The Zombie Stack Exchanges That Just Won't Die
Documents have physical properties such as materials of construction, binding, damage, annotations, etc.
What characteristics are important enough to record? How is this data recorded when the document is added to an archive?
johntait.org
While we rarely describe individual items that are added to an archive (at least, not if they are part of a larger collection), it is unusual for us to record individual physical properties. We make exceptions for items with significant damage (the kind we would want to document and track), those made out of materials that could prove hazardous to the items around or near them, or those which contain annotations attributable to a VIP (whether that person is important to history in general [Abraham Lincoln, for example], or simply important within your collection scope).
As for how we record them, usually a descriptive record (catalog or finding aid), or in separate documentation in a collection file (which contains other important documentation like gift agreements).