Storage environments are crucial to preservation. The rate of paper deterioration can be accelerated by a multiple of three simply by storing records at 78 degrees rather than 68 degrees. Computer tapes and disks are even more dependent on good storage environments. Records stored in volumes, as most land and vital records are, deteriorate faster than those stored in archival boxes and folders. Special storage devices, such as hanging map files, can help prolong the life of a record.
Municipal records are in constant use.
Consider that in 1997 there were 35,362 property transfers in Vermont, each requiring use of existing municipal records and the recording of additional instruments. Lawyers and surveyors who work with land records estimate they may handle forty or more individual documents per title search or up to two hundred documents for boundary and survey research. The seventy-nine clerks who provided useable data on annual use reported 152,945 records requests, usually entailing more than one document per request. In other words, municipal records are handled, statewide, millions of times a year. To cite an example of how rapidly use can change, consider what happens when a long held family farm or a paper corporation's forest land are developed.