We might want to wear gloves to protect an item we are handling or to protect ourselves from unpleasant substances that might be lurking within. We use nitrile, latex, and cotton. Which types are best? Should we use white gloves for handling special collections? Aren't cotton gloves more sustainable than disposable ones? 

Perhaps we should follow Nathaniel Hawthorne—"A pure hand needs no glove to cover it." In many cases, "none" is the best choice of glove as clean hands allow us to handle materials with dexterity. Some materials, such as audiovisual and photographic items, or books with metal components, can react to even the smallest amount of oil or salts in our fingertips and should be handled with gloves—preferably powder-free nitrile or latex.  

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Malvina Hoffman, 1934 

These late nineteenth-century Eastern European gloves have metallic sequins and thread---and they should be handled...by another pair of gloves! Cotton gloves, which traditionally signaled caution and special care, can be clunky to use and surprisingly, are the least sustainable glove material. 

• Sustainability Tools in Cultural Heritage (STiCH) has put together a case study comparing the environmental impacts of nitrile, latex, and cotton gloves: https://stich.culturalheritage.org/nitrile-latex-cotton-gloves/. STiCH is regularly updated and has a carbon calculator to compare materials that we use for treatment and storage of collections. 
• Pro-tip: Annoyed by clammy hands inside gloves? Use scissors to snip a relief valve into the palm of your disposable gloves to release the moisture that builds up if you're wearing them for a long time.