Say you have a really big book and need to house it in a box. How can you get a two foot thick book in and out of a lidded box? Answer: a tailgate This double walled box with lid and tailgate (side flap) was made by Conservation Assistant and boxmaker extraordinaire Linda Lundy. ItContinue reading “A Big Box for a Big Book”
Author Archives: Bill Voss
10,000 page book bound at Conservation Lab
In Celebration of Iowa City being named a “City of Literature” by UNESCO, Dr. Alphabet (Dave Morice) sponsored by Sackter House Media has completed his largest, longest, world-record breaking poetry marathon by creating a 100 volume work of 10,000 pages in 100 days. The marathon was a highlight of a four-month exhibit at the University of IowaContinue reading “10,000 page book bound at Conservation Lab”
Exciting forum at ALA Annual
The forum Strategic Future of Print Collections attracted over 300 librarians. The forum was produced by Debbie Noland, Library Binding Institute, and Gary Frost, University of Iowa, and was sponsored by the Preservation and Reformatting sub group and the Rare Books and Manuscripts sub group of the American Library Association. The program featured three presentationsContinue reading “Exciting forum at ALA Annual”
Rare Book Exhibit Completed in Peru
A University of Iowa Library Preservation team Gary Frost, Conservator, Joyce Miller, project support and technician and Bill Voss, Exhibit Conservator, has completed a project to prepare and install a 26 case comprehensive exhibit of the treasures of the Library of the Convent of the Recoleta in Arequipa Peru. The two week project (May 26Continue reading “Rare Book Exhibit Completed in Peru”
Paper to Digital to Paper Again
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 A UI prof and grad student were interested in getting a digital copy of Cursus Literaturae Sinicae, a 19th C. translation of classical Chinese texts into Latin in five volumes. When the volumes came via ILL from Notre Dame, they were scanned using the overhead scanner with the gradation curve set to giveContinue reading “Paper to Digital to Paper Again”
More Civil War Letters
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 Here is another Civil War letter similar to the one posted below, only here the additional challenges were that the letter required some flattening of the wrinkles and folds before mending and the repair tissue had to be tinted. This letter was pressed overnight between moistened blotter paper to flatten it. Then theContinue reading “More Civil War Letters”
Preparing Civil War Letter for Scanning
Thursday, January 15, 2009 One of the collections that the department is currently digitizing is a collection of letters and diaries relating to the Civil War. While most are in good condition, a few are so torn that they require considerable mending before they can be scanned. For our mending, we use Walters repair tissue which weContinue reading “Preparing Civil War Letter for Scanning”