Water is the worst enemy of documents because when its drenched, it will be very difficult to restore it. But there are many ways on how you can get your document back to its original shape once again. Document drying is one of the methods to do it. But like anything in this world, it is also a step by step task. If you will be very meticulous in doing it, you can prevent the damage that your papers, books, and microfilms can get. And one that must never be forgotten is that, in document drying, the amount or water absorbed should be taken into consideration. Some natural occurrences like heavy rain and flood can really take toll on your documents. Moisture over time can also drench your parchment, and finally, it can destroy your files.



But when you know the proper way of document drying, you will never have to worry when these unstoppable occurrences happen. Here are the tips on how to do document drying with less effort and time:

1. Photographic media should be the priority when you do document drying. Seal them in a box and if possible refrigerate at 35 1/4 to 40 1/4 F.

2. Papers when drenched in water can result to puckering, ink smearing, and swelling. But this will not be the case when you perform the right document drying process on these things. And how you can do that? Pack it in a box and freeze it! After it is frozen, you can restore it to its original form. There are times, however, that some minor damages cannot be prevented. You just have to be glad that you have not lost the entire thing.

3. If you have vellum and leather bound documents, you have to immediately separate them from the rest of your documents that must go under freezing as a way of document drying. These materials are mainly derived from animal skin, therefore they should never be heated during the process or you restore the whole document but with some changes in its shape and smudges where the water was.

4. Microforms are another type of documents that must be immediately separated from the rest of the documents to be dried. It has an emulsion layer that when left to dry will stick on some contagious substrate. Minor damages can be restored through freezing, but for those that undergone major damages, you will need to reprocess the whole film.

5. After the freezing process, it is now time to dry the paper, but just make sure that the papers will never be exposed to liquid phase. One way to accomplish this is by forcing sublimation in a freeze dry chamber that has enough vacuum.

This process of drying your document, when done properly, will truly restore all your flood-drenched paper and film materials. So ensure that you follow the rules meticulously and you can expect that you will bring the damaged papers, books, and films its previous condition.