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: Mold, insects, and other agents of deterioration
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”
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”
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”
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”