Hello all,
Here are some thoughts from one of our preservation staff at UCLA.
--Louise
Ideally Mylar encapsulations should be welded with either heat or an ultrasonic welder. Tape is just not ideal as tape adhesive tends to leach out a little around the edges of the tape over time. If the University of Northern Iowa does not have access to an ultrasonic welder or a heat welder, and they must use tape, this is the kind of double-sided that’s typically used, and it would be the ¼” wide tape:
If at all possible, I would recommend having a much larger mylar sleeve than the map itself, leaving as much margin between the map and the taped edge of the mylar encapsulation to minimize potential contact of map to leached adhesive.
From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. [mailto:[log in to unmask]
EDU ] On Behalf Of Susan Moore
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2018 2:21 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Tape for Mylaring a map?
Greetings!
We ahve a map that we would like to encapsulate in Mylar. We've got the Mylar that has been handed down from map librarians past put we don't have any way of sealing the Mylar. At one point, they apparently used some type of double-sided tape. Since this is a map from the 1890s, I'd like to do right by it. What tape, if any, should we use to seal the Mylar. (And yes, I'll leave some sections unsealed to allow for off-gassing.)
Susan Moore
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IA 50614
