Monday, November 10, 2008 Leigh Ann from the Johnson County Historical Society came to sort through the books that were freeze-dried and then stored at the UI Main Library –to see what we had here and take away anything she needed, or didn’t need us to work on. Since the boxes are stacked to theContinue reading “Leigh Ann Randak Visits”
Category Archives: Flood Recovery
Freeze-Drying Kills Bugs
Thursday, November 6, 2008 There’s more than muck that comes with flood water. But we don’t need to worry about finding any live creepy-crawlies as we unpack the books for repair. Freeze drying not only dries books out but also kills insects. ‘Course the dried-out bug is sent back with the book! Even books thatContinue reading “Freeze-Drying Kills Bugs”
Archival Boxes Provide Protection
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 Here’s proof that an archival box does what it is supposed to do, even under extreme conditions — provides protection! You would never guess that this box of newspapers was in a flood. This box of newspapers was rinsed before being sent to be freeze-dried. That’s the extent of treatment soContinue reading “Archival Boxes Provide Protection”
Tough Decisions
Monday, November 3, 2008 Stefanie Kohn, National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library curator, spent the afternoon with us. We reviewed all the objects with her, making sure we had correctly identified those that belong to the Czech/Slovak Museum. Although most items were well marked and quite obvious as to whether they belonged to theContinue reading “Tough Decisions”
LP Cover Prototype Developed
Thursday, October 30, 2008 After much discussion we finally decided on a structure for rehousing the records. Gary suggested a three flap structure so I came up with a prototype for the LPs and the 45s. The LP prototype was sent out to be manufactured for us. The structure has a T shape, the middleContinue reading “LP Cover Prototype Developed”
Do Not Recycle; Flood-Damaged Books
Friday, October 24, 2008 It took a couple days before we had assistance to move the books and a room secured for the returned freeze-dried materials. In the meantime we kept them in the basement. It never dawned on me that someone might think these materials should be re-cycled! Thankfully someone labeled our stacks.
Documents Arrive From Freeze Dry Facility
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 The items that were sent off to be freeze dried came back today. The books from the National Czech & Slovak Library & Museum are back on skids in the NCSLM building in Cedar Rapids. The materials from the African American Museum of Iowa and the Johnson County Historical Society wereContinue reading “Documents Arrive From Freeze Dry Facility”
Buttons, Buttons, Who’s Got the Buttons
Friday, October 17, 2008 This small metal box is full of buttons of all shapes and sizes that are from Mason’s Dry Cleaners that was owned by Elmer Smith Jr. in Cedar Rapids. These buttons, and the box they are housed in, were painstakingly cleaned by one of our volunteers, Diana Henry. She sorted theContinue reading “Buttons, Buttons, Who’s Got the Buttons”
Sandals Almost as Good as New
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 These Sandals are one of two pairs from the African American Museum. They were both caked with mud and sludge. We chose to clean these sandals because they were in better condition than the other pair, which had some warping and cracking. For these I used a PVOH sponge to do an initial cleaning and thenContinue reading “Sandals Almost as Good as New”
Ghosting on 78s
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 While cleaning the records for the Czech Slovak museum, we noticed that upon drying, some of the 78s had some residual “ghosting”. We tried a second wash but we couldn’t diminish the staining. We took a couple of the 78s over to the Audio Visual department to do a test runContinue reading “Ghosting on 78s”