The Genealogist/Home Archivist Tool Box to Records Preservation

This is the last day of "31 Days of Tips from an Archivist"! I have had so much fun sharing tips and advice about researching in archives and especially records preservation.

If you have enjoyed my blog post during the month of October, be sure to subscribe to my blog in a feed or by email so you can receive my posts once a week.

In this post I am going to give you a list of tools that you as a genealogist and home archivist should purchase and have on hand in your "Home Archivist Tool Box" so you are ready to preserve your genealogical records, photographs and artifacts.

First, you will need a tool box! Yep, I recommend an actual tool box to keep all your materials in so they are all in one place and don't get lost. I have a tool box just like this one that I use in the Houston County, TN. Archive to put all my archival tools in so I can access them when I am working on records preservation:

Tool Box
http://amzn.to/2gWNZy1

The first item to put in your tool box are soft #2 pencils. In the archives, we never use ball point pens on documents or photographs. We always use soft #2 pencils to identify photographs and to source documents:

Soft #2 Pencils
http://amzn.to/2hoOpdx

If you find that you have a document or photograph that pencil will not write on, you can use a pen called an Identi Pen. It is preferred that pencil is used all the time but there are some cases where pencil will not show up and this Identi Pen can be used.

Identi Pen

http://amzn.to/2gPdjCi

Next, you should obtain some soft bristle brushes. These will be used to brush off dust, dirt and other specs of grime that could be inside of books, scrapbooks and on your documents. I recommend getting make-up brushes, they are fairly cheap and work very well:

Make-Up Brushes

http://amzn.to/2igmgF0

Next, every Home Archivist Tool Kit should have a micro spatula! This tool is used for many jobs in an archives like removing staples. I consider this an essential tool for the home archivist:

Micro Spatula

http://amzn.to/2gXmIeQ

Gloves! The next item to put in your tool kit are gloves. You can get white cotton gloves or nitrile gloves. These need to be used for handling photographs because the dirt and oils on your hands can damage photographs. There is not need to use gloves when handling documents, nice clean hands will do the trick!

Cotton Gloves
http://amzn.to/2zlJ0OH 

Another must have for the tool kit is a specialized Dry Cleaning Sponge. This sponge can be used to clean dirty or soot covered documents. This sponge could remove some stains and dirty spots on documents and is great to clean up dusty and dirty documents. CAUTION: do not use on pencil writing! This sponge will erase the pencil writing.

Soot and Dirt Cleaning Sponge

http://amzn.to/2gO6T6h

And lastly, Document Repair Tape. In the archives, we don't use "tape" on anything. But there is a particular type of repair tape that is acceptable if used sparingly. If you have small tears or rips in your documents, this repair tape is perfectly fine to use. Just be sure to place the tape on the back of the document where there is no writing. 

Document Repair Tape

http://amzn.to/2iP2ILJ

If you want to see me talking about the "Home Archivist Tool Kit", you can watch my guest appearance on Dear Myrtle's Wacky Wednesday hangout. It is free to watch and there is much more information talked about on each item covered in this blog post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAq3KlTVSKY