QUESTION

My wedding photo album is 20 years old & the cover is becoming sticky, almost mildewy. What can I use to store it & preserve it?

ANSWER

I don't like the sound of this -- I think you may need to remove the photos from the album to keep them from deteriorating. The cover is probably vinyl which is not archival and the fumes are harmful to your photos. One might be able to encapsulate it in an archival plastic book cover, but some fumes from the vinyl would probably still reach your photos.

You say it looks almost mildewy, but does it smell mildewy? Hopefully not! If it does, then there is a serious problem with where you are storing the album. Moisture and humidity are extremely hard on photographs.
Be carefull when you move your photos to archival storage that you don't do more harm than good. Make a plan first and think out what you are going to do. Be sure to check out my article on how to do this.

Digital imaging is already the long-term photographic preservation method of choice. High resolution scanners can convert traditional color or black and white photographs into high quality digital images. CD (Compact disk) and DVD (digital video disk) can provide good short-term storage media for these digital images but don’t trust your special digital photo images to a single disk. Not all CD writing schemes and media are created equal either. Some CDs become unusable within 5 years, while others could last for a 100 years or more.