Frances strikes Archives

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If you don't have any preservationist archivists around: one trick that I 
learned from my friend who is one is to FREEZE the material quickly.  The 
defrosting action of the freezer will remove much of the water ice by 
sublimation and dry out paper/books without the swelling you usually 
see.  They do this here at the Dartmouth library for rare books that were 
accidentally wet.  I don't think this would work for a large collection, 
but it is a method to prevent rare and important items from having the 
paper swell as it dries.  I would consult with a real preservationist 
librarian/archivist to make sure I got it right.

Best of luck!  That's an awful shame.

Dave Bott
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David Bott			david.m.bott at dartmouth.edu