An expert in preservation taught about 10 people how to protect their personal collections over lunch on Tuesday.

Jeanne Drewes, the assistant director for access and preservation at the MSU library, gave the presentation in the Ohio State room of the Union. She said the event was to give people some of the basic skills they needed to keep their collections from being damaged.

"These same principles apply to anything from stamps, to Barbie dolls, to fine art," Drewes said.

The presentation was sponsored by the MSU Women's Resource Center.

Jodi Hancock, educational program director, said the center holds small lunchtime presentations it feels will interest women, though she said they are open to everyone.

Drewes drew the audience's attention to factors such as temperature, humidity and light when deciding where to store collections.

"Just like sunlight ages our skin, it damages our valuable collections," Drewes said. "Our purpose is to slow this 'aging' down."

She also said ordinary home lighting contains UV rays, which deteriorate material, so unless people are displaying their collections, they should consider keeping them in storage.

Drewes said when finding boxes to keep valuables in, make sure to find acid-free boxes. She said certain cardboard and plastic containers are made with chemicals that will damage valuables over time.

Drewes said her newest concern was the growing use of digital photography. In Drewes' opinion, this is not a stable way to keep something as important as family memories.

She said recent studies have shown CDs, which most people use to store digital images, deteriorate over time. Drewes said the best thing to do is get the pictures printed and store them in a traditional fashion.

Audience member Marian Erickson said she came to find out how to preserve the boxes of photographs she has been keeping.

"When my kids come home, the first thing they do is go through the family photo albums," Erickson said. "I think they are the most valuable thing I own."