Tape Endangerment Issues
Magnetic recording tape was never designed as a long-term storage medium. Tape is primarily designed to be easy to use and easy to copy. Luckily, magnetic tape is quite durable and can stand up to amazing abuse for extended periods of time.
This tape was recovered after sitting on the bottom of the ocean in a space capsule for decades. The tape, while unusable in its unrestored condition, still exists while the machine it was in was totally destroyed by the environment.
Properly cared for, tape can actually last far longer than the machinery on which it is played. Still, we constantly see tapes pulled from storage in a state of advanced decay, rendering the materials unusable.
The badly deteriorating condition of many of the recordings in America and around the world is due to one very simple reason: most tapes have not been stored or handled properly. Tape is not physically impressive. When it is not being used, tape makes no sound, provides no picture, and to the casual observer appears unchanged over time. But, just like any other material, magnetic tape decays when exposed to harmful environments.
There are eight basic factors that commonly endanger tape:
1. Neglect- For years tapes have been piled in odd corners, stuffed in attics and dumped in wet basements to get them out of the way. Unintentionally, tapes have been exposed to the most destructive conditions possible.
2. Frequent Access- Each time a tape is accessed it is subject to handling and changing environments. Each time it is played, it is subject to abrasion and tension. Tape should, if possible, be accessed infrequently and kept in a stable, cool, dry environment.
3. Personnel- Tape is endangered when untrained personnel access it. While extreme examples, there is absolutely nothing that will improve a tape’s performance in any way by banging on it or cleaning it with most household products.
Properly cared for, tape can actually last far longer than the machinery on which it is played. Still, we constantly see tapes pulled from storage in a state of advanced decay, rendering the materials unusable.
The badly deteriorating condition of many of the recordings in America and around the world is due to one very simple reason: most tapes have not been stored or handled properly. Tape is not physically impressive. When it is not being used, tape makes no sound, provides no picture, and to the casual observer appears unchanged over time. But, just like any other material, magnetic tape decays when exposed to harmful environments.
There are eight basic factors that commonly endanger tape:
1. Neglect- For years tapes have been piled in odd corners, stuffed in attics and dumped in wet basements to get them out of the way. Unintentionally, tapes have been exposed to the most destructive conditions possible.
2. Frequent Access- Each time a tape is accessed it is subject to handling and changing environments. Each time it is played, it is subject to abrasion and tension. Tape should, if possible, be accessed infrequently and kept in a stable, cool, dry environment.
3. Personnel- Tape is endangered when untrained personnel access it. While extreme examples, there is absolutely nothing that will improve a tape’s performance in any way by banging on it or cleaning it with most household products.
4. Machinery- Poorly manufactured, badly maintained or improperly used machinery endangers tape. Safe tape playback requires high quality, well maintained machinery that is operated properly; unlike the audio deck pictured here stored under a sink in an archive.
5. Machine Availability- Tape content is endangered by anything that limits or reduces the availability of the technology necessary to retrieve the recorded data. In this light, it is important to consider that potentially short-lived new media with a very limited population of machinery may actually be more endangered than older media that, while still obsolete, may have a much larger and more easily available machine population. In all cases, however, tape machines for every legacy format are becoming scarcer and may soon be unavailable. How many people do you know who still have a working DAT machine.
6. Media Design- Tape is endangered by inadequate quality control during manufacturing and by design parameters that are tailored for any specific usage that is not compatible with durability or longevity. Common examples of this are product knock-offs by unknown manufacturers, consumer formats tailored for low cost and miniaturized formats tailored for small size and light weight.
7. Environment- Tape is endangered by exposure to adverse or extreme environments and by exposure to extreme variations in environments. The most common result is the chemical reaction of binder hydrolysis, commonly called “sticky shed”, where tape absorbs moisture from the air and the tape surface becomes sticky and soft, making the tape unplayable. When exposed to humid conditions or extreme changes in an environment, the effects on tape can be catastrophic.
8. Age- Tape is not endangered by age, per se. Age simply aggravates the endangerment caused by the other factors previously listed. Age is often assumed to endanger tape simply because, the longer the tape has been around, the greater the opportunity it has to be exposed to other damaging conditions.