Now that my first HABS/HAER shoot is in prospect, I'm scrambling to find information about the film and paper processing requirements. The National Park Service pub is only a buck, but allowing "three to four weeks for delivery" is too slow. Can anyone point me to a web resource or summarize the darkroom requirements? I'm particularly interested in how people alter typical clearing and washing procedures to make sure negs and prints meet the archival specifications. Do you adhere strictly to the specifications, or adapt your own procedures to produce the desired results?

-- Steve Singleton (single@arkansas.net), May 31, 2001

Answers

Steve, I assume that you've been to the NPS website, right?? I've never done any HABS/HAER stuff, although I'm a little bit familiar with the guidelines based on the site documentation that goes on in- state within my agency...that said, I can't really give you specific guidelines...I do know there have been a few people who've posted here that do this sort of stuff, if you can hold on, I'm sure they can help.

-- DK Thompson (kthompson@moh.dcr.state.nc.us), May 31, 2001.

i do HABS/HAER recordation for a living. if you email me your fax number, i can fax you the standards. the process to prepare these materials for submittal to NPS i quite involved, and i have a full- time assistant that does nothing but process all my work for submittal. all the work is large-format and black-and-white, unless LF CTs are specifically requested by paul dolinski (HABS) or eric delony (HAER). each negative must be archivally processed, and labelled in the margin with the accession number. each print is on fiber-base paper, also to archival standards, and labelled on the verso. each negative goes in its own archival sleeve which also must be labelled, and each print is mounted on a card, also labelled. for many projects, we also must process the historic narrative materials. all materials are tested upon receipt at NPS, and if they do not test properly for archival stability, they are rejected. btw, i use permawash :-)

-- jnorman (jnorman@teleport.com), June 01, 2001.

Just a follow-up for anyone interested. This site, which for some reason did not show up on my previous search, has a good bit of information: http://www.cr.nps.gov/habshaer/haer/manual/chapter3.pdf.

-- Steve Singleton (single@arkansas.net), June 05, 2001.