Historical Society races to save microfilm

Ara Kaye was preparing to ship a box of old microfilm from the newspaper library at the State Historical Society of Missouri in October when she opened one of the tin containers and noticed the odor of vinegar.

As a senior reference specialist in charge of the newspaper library and its staff, she’s aware of “vinegar syndrome,” a condition that ruins microfilm over time.

When Kaye and her staff went to the storage facility to test the other boxes of film, it became apparent the problem wasn’t isolated to a single box.

“Our eyes and noses were burning by the time we were done testing each can,” she said.

The society estimates 5,000 to 6,000 of the more than 50,000 rolls in its newspaper microfilm collection, which dates back to 1808, were potentially afflicted by vinegar syndrome.

The problem rolls are made of cellulose triacetate, which replaced cellulose nitrate as the industry standard from the 1950s to 1980s because of flammability concerns. The triacetate film, in turn, was replaced by polyester-based film after scientists discovered excessive moisture combined with acetate would lead to the formation of acetic acid, which deteriorates the film and causes it to give off a vinegar odor, said Lisa Fox, senior conservator for the Missouri State Archives.

Damage to the newspaper rolls has been largely confined to the film’s header, the portion of exposed negatives located before any photographic images, Gary Kremer, executive director of the society, said. Saving the affected film will cost the State Historical Society of Missouri about $200,000, an expense Kremer said the society might have difficulty paying after recent budget cuts.

Kremer said the lack of a cool, dry environment at the MU warehouse accelerated the deterioration of the microfilm.

The deterioration can’t be stopped once it starts, Fox said, but cooling can slow it.

The affected reels were sent to American Micro Company in Kansas City, a business partner of the society’s for nine years, for duplication. The society decided creating two copies of each reel — one for storage in a controlled environment, the other as a duplicate template for people requesting microfilm from the society — and moving the remaining, unaffected microfilm into buildings with environmentally controlled conditions would be the best way to prevent any future problems, Kremer said.

About 200 boxes of microfilm were stored in the MU facility, of which 65 boxes contained acetate-based microfilm. The 65 affected boxes each contained eight to 10 tins of microfilm, containing 12 to 14 titles on each reel.

Some finished duplicates have already been sent to the society, but the length of time needed to duplicate all the film is unknown because of the large quantities being processed and the unknown amount of affected film.