I guess it's part of their job to be retentive to be honest!I am surrounded by curators given the age of some of our stuff in the library, and your friend may be onto something, we have been wrapping lots of our old books in specialist acidic free wrapping, and have just finished replacing all our archive negative photographic plates in specialist packaging. Curators tend to be ultra cautious, which isn't a bad thing; what they are in charge with is generally not replaceable!
(
Jahled Three shades of black,
Wed 30 Dec 2009, 20:33,
archived)