring for various materials or the Practical Archivist blog.
