Hi, Ken.
I dealt with a similar situation a few months ago. I was processing a collection that included the travel diaries of a prominent early-20th century anthropologist, which had been severely damaged in a house fire in the 1950s. Some of the pages were entirely gone, and the best were only about 90% there, with the least damage occurring (sensibly enough) at the middles of the volumes. The edges were all charred and crumbling away, and even the pages that seemed relatively undamaged were very brittle. Our conservator said there was nothing he could do for them, so I improvised a way to preserve what information remained on them for as long as possible.
At some point after the fire, the owner/creator wrapped each volume tightly like a gift using scrap paper and scotch tape, then put each volume in a large envelope, clearly labeling and dating the outside of the envelope. It seemed to me that this system had done a pretty good job of preserving them for the last 50 years, so I went about re-creating it using archivally-sound materials.
Specifically, to answer your question, I tied each volume snugly but not tight, to hold the pages together without damaging them. I then used these envelopes from that are shaped like crosses to create a first layer for containment -- the envelopes came from Light Impressions, but I can't seem to find them on their website to give you a reference. The envelopes have a back part that I laid the diary on, then they have flaps that fold over from each side, top and bottom to create an envelope that doesn't require pulling the item out to open. Then, I put each of these packets into a larger, more solid, standard envelope, on which I wrote a description of the contents, including a description of its damaged state. I also made it very, very clear in the finding aid that the items were very damaged, difficult to read, and fragile. I hoped that by doing all of this, the diaries might survive to the date when someone with the patience and interest to read through the scorched, half-gone pages will be able to do so.
From my experience, the edges of the papers seemed most at risk of further damage, so I would advise storing the papers flat (rather than on edge), if at all possible.
Oh, and you'll probably want to wear gloves and clothes you don't mind getting sooty when you do all of this. And you probably don't want to do it in a carpeted room, if at all possible.
Good luck!
Christie Peterson
http://www.christiepeterson.com
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