-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [Fwd: How to flatten maps]
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 08:12:32 -0500
From: "Dienes, Jennie" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "'Maps and Air Photo Systems Forum'" <[log in to unmask]>

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Dear Tim,
  At the KU T.R. Smith Map Collection we have done a variety of
things--as
described by others:  Rolling the opposite way around tubes, placing
heavy
weights--sometimes shelving boards, cloth covered bricks, or long heavy
metal bars.  I have also used a "home-made" humidifying chamber.  Now,
our
Preservation Department does this for us on occasion, but we also use
the
"weight" method for maps returned from circulation that are somewhat
curled
up.
  However, when you roll the opposite way around a tube you are putting
a
lot of stress on the paper fibers.  The same is true with weights--but
less
so because you are flattening the fibers only half way from the curled
position.  When the paper is slightly humidified, the fibers are relaxed
and
so less stressed when weights are put on them.  The problem with
humidification can come when the inks used on the map absorb the
moisture
and cause letters and lines to become fuzzy.
  WAML (Western Association of Map Libraries) Information Bulletin, Vol.
28
no. 3 has three articles describing different ways of humidifying and
flattening maps.  I described what we did in Vol. 30, No. 2&3.  If your
library does not carry this journal, maybe a map librarian in your
vicinity
is a member of WAML and can lend you copies.

Jennie Dienes
Map Librarian, formerly in T.R. Smith Map Collections
103 Anschutz Library
1301 Hoch Auditoria Drive
Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7537, currently in Cataloging Department, Watson
Library
Telephone:  (785) 864-4346 (with voice mail)
E-mail:  [log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: Johnnie D. Sutherland [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2003 3:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Fwd: How to flatten maps]


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: How to flatten maps
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 08:50:23 -0400
From: "Tim Watters" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>

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Hello,
Any hints of the best ways to flatten rolled-up, computer-generated,
census maps? I have hundreds of these maps, some of which I suspect have
been rolled for over ten years. Use an iron? a humidifier? Just
paperweights for a year? Thanks.

Tim Watters
Special Materials Cataloger
Library of Michigan
[log in to unmask]