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OceanTeacher Academy Disaster Response Session 2011

Monday, May 23, 2011 I am, once again, teaching a Disaster Planning and Recovery course at the OceanTeacher Academy in Ostend, Belgium. Today we learned about air drying books which can be very tedious and time consuming. Each book needs to have plain paper inserted between the covers and every few pages to wick upContinue reading “OceanTeacher Academy Disaster Response Session 2011”

Celebrate ALA Preservation Week: Learn about Disaster Preparedness

Thursday, April 21, 2011 FREE ALCTS webinar for Preservation Week! On Tuesday, April 26, 2011, Nancy E Kraft, UI Libraries Preservation Librarian will present a webinar, “Accidents Happen: Protecting & Saving Family Treasures” at 2pm Eastern, 1pm Central, noon Mountain, and 11am Pacific Time. It’s an hour in length. Accidents and disasters happen. When itContinue reading “Celebrate ALA Preservation Week: Learn about Disaster Preparedness”

UI Libraries Preserve Selected Websites

Thursday, February 3, 2011 Those hard copies of course catalogs, University annual reports, and department newsletters are becoming a thing of the past. In their place are “born digital” records – publications created and available exclusively online. This poses a preservation challenge to the University Archives, which has traditionally collected paper versions of these records.Continue reading “UI Libraries Preserve Selected Websites”

Spitler Donates to Bookbinding Model Collection

Wednesday, January 19, 2011 Priscilla Spitler has donated three workshop sample bindings to the University of Iowa Libraries Bookbinding Model Collection. These models present Priscilla’s superior skills of artistry and craft and provide instructional models equivalent to other workshop sets by Bill Anthony and Robert Espinosa also in the collection. The first model demonstrates aContinue reading “Spitler Donates to Bookbinding Model Collection”

Big Book Explained

Thursday, January 13, 2011 Binding a 10,000 page book is no small task! You can’t get your hands around all 10,000 pages at once so the book needs to be assembled into smaller units and then bound together using a specially constructed press to hold everything in place, nicely squared up, until the book textContinue reading “Big Book Explained”

Frost Honored by Guild of Book Workers

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 Gary Frost, Conservator, University of Iowa Libraries, has been given the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2010 by the Guild of Book Workers. The Guild, founded in 1906, is focused on service to the hand bookbinding community. Frost joins other Awards recipients Bernard Middleton, Hedi Kyle, Don Etherington and Michael Wilcox. HeContinue reading “Frost Honored by Guild of Book Workers”

Disaster Response Drill

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 Today we put into practice everything that we had learned over the five days. When students came to class they learned that there had been a “disaster.” They had to work in teams to recover the water and mud covered CDs, photographs, and books. They even had to deal with theContinue reading “Disaster Response Drill”

Outing to a Conservation Lab and Archives

Tuesday, July 6, 2010 This afternoon we went to Bruges to visit the conservation school which is a part of SYNTRA West. The students and teacher provided many demonstrations. We learned that wet paper needs a support when handling the paper or it will tear. We also saw several different ways of making boxes andContinue reading “Outing to a Conservation Lab and Archives”

My Aunt’s Dinner

Monday, July 5, 2010 We checked our books after 5 days of air drying to see if they were dry. None were completely dry. Although several looked dry, when we touched the pages with the palms of our hands, the pages felt cool which meant they were still damp. A few books were ready toContinue reading “My Aunt’s Dinner”

Book Drying Continues

Friday, July 2, 2010 After close to two days of air drying many, but not all, books were ready to press. We used a make shift press of books and bricks. Fans were set up to create good air circulation to continue the drying process over the weekend. We began discussions on disaster planning andContinue reading “Book Drying Continues”