Preservation Beat

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

While processing manuscript archive documents from the African American Museum of Iowa we fortuned upon an old, mysterious and extremely problematic form of document duplication.

What we believe we have, perhaps hundreds of, are adherography documents.  A definition, found in “Guide to the identification of prints and photographs : featuring a chronological history of reproduction technologies” – a supplement to the book “Encyclopedia of printing, photographic and photomechanical processes,” by Luis Nadeau, 2002 – is as follows:

ADHEROGRAPHY: A duplicating process developed by 3M. Images were formed by the adherence of powder to a tacky latent image created by the effect of infrared heat. This provided a master from which 200 to 250 copies could be made. The powder image of the resulting print was fused to the paper by heat. [A process used during the 1960’s.]

These adherographs, recognized as inherently volatile, did not respond well to the moisture, humidity, and high temperatures generated by last June’s floods.  The powder image described above, once fused to a slick-feeling, glossy-looking paper carrier, have lost their bind to their paper hosts.

Reformatting is simple where the powder images free themselves in large pieces.  Unfortunately, many of the documents have experienced a shattering of the powder image layer.  Attempts to stabilize these particular documents in sonically-welded Mylar encapsulations have both pros and cons.  On one hand, the Mylar, having a strong static charge, lock the powder image fragments into place… useful for reformatting.  On the other hand, this same static charge has the tendency to agitate the fragments into incomprehensible disorder.

With the jury still out on encapsulation, we simply reformat through the best possible means.  Where the documents are relatively stable, we quickly scan them face down on the Ricoh.  Where the documents are highly volatile, we image them under the Zeutschel top-down scanner.  No digital files are maintained.  Determining the best solution for the shattered documents requires further research.  Stay tuned.

Friday, June 26, 2009

As conservation work moves along for flood-affected artifacts from the African American Museum of Iowa, we momentarily shifted away from treatment of metals to pick up our inventory of small objects comprised of a variety of media. Two primary functions of the inventory are to verify the holdings under our care against the original AAMI data and also to provide our own identification number for the artifacts. Tagging the artifacts with both IDs and generating descriptive data for our flood recovery inventory helps us track and evaluate where we are in the treatment process, and, consequently, how much work we have left to do.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

One of our volunteers, Dawn Wellington, has been working on a project re-ordering and re-housing a collection of court dockets for the Johnson County Historical Society. She went through hundreds of dockets and put them back in order and into new document boxes. When she finished, we had Leigh Ann Randak, the curator of the historical society come down to meet Dawn and check out our progress on that as well as other projects in the works. Our volunteers have been invaluable for projects like this one. It’s so satisfying to have one more thing to check off the list!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

This week when Susan Hansen and I reviewed the work for the Art Library, she pointed out a book that had a block of pages stuck together. It felt like a brick. We were convinced that the book was beyond repair. However, before declaring the book a loss, we forwarded the book to conservator Gary Frost. To our complete and total amazement, he was able to salvage the book.

Gary took the book apart and pulled the section with the stuck pages. Then he trimmed the pages until he found the spot where the pages were no longer sticking together. The outer edges had sealed together tightly, keeping water from getting into the main part of the page. No text or photographic image was lost; only the margin. He chose to leave the rest of the pages at their regular length rather than risk cutting into text just to keep the book looking “good.”

If you look carefully at the book in the press, you’ll see that the stitching of the different sections no longer line up. All text is jogged to the top, this will keep the exposed edges clean, reducing chances of dust and dirt build up. This is important as bugs and mold thrive on dirt. We don’t want this book to suffer any more than it already has!

We try to salvage and reuse the book covers whenever possible. This cover was too far gone, so Gary made a new one. The book is now back on the shelf ready for use.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

One of our biggest workstreams at the moment is the rescue of the files from the African American Museum. We have over one hundred boxes of manuscripts which unlike the working files, which can just be photocopied, need to be saved. They are mainly records and correspondence, there are some photographs and newspaper clippings and other miscellany. These boxes were all submerged and the wet boxes smashed into odd shapes so sometimes it’s a trial just getting the folders out of the boxes! The fact that the museum used waterproof boxes saved them. While they were damaged, the boxes took the brunt of it. The files are warped and did get wet but most of the mud and dirt stopped at the boxes so there is minimal dry cleaning. There is some staining from the water but mostly on the edges of the paper and it is purely cosmetic.

Before any treatment we’ve been discarding and replacing the boxes and folders, carefully transferring all the accession information. They were all well labeled which makes it much easier to keep things in order.

I’ve been separating out the photographs as we haven’t yet determined a treatment plan. The bulk of the file material is paper which is warped and dirty. We dry clean the sheets and then flatten them. The flattening method I’ve been using is using a spray mister to moisten the pages and then sandwiching them between sheets of blotter in the press. The water relaxes the paper to help eliminate the creases. The blotter paper is a very absorbent material which takes up the water as the pages are pressed under weight. The sheets come out perfectly flat and dry. If a sheet has water soluble ink I mist the blotter very slightly instead of misting the page directly to avoid feathering. Since the files were submerged most of the ink that would be affected by the water has already so it’s easy to tell where to be careful.

While they aren’t pristine and do still have a slight eau d’flood aroma they are mostly back to normal and mostly in good working order.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Caitlin and I discussed the timeline for returning the LPs and 45s to the Czech Museum yesterday, and we decided to start forging ahead with the final wash of the albums. We are using the same method we used right after the flood, when there was still a ton of mud on the records. One tray with a mild and dilute soap, and another tray filled with only water for rinsing. As you can see, we  switched brushes–we needed a slightly stiffer brush for these more sturdy records. I am also holding the record upright, in order to minimize the water contact with the paper label, as we have found some of the inks will run.  After a quick dry on a rack, I don cotton gloves and wipe them to make sure there are no drips and then stack them to dry while I wash another round. In the afternoon, I then use a microfiber brush on the dry records and sleeve them. Then, after nearly a year of separation, the freshly washed record is reunited with a clean and newly sleeved cover.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The “bug guy” stopped by this morning. It is, indeed, a clover mite. Had we just consulted our marking/binding supervisor, Deb, we could have skipped consulting with our pest control contractor. When I told her about the clover mite, she said, “oh, yeah, my grandkids love them. They like to squish them and see the sidewalk turn red.” It’s all in knowing whom to ask! Probably most gardners would know that our bug was a clover mite.

The biggest danger to our books is that these bugs do easily squish and leave a red stain. We are monitoring the books. So far, nothing. Since they don’t breed in or munch on books, the books will go back to the processing area tomorrow.

Our pest control contractor told us that there are lots of these clover mites just outside the dock door and outside the south Main Library entrance. They either came in along with our box of books or rode in on the student who found them.

A careful observer — which I, obviously, am not — can see these little critters in the flowers just outside the library.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

We had a little bit of excitement this afternoon. A student worker had a small red mite fall out of a book he was processing. We called the “bug” guy who will visit us tomorrow. We’re hoping it’s a clover mite. Apparently, they are plentiful this year. The clover mite does not like books but will leave a red stain if smushed. In the meantime, we’ve bagged the books from that particular shipment until we get confirmation of what we are dealing with.

Here’s text book photograph along side photo of our little critter:

Learn more about the clover mite at: http://doyourownpestcontrol.com/clovermites.htm

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

I checked in with the conservation lab staff this morning. I happened to have my camera with me and thought you might like to have a snapshot of a typical day. This is the activity I captured at 10AM this morning.

While the ledger from the Johnson County Historical Society dries in the press, Gary begins to inspect and separate the pages from the next ledger in the queue.

While the records from the National Czech & Slovak Library & Museum are drying, Beth is mending a record cover.

Caitlin is cleaning a manuscript from the African American Museum of Iowa and Bryan is cutting board to make folders for Czech records.

Kristin is searching for the “perfect” spill guard to put around our new water system for the “just-in-case” pipe leak. The last time we had a pipe break all the water went into the Library Director’s office. Not a good thing!