Wednesday, February 11, 2009 Walter Cybulski, Preservation Librarian at the National Library of Medicine, and I led a two-day e-forum lsitserv discussion on disaster planning and response. We weren’t really sure how it would work but were willing to give it a try. It was exhausting but well worth it. We shared sites for resources;Continue reading “Disaster Planning E-Forum a Success!”
Category Archives: Mold, insects, and other agents of deterioration
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”
More Civil War Letters
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 Here is another Civil War letter similar to the one posted below, only here the additional challenges were that the letter required some flattening of the wrinkles and folds before mending and the repair tissue had to be tinted. This letter was pressed overnight between moistened blotter paper to flatten it. Then theContinue reading “More Civil War Letters”
Preparing Civil War Letter for Scanning
Thursday, January 15, 2009 One of the collections that the department is currently digitizing is a collection of letters and diaries relating to the Civil War. While most are in good condition, a few are so torn that they require considerable mending before they can be scanned. For our mending, we use Walters repair tissue which weContinue reading “Preparing Civil War Letter for Scanning”
Good Preservation Practices Save Photos
Monday, January 12, 2009 These photographs were found among the documents from the African American Museum that were returned from the freeze dryer. This is one example of many envelopes full of photographs. These photographs were interleaved with sheets of archival paper which were adhered to the photographs when they were immersed by the flood.Continue reading “Good Preservation Practices Save Photos”
Up Close and Personal
Friday, January 2, 2009 I like to wear these magnifying glasses to demonstrate how fashion forward we are at the University of Iowa Conservation Lab. Aside from being extremely attractive they are actually quite helpful in situations like this one. The infamous gourd drum which took roughly 40 hours to complete has hair attached aroundContinue reading “Up Close and Personal”
Cleaning Gourd Drum
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 This gourd drum, an artifact from the African American Museum is a dried and hollowed gourd, the top has been sliced away to create an opening which has leather stretched across it. Two sticks intersect inside the gourd with the ends protruding from the sides, through the leather as you canContinue reading “Cleaning Gourd Drum”
Salvaging 45 Record Covers: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
November 18, 2008 Unlike most of the LP covers, the 45 covers are typically printed directly onto the cardboard instead of printed separately and then adhered. This can be helpful or it can be a huge problem as in the case on the right. When this cover got wet, the image was transferred to theContinue reading “Salvaging 45 Record Covers: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime”