When Toronto Reference Library staff opened cabinets full of historic newspaper collections after COVID-19 closures they were met with a smell usually reserved for fish and chips.
“We discovered a strong scent of vinegar,” said Nancy Duncan, a manager at the library.
The odour was their first clue that they’d have to take action if they wanted to save the newspaper collection that was stored on tens of thousands of microfilm reels and microfiches.
From the 1950s through the early 1990s, most film was cellulose acetate-based and known as “safety film,” because it replaced the highly unstable and flammable nitrate film widely used before it.
But in the
