Preservation Beat

November 18, 2008

Unlike most of the LP covers, the 45 covers are typically printed directly onto the cardboard instead of printed separately and then adhered. This can be helpful or it can be a huge problem as in the case on the right. When this cover got wet, the image was transferred to the plastic sleeve it was in, when we cut it out of the sleeve in our initial cleaning and drying period the image came with it. We were forced to keep the plastic with the cover to save the image. The only thing that could be done was to scan the cover and use a print as a replacement, which is what you see below on the right. 

The cover on the left was in very good condition, many of the 45s were double or triple bagged in plastic and so were untouched by the water. We haven’t been through them all yet but the process is very similar to that of the LP covers. First we dry clean, then we spot clean with the vulpex/water solution. We flatten and mend if necessary and then collate with the corresponding record in a new polyethylene sleeve. 

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The African American Museum has a collection of baskets that were sent to us after being damaged in the flood. In September we were sent to the Campbell Center in Mt. Carroll, IL for training in cleaning and preserving these baskets. This is an example of one of the baskets I cleaned. This particular basket is actually a tray with seven smaller “cup like” baskets nested into it. This picture shows two of the cups, the one on the right has been cleaned, the one on the left has not. This particular basket took roughly 40 hours to clean using swabs and saliva.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Leigh Ann from the Johnson County Historical Society came to sort through the books that were freeze-dried and then stored at the UI Main Library –to see what we had here and take away anything she needed, or didn’t need us to work on. Since the boxes are stacked to the ceiling and take up the entire room, we moved into the hall to unpack the boxes and resort them. Caitlin and I repacked and took notes. There are several City High year books–and I found photos of my father-in-law. There are Iowa State Registers (”red books”) that may be able to be replaced easily. After we marked all the boxes, we stacked them up again. Leigh Ann left with as much as could fit in her car. We agreed that Gary would develop treatment strategies for the larger bound books. Although we were prepared with gloves and masks, in the picture I am wearing my mask on the back of my head–the smell is mostly dissipated, and we were relabeling boxes in the hall.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

There’s more than muck that comes with flood water. But we don’t need to worry about finding any live creepy-crawlies as we unpack the books for repair. Freeze drying not only dries books out but also kills insects. ‘Course the dried-out bug is sent back with the book!

Even books that come back looking perfectly fine will need to be inspected page-by-page to make sure there are no surprises. Grit, leaves, and bugs are the most common things that get stuck in books after a flood. I leave the rest to your imagination.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Here’s proof that an archival box does what it is supposed to do, even under extreme conditions — provides protection! You would never guess that this box of newspapers was in a flood. This box of newspapers was rinsed before being sent to be freeze-dried. That’s the extent of treatment so far.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Stefanie Kohn, National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library curator, spent the afternoon with us. We reviewed all the objects with her, making sure we had correctly identified those that belong to the Czech/Slovak Museum. Although most items were well marked and quite obvious as to whether they belonged to the Czech/Slovak or the African American Museum, a few items slipped through the cracks and needed to be identified. Stefanie had to make some tough decisions. The museum can not afford to have all items conserved.