Last week the University of Iowa Library’s Preservation and Conservation Department were please to host Dartmouth College’s Collections Conservator Deborah Howe as part of the William Anthony Endowment lecture series. On Thursday, October 4th Howe gave a lecture at the Main Library titled Old Books, New Books, and In Between Books: a Brief Look atContinue reading “Deborah Howe visits as part of the William Anthony Endowment”
Category Archives: Book & paper conservation
Conservation Staff Install Works From the Iowa Women’s Archive at Dubuque Museum of Art
Recently a group of staff from the University of Iowa Library’s Conservation Lab journeyed up to Dubuque to install some pieces lent from the Iowa Women’s Archive (IWA) to the Dubuque Museum of Art. The materials and artwork are from the Josephine Pletscher Papers collection, donated to IWA by Kimberly Kirkpatrick Sparling and Ann SaylorContinue reading “Conservation Staff Install Works From the Iowa Women’s Archive at Dubuque Museum of Art”
Nancy Kraft reflects on disaster response in new book chapter
Congratulations to our very own “Queen of Disaster,” Nancy Kraft, on the recent publication of her new book chapter. Nancy’s chapter, “Bridging the Rivers,” appears in Flood in Florence, 1966: a Fifty-Year Retrospective, out now from Michigan Publishing. Find out how Nancy developed her disaster response expertise as she recounts the numerous floods and otherContinue reading “Nancy Kraft reflects on disaster response in new book chapter”
May Day Disaster Response Drill
Tuesday, May 1, 2018 Special Collections and Preservation/Conservation staff concluded a series of disaster preparedness and response training with a disaster response drill. We divided up into four teams. Each team retrieved, rinsed, and packed out the material found in a wet, muddy pool of water. Staff had to decide what to keep and whatContinue reading “May Day Disaster Response Drill”
Flood Recovery: Linn County Recorder’s Office
As Project Conservator at the UI Libraries, I am tasked with several workflows that are slightly outside of the regular Libraries Lab flow. One being conservation of the Keith Albee Vaudeville Theater Scrapbooks (see more here and here), another being treatment of Linn County Recorder’s Office record books. Nearly 430 Linn County record books have beenContinue reading “Flood Recovery: Linn County Recorder’s Office”
Before & After Treatment: Keith’s New Theatre clipping book
Before treatment: Crumbling edges, misshapen spine, detached pages, overfilled pages, board detachment front and back. After treatment: Foldered and housed detached pages in a 4-flap wrapper, sewed new endsheets front and back, lined spine and created new flange with extended liner and new endsheet, reattached text-block to case using new flange, mended edges and substrateContinue reading “Before & After Treatment: Keith’s New Theatre clipping book”
Shakespeare At Iowa Items Under Wraps
Friday, August 26, 2016 We’re keeping everything under wraps for the opening day of the Shakespeare First Folio and Shakespeare At Iowa Exhibit. As items were prepared for the exhibit, they were wrapped so not even staff could take a peek. Here some of the books are sitting in front of their individually crafted cradles.Continue reading “Shakespeare At Iowa Items Under Wraps”
Treating A Keith/Albee Scrapbook
Tuesday, August 16, 2016 Submitted by Katarzyna Bator and Bailey Kinsky Our second project this summer is assisting with the treatment of several scrapbooks from the Keith Albee collection. Our work was being overseen by Candida Pagan, Project Conservator. The goal for our treatment is to stabilize the delicate structures for digitization. Picture 1 showsContinue reading “Treating A Keith/Albee Scrapbook”
Finding a Hidden Gem
Wednesday, August 3, 2016 Finding a hidden gem makes Book Repair Supervisor Susan’s day fun. While repairing a book spine, Susan discovered this stiffener (liner) inside the spine; spine liners often were cut from scraps of paper, sometimes unused pages from books already produced by the bindery. The book she was repairing was published inContinue reading “Finding a Hidden Gem”
Documenting and Treating Scrolls: Part 3 Final
Wednesday, July 27, 2016 Submitted by Katarzyna Bator and Bailey Kinsky The Buddhist scrolls from the Ficke collection had experienced pretty significant insect damage which greatly increased the risk of damage during handling. In order to stabilize the paper structure, Kate and I performed some basic paper mends using a remoistenable tissue. We had previouslyContinue reading “Documenting and Treating Scrolls: Part 3 Final”