Paper Clips: The Archivists' Enemy
Paper clips are handy things to have around your desk; they can keep papers together or hold the end of your tape or mark your place in a book (although if it is a library book, the librarians probably will not be too thrilled about it). However, if you are planning on saving documents for all eternity and they need to be kept together...
DO NOT USE PAPER CLIPS!
Here is why:
In the picture on the left, the notes are paper clipped to the inside of the book. But over the years, the paper clip has rusted, and marked up the notes and the book, as shown on the right. The rusted paper clip was difficult to get off without damaging the book or the notes and once it was off, it left the nasty little rusted outline that you can see in the picture. So please, folks, if you're planning on saving something for a long time, do your archivist a favor, and don't use paper clips! The best way to keep things together is to have them in folders, like so:
This public service message brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of the Sanity of America's Archivists
No, not really. I just wanted to show another part of the archivists' job.