I have been trying different types of paper to use in labels for ethanol and formalin preserved museum specimens. My mini-experiment included Picofilm, Tyvek, 100% cotton, acid-free (90 and 150 gsm), goatskin and regular 80 gsm stress-free paper marked with pencil, inkjet (HP deskjet) and laser printers. On the short term (two weeks), laser-printed picofilm fared the best, with other types of paper already showing signs of deterioration. I am tempted to take this result as indicative, given that Picofilm (which is made from synthetic, coated polyester) is supposed to be temperature stable and chemically resistant. However, I still have concerns regarding its suitability for long term storage in alcohol and formalin (for example, if it might somehow contaminate the specimens). Has anyone tried Picofilm in this way? Any information or comments would be greatly appreciated.
This is the eternal question for many museums.
There has been a huge amount of research about this, with new answers all the time. As the years pass we discover the results of the test of time.
I've attached a very good paper by Andrew Bentley who has found thermal transfer printing with polyester-based labels to be reliable. There's no mention of PicoFilm but I believe the polyester base is similar.
Alternatively, several people have found a combination of "Goatskin Parchment" and an Epson DURABrite inkjet printer to be quite durable. Any inks that have a high carbon-base (such as India Ink or DURABrite) work better than those which are pigment based.
The method for effective ink fusion is to print the labels and leave them to dry in a warm area for 24 hours, or heat them up in an oven, before putting them in alcohol.
If you are looking for cheaper alternatives to thermal transfer this may be useful to you.
I hope this helps. If you are planning on doing more collections based work you might want to follow NatSCA or SPNHC (mailing list), both of which have mailing lists and discussions for natural history based collections.
http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=NATSCA
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