Hmmm ... how old are these copies? and what records would they be? anyhow - how about you try scanning a few of them - print them again and save the files of the scans so that you may access them later - make back-ups . keep your fingers crossed. consider transcribing the information from the documents .. and contact the PRO - I'm sure they would like to know what is happening - they may have some good ideas and suggestions. cheers Robert ps - you have any ancestors that may have married into the Brooks, Rippon or Watson families? Helen Kenney wrote: > Our historical society relies on photocopies for many of our records and we > have just discovered that some of them are deteriorating despite being kept > in acid free pockets and limited exposure to sun light. Are we going to end > up looking at blank paper or is there something that we can do to stop the > breakdown? A lot of the copies have come from the PRO, maybe it is the way > that they can keep making an income causing us to come back and pay again > for copies. > > Helen > >