Preservation Tips

Practical guidance on storing, digitizing, and cataloging convention booklets, schedules, and ephemera.

Caring for Physical Materials

Stable environment: Store booklets, pocket guides, and paper ephemera in a cool, dry interior space away from direct sunlight, damp basements, or hot attics.
Proper support: Keep booklets flat in archival boxes or upright with firm support so spines and covers do not warp or curl.
Clean handling: Handle glossy covers and older newsprint with clean, dry hands to avoid transferring oils or creasing fragile bindings.
Watch for staple corrosion: Older saddle-stitched booklets often develop rusty staples in humid climates. Isolate corroded items in acid-free or polypropylene sleeves so rust does not transfer to neighboring items.

Resolution: Scan printed pages at 300–600 DPI in full color so small schedule grids, credits, and line art remain legible.
Protect the binding: Use a flatbed or overhead book scanner rather than forcing a tight spine flat, unless a duplicate copy is specifically designated for destructive sheet-fed scanning.
Capture everything: Include front and back covers, inside covers, fold-out maps, pocket schedules, and loose errata sheets.
Keep uncompressed masters: Save archival master scans (TIFF or lossless PNG) alongside a combined, OCR-searchable PDF for reading.

Export print-ready PDFs: For convention staff, archiving the original press-ready PDF and pocket schedule immediately after the event preserves sharp text and vector artwork without scanning artifacts.
Save schedule data: Export event schedules from platforms like Sched, Guidebook, or Consurf (JSON, CSV, or ICS) before event pages are unpublished or overwritten for the next year.
Record clear metadata: Include the convention name, year, dates, venue/city, theme, and document type in your file notes so future archivists have complete context.

Loan-to-digitize or Vault transfer: We can arrange temporary loans for non-destructive scanning (returning your originals afterward) or accept physical copies into The Vault.
Get in touch: Visit our Contact page to check what years or schedules are missing and coordinate shipping or digital transfer.