Scrapbooking: Celebrate Your Family's History

Unfold and flatten papers before you store them. Folded documents can be "ironed" between heavy books for a week or two to fully flatten. Use paper corners to mount photos in albums and scrapbooks. For true archival-quality storage, interleave scrapbooks and photo albums with acid-free or alkaline-buffered pape, or purchase a high-quality, archival scrapbook. Use a photo-safe pencil instead of an ink pen to label and identify materials. Inks contain sulfur and dyes that can discolor, bleed through, and otherwise harm paper and photographic materials.

Do not use tape, labels, rubber bands, metal fasteners, and liquid glues to mount or bind documents and photographs. Each of these items will, over time, stain and tear your records, and speed their deterioration.

Most scrapbooks and photo albums sold in stores are not designed for the long-term preservation of materials. If you have any questions about the long-term suitability of a product, ask the store clerk for assistance or go online and search for "archive-quality scrapbooks."