Friday, August 29, 2008
Once the Bible was completed, Conservation Assistant Linda Lundy made a box for it. The box will give it added protection for easy transport. It’ll also protect it from dust, sunlight, and dampness. Hopefully, it’ll never go through another tornado. If it does, the box will give it extra protection and increase the odds that it will survive.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
We’re very lucky to have Facilities Management for our area stationed in the Main Library. When we need to discuss something we can go down to the basement and talk directly to the staff. When Mike Lee discovered he had some wet files, we were happy to be able to offer him some assistance. We stuck them in the freezer until we had time to dry them out. Gary Frost has discovered a rather painless way to dry out these files. In the fume hood in case there is any mold and so air will vent out and a fan blowing on the files. He changes the position of the files every once in a while. Although our jobs require that we are creative in our problem solving, we’ve become even more so after the floods.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Once Gary had the maps re-attached, it was time to put the cover back on. The original cover was too damaged to save it. So Gary took the outside of the cover off the inner boards and trimmed the fabric cover. He made a new black cover and then glued the old fabric cover onto the new boards. We do everything we can to save as much of the original item as possible and to return it to as close to the look and feel of the original.
Friday, August 22, 2008
The University of Iowa Conservation Department, in continued collaboration with INLIBRE and the Preservation of Historical Libraries of Arequipa Project (Peru), is donating clam shell protective boxes for 35 books of La Recoleta library collection. University of Iowa participants in the Project will be delivering the boxes April ‘09 on their third annual visit, when they continue consulting for preservation planning of several local libraries. -Joyce Miller
Thursday, August 21, 2008
After working on the LPs and 78s, the 45s are a breeze. First, there are only three boxes–about 300 to clean. Second, they are small and cute and easy to handle. They are not brittle, like the 78s. They have few labels running, unlike all the Supraphon from the LPs. The one problem, however, is that they are the last boxes we got to, and are smelly and moldy, and many of the plastic sleeves have adhered to the covers. This happened to the LPs as well, but it seems like these dried a bit and so stuck more to each other.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The text block of the Bible needed very little repair work. However, the maps needed to be mended and then re-attached to the Bible. It’s very delicate work, especially since the Bible pages are very thin. Here Gary Frost is mending tears and then guarding the pages so they can be re-attached to the Bible. One of his challenges was to get the maps back together in the correct order!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
In June Amanda called about her Grandma’s Bible that had been found under the rubble after the May 25th EF5 tornado in Parkersburg. I advised her to wrap it in wax paper and stick it in the freezer until she could bring it down to us for examination and possible conservation work. Her Grandma was killed in the tornado, making this family Bible even more important to the family.
For a complete story on her you can read about it in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier, June 5, 2008.
http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2008/06/05/news/metro/10386819.txt
When Amanda brought the Bible to us, we stuck it in our freeze dryer to completely dry it out. Today, UI Libraries Conservator Gary Frost began working on the Bible. You can see from the photos that it’ll never be the same again. The Bible now has another story to tell — the story of the Parkersburg tornado.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
These are some of the last boxes of records we had to go through. They had dried out which made it much harder to separate them. Many of the records had also warped since there was so much space in the boxes they expanded. The boxes we had been working on prior to these had stayed wet and were packed into their boxes snugly so there was no room for warping. Many of the records pictured below were unsalvageable. Luckily many of them were duplicates.
Friday, August 6, 2008
When we washed all of the records, we didn’t only have to worry about the flood goo but also the mold that thrives in damp, warm conditions. The mold can be very harmful if it is inhaled. Because of this, we have to wear respirators and latex gloves at all times to protect ourselves from getting sick.
This is an example of what a moldy record can look like.
Monday, August 4, 2008
We were lucky in the Main Library. We have three air handlers and have managed to keep two of the three working. With one out, we needed a way to keep air circulating everywhere. Plastic air tubes were placed strategically throughout the building to augment our HVAC system. Air is brought in and then circulated through our system. We needed this extra boost for the health of staff and collections. Stale air can be a real problem. We were also able to maintain a temperature and humidity that is typical for our building — 70-80 degrees and 50-60% relative humidity.
