Thursday, March 19, 2009 The pictured objects were actively corroding after the flood. To slow that process we put the objects in sealed containers with silica gel packets. The dessicant pulls in moisture so it doesn’t permeate the objects. Now we are trying to clean up the effects of the corrosion and stabilize the metalContinue reading “Cleaning the Rust”
Category Archives: Flood Recovery
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”
Metal Cleaning Party
Wednesday, March 4, 2009 Several weeks ago, Steve Stenstrom offered to give us a quick workshop on metal cleaning and preservation techniques. Our best guess is that we have a bout 100 metal items to clean — most are from the African American Museum of Iowa. We really needed his assistance, took him up onContinue reading “Metal Cleaning Party”
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”
Volunteer Begins Working File Project
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 Our publicity has been paying off! Marilyn Maynard, a local Iowa Citian, read about our recovery efforts in the Press Citizen and thought she might be able to contribute. She is currently working on a project designed to clean and copy the working files for the African American Museum. The filesContinue reading “Volunteer Begins Working File Project”
Saving Working Files Conundrum
Friday, February 6, 2009 Susan Kuecker, African America Museum curator, would like to save her working files. These files have all her research for various researcher requests, grant applications, and projects, collected over eight years. Most of this information is not in her computer. Since most of the items in the files are not unique,Continue reading “Saving Working Files Conundrum”
Soaking LP Covers Works Sometimes
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 The covers of the LP records in the Czech Slovak Collection come in different formats and conditions of which some are worse than others. Then there are those few that are exceptionally awful. This is an example of a double disc set in which the inner images fused together in theContinue reading “Soaking LP Covers Works Sometimes”
Making progress with LP covers
Monday, February 2, 2009 The process we have been using to clean and prepare the LP covers to be rehoused with their respective 33 1/3s has turned out to have a lot more steps than we thought. We have been removing the image from flood saturated cardboard which is warped, discolored, and in some casesContinue reading “Making progress with LP covers”
African American Objects Ready to Go Home
Friday, January 30, 2009 On Tuesday February 3, 2009, we will be returning the first finished round of artifacts to the African American Museum. This will include baskets, gourds, feathered fans, sandals, a beaded necklace, a syrup tin, a box of buttons from a local dry cleaner and many other objects. It will be aContinue reading “African American Objects Ready to Go Home”