Friday, April 3, 2009 This document was stuck to a small leather notebook. I dry cleaned the letter and removed the piece that was attached to the notebook. I then used filmoplast to put the missing piece back and then photocopied the reassembled sheet. This saves the original while providing a working copy for reference.
Category Archives: Book & paper conservation
Sewing a Booklet Back Together
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 Some of the records we cleaned were accompanied by pamphlets like the one pictured here. They were mostly coated paper with rusting staples. The pamphlet pictured was held together with rusting staples and the middle folio had pulled almost completely free. I removed the staples. Dry cleaned the pages and guardedContinue reading “Sewing a Booklet Back Together”
Cleaning Moldy Books and Magazines
Thursday, March 5, 2009 Over the past few days, I have received several inquiries on how to deal with mold on books or magazines. Here are some tips. The items need to be dry before working on them. Set them out somewhere away from people (I use my garage), to let the items dry. IfContinue reading “Cleaning Moldy Books and Magazines”
Art Books To Campus Freezer
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 Once the art books were safely stashed in the freezer truck, we began looking for on campus freezers. We found one in Macbride Hall — a nice sized walk in freezer. We were able to get all but 50 boxes into the freezer. As Rijn and I were brainstorming how toContinue reading “Art Books To Campus Freezer”
Putting the Book Freeze Dryer to Work
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 We spent the first part of the morning practicing setting the controls and reviewing the maintenance procedures. Then we loaded up the freezer — a much awaited event. Our old freeze dryer had started losing freezer capability a few days ago. The books were still cold but had begun to thaw.Continue reading “Putting the Book Freeze Dryer to Work”
Richard Smith Provides Freeze Dryer Training
Monday, March 2, 2009 Dick Smith, the inventor of the Wei T’o Book Freeze Dryer and Insect Exterminator, after checking all the controls to make sure they had survived the trip, spent the day training us on how to use the freezer. The first step is to set the controls to freeze the books. OnceContinue reading “Richard Smith Provides Freeze Dryer Training”
Kraft Receives Midwest Archives Conference Presidents’ Award
Thursday, February 26, 2009 This morning at 8:30 I received the following email. Imagine my surprise! For years I’ve been a strong advocate for the preservation of all types of collections, including library, museum, manuscripts, and archives. I’ve spent time learning about the issues, organization, and language unique to each collection type. It’s really greatContinue reading “Kraft Receives Midwest Archives Conference Presidents’ Award”
Bringing In Book Freeze Dryer No Small Task
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 We’ve been eagerly awaiting our new book freeze dryer, especially since our old one is on its last leg AND we have lots of frozen art books waiting to be dried out. It took 2 hours to get the Wei T’o Hussmann freeze dryer in place. The book freezer weighs 1730Continue reading “Bringing In Book Freeze Dryer No Small Task”
Art Library Books Looking Good
Friday, February 20, 2009 Caitlin and Kristin spent most of the day at the Art Library sorting through the air-drying books. They inspected almost 400 books. At the end of the day there were still 18 volumes needing more air drying time. The rest were put on carts. About 200 volumes will need repair work — flattening, small repairs, or newContinue reading “Art Library Books Looking Good”
More Wet Books
Thursday, February 19, 2009 The Art Librarian called early this morning informing us that a pipe had burst, soaking the oversize art book collection. The good news was that they had caught the water break early and that it was clean water. The bad news was that a majority of the books had clay-coated pagesContinue reading “More Wet Books”