The posters have to be humidified before they will flatten out properly. The Missouri State Archives has an excellent, illustrated description of how this can be done: www.sos.state.mo.us/archives/localrecs/conservation/notes/humidification.asp Their "Humidifying with a Chamber" method is very easy and inexpensive -- the "chamber" is nothing more than a Rubbermaid storage container! For really big posters or maps, it's possible to use a clean, lidded plastic trash barrel with a smaller diameter plastic trash can or wastepaper basket: fill the trash barrel with about 6 inches of water; place the rolled item into the smaller wastepaper basket; then put the basket into the barrel, put the lid on, and wait until the item relaxes (anywhere from half an hour to 8 hours). The item won't unroll to a completely flat state while in the round wastepaper basket, but it should relax sufficiently to be flattened out elsewhere. Conservation OnLine (CoOL) is a great resource for preservation info. Their website and discussion list archives (Cons DistList) are searchable, and they have an extensive listing of "Conservation/Preservation Information for the General Public": http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/genpub/index.html --K.A. Bayruns Seattle, Washington At 02:43 PM 2/24/05 -0500, you wrote: >I m trying to move old posters into a flat file. The posters have been >rolled up for a while. Does anyone have any good ideas for flattening >them? Stacking books on them doesn t seem to be working. > > >Thanks > > Suzanne Kammin > >Manger of Resource Collections/Archives > >The Studio in a School Association, Inc. __________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org//membership.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]