We often think of temperature control when we think of housing special collections. What about our extra special and also, spontaneously combustible collections?? At the Library Company we house nitrate and safety negatives in freezers to keep them stable. To access the negatives, boxes must acclimate to room temperature for 24 hours before being handled. To return to the freezer, curators must bake the boards inside the box (I mean literally bake cardboard in the oven!) to remove humidity before storing.








