About Author: Kathleen Tandy

Posts by Kathleen Tandy

The Szathmary Digitzation Project

– May 7, 2013Posted in: Book & paper conservation, Community, outreach, education, and events, Digital preservation

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The University of Iowa’s Special Collections was fortunate to receive Chef Louis Szathmary’s library of cookbooks throughout the mid-80’s. Among the items were a number of handwritten cookbooks that Szathmary had collected over the years. In the Spring of 2012 conservation and digital preservation students began scanning the manuscripts. The first item, Josiah Ingall’s account book, went digital on March 13^th, 2012. The goal was to crowd source the transcription of the pages and create legible, accessible, versions of the cookbooks, some of them dating from as far back as the 1600’s.

A little over a year later, the project reached the 100 mark with the digitization of the ‘Household recipe book of Mrs. Howard of Staines, Middlesex and Salsfield Court, Nr. Westerham, England’. This number represents hours of work in addition to 12,674 images totaling 249,361,919,444 bytes! Each item is assessed before scanning, treated if necessary, scanned, processed, and rehoused in a 4-fold-flap. The DIY transcription project is also moving along at a good pace with 33,222 pages transcribed to date.

If you’re interested in browsing the digital collection go to: http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cookbooks

Or, if you’d prefer to try your hand (or eyes) at manuscript transcription, visit the DIY transcription site at: http://diyhistory.lib.uiowa.edu/

Lastly, if you’re feeling super adventurous, try out some of the recipes yourself, also found at the DIY site. There’s everything from dandelion wine to cures for the plague (which hopefully you don’t have).

-Jessica Rogers

Piecing together a flood damaged map

Kathleen Tandy

– October 19, 2012Posted in: Book & paper conservation, Flood Recovery, National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library

Friday, October 19, 2012

We are nearing the end of the flood damaged flatwork for the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library. One of the final pieces was a map that had previously been broken into 32 pieces and lined on a linen cloth.

Czech map before

We carefully removed each piece of the map from the linen backing. We then washed each piece to remove any mud and debris from the flood and to make sure all residual adhesive was gone.

Mending Gang

Since the map was in so many pieces we needed to work quickly to puzzle it back together. Bill Voss and Giselle Simon rounded out what has to be the fastest puzzle team this side of the Iowa River.

Czech map mending

Bill and I made some paste and pasted our backing sheet of handmade Japanese paper to the counter top. We then moistened each piece of the map and carefully placed it upon the paper. We worked quickly to add all the tiny pieces of the map and then placed blotters on it to help it dry.

Once the map was completely dry it was removed from the counter and encapsulated. Only a few more pieces of flatwork to go and the NCSML will have all their pieces back!

Encapsulating a giant map

Kathleen Tandy

– September 28, 2012Posted in: Book & paper conservation, Community, outreach, education, and events

Friday, September 28, 2012

Part of our mission at the University of Iowa is community outreach, in the Preservation and Conservation department outreach happens in many different ways. One of our most recent community projects was helping the Davenport Public Library (DPL) with an over-sized map. Amy Groskopf, the Associate Director at the Davenport Public Library, contacted us about encapsulating a large early map of the Davenport area. They had sent the map to be conserved by a private conservator but were unable to have the map encapsulated there.

Large Map from Davenport Public Library

Encapsulating a large map

Encapsulation is the process of using an ultrasonic welder using mylar to create a stable housing for flatwork.

The DPL’s map was very large and Bill Voss, Giselle Simon and I all helped to position and move the map around as we created the enclosure. We’re so happy to have a large flat space in our new lab that made this project run smoothly!

Welcome Giselle!

Kathleen Tandy

– September 4, 2012Posted in: Book & paper conservation

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Giselle hard at work.

At the end of June, the Preservation and Conservation Department welcomed our new conservator, Giselle Simon. Giselle joined us from the Newberry Library in Chicago. We were so excited for her to get here so we could put her straight to work on very important tasks, like boxing up office supplies, moving boxes around and vacuuming cabinets!

Giselle is a great addition to our department and we are so happy to have her here!

Busy Summer

Kathleen Tandy

– August 15, 2012Posted in: Book & paper conservation, Materials, equipment and procedures, Storage environments

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Change was a foot this summer in the UI Libraries Conservation Lab. We started the summer by starting to pack up our lab space in preparation for our move to the 5^thfloor of the library. It was a long, sometimes sad process but we knew that moving to a new clean space would be worth it.

Old Conservation Lab

Saying goodbye to our old space turned out not to be that hard when we were finally able to see our new space on the 5^th floor. It is clean and bright and we were able to lay out the space in a very cohesive manner.

Model Collection

My favorite spot in the new lab is the model collection and meeting area. There is a great table to sit at with the entire conservation model collection at your fingertips!

If you are interested in seeing the new space stop on up to the 5^th floor and follow the signs.

It’s a small world

Kathleen Tandy

– May 18, 2012Posted in: African American Museum of Iowa, Book & paper conservation, Flood Recovery, National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library

Friday, May 18, 2012

AAMI Bible with Kolarik Bindery Check

I always love when things come together to remind us how small the world really is. I have been working on a Bible from the African American Museum of Iowa that was damaged in the flood. The Bible was in pretty bad shape. The binding had totally failed and it was basically just a stack of sheets. I cleaned every page and then consulted Gary for next step. He suggested jogging each page together and gluing using the double fan method so that the Bible could be bound once again.

As I was cleaning the sheets a cancelled check to the Kolarik Bindery fell out of the pages. It was a check to have the Bible rebound in 1973. This was significant to me as most of the Kolarik bindery equipment was donated to the UI Center for the Book to help establish a central location for students to study bookbinding.

While thinking about how great it was to have a book bound at the Kolarik Bindery as I was working on a book for the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, I looked down at the treatment sheet and was amazed to see that the author’s last name was Kolarik. Suddenly it all came together – Kolarik is a Czech name.

So while working on a book for the African American Museum of Iowa, I was connected to the Kolarik Bindery and the UI Center for the Book as well as to the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library!

Johnson County Record Books

Kathleen Tandy

– May 9, 2012Posted in: Book & paper conservation, Flood Recovery, Johnson County Historical Society, Materials, equipment and procedures

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

We have conserved a number of record books from the Flood of 2008 for the Johnson County Historical Society. Most of them have been pretty straight forward in the treatment that was needed. We were so close to being finished with all of the record books when we came across a record book that hadn’t been sewn, but needed to be rebound.

This meant we needed to double-fan or perfect bind the book. This process uses adhesive to keep all the pages together. It is the process used to bind most paperback books on the market today. It is a fairly simple process but the sheer size of the record book made it a little difficult.

The record book all glued up.

The record book in question is 18″ tall, 12″ wide and 3″ thick, too big to fit into any of our lying presses! Bill and I jogged the textblock together and using all four of our hands clamped the book together. I then glued the textblock together and lined the spine. We could then move onto casing the book in.

The record book rebound

Hinge Tightening

Kathleen Tandy

– May 1, 2012Posted in: Book & paper conservation, Materials, equipment and procedures, Tips

Hinge Tightening or Tightening in Case

This treatment should be performed when the hinge(s) of a book are loose but not separated. Do not use this treatment if the cover cloth is torn at the joint.

Hinge needing treatment

The materials needed for this treatment are:
Knitting needle
PVA in a bottle
Waxed paper
Press and pressing boards

1. Gently hold open the hinge to be tightened.
2. Insert the knitting needle into the PVA bottle, coating it evenly with a thin layer of adhesive.
3. Insert the adhesive coated needle into hinge, then pull it back out slowly, rotating it to dispense the adhesive. Perform this step at the head and tail of each hinge as needed.

Apply adhesive using a knitting needle

5. Place a sheet of waxed paper between the cover and end sheet at the hinge and close the book.
6. Use a bone folder to reset the joint.

Resetting the hinge with a bone folder

7. Press the book between edged boards.

Submitted by Brad M Ferrier

Record Return!

Kathleen Tandy

– January 31, 2012Posted in: National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, Object conservation

Preparing to move all 30 boxes on a cart.

Preparing to move all 30 boxes of clean records.

We have been working on many projects for various museums that got hit by the flood of 2008. Remember the entry way back on December 18 of 2009? We may have sounded elated about our accomplishments then, but now we are for sure! We have finally finished the rest of the flood-damaged phonograph records.

Cleaning the record.

applying Disc Doctor cleaning supply to cloth

Applying Disc Doctor cleaning supply to record cleaning device.

All 1580 10-inch LPs and 78 rpms were thoroughly cleaned, sleeved and boxed. We are estimating that this process took at least 400 hours. These records were returned to The National Czech& Slovak Museum within 30 boxes.

Dave and Katie retrieving the records at the museum.

Dave and Katie retrieving the records at the library.

The records and books packed up and on their way to Cedar Rapids.

Mini Ornaments Upon a Holiday Tree

Kathleen Tandy

– December 8, 2011Posted in: Book & paper conservation

The holiday tree with all its creative ornaments!

This time of year is full of spirit and creativity. We like to indulge ourselves with fun, small projects like the Conservation Holiday Ornaments. All these ornaments were made within our department by Jody Beenk, Lucy David, Dan Essig, Bill Voss, Susan Hanson, Bu Wilson, Cynthia Mosier and other conservation workers.

tiny awl/pin tool measuring at 1 3/4" x1/4"

Longlink Ornament: 1 1/4" x 1 5/16"

We have mastered miniature books, long stitch bindings, tools, boxes, etc. We hope you enjoy looking at these as much as we had making them. Happy Holidays!