Friday, July 18, 2008 Our garbage disposal died just after Cedar Rapids flooded. I finally got organized enough to schedule a plumber. I spent the morning organizing my “flood” files. At 10:30, I headed out for my meeting with David to review flood recovery efforts only to discover that the pickup battery was dead. DavidContinue reading “Dead battery and Warped 78s”
Category Archives: National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library
False Alarm
Thursday, July 17, 2008 The Cedar Rapids Gazette announced the posting of Susan Hansen’s “How to Repair Flood Damaged Books” at http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080717/NEWS/325405342 She did a great job! The name is a little misleading as the video is about cleaning and drying out books not repairing. Oh, well. Beth and I went over to the OakdaleContinue reading “False Alarm”
Book Repair Home Again
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 The LP project is close to done. Should finish up tomorrow. Then our volunteer can take a much needed break! I really don’t know how we could have even attempted this project without the use of the Paper Facility. The paper drying rack is perfect. They can do a box atContinue reading “Book Repair Home Again”
Flattening LP Covers
Thursday, July 10, 2008 These LP covers were saturated with flood water. Many of them were printed on coated paper which means we couldn’t clean them until they were dry because the water would wash away the image. We used drying racks and a stack dryer which is pictured below. They were hung up until theyContinue reading “Flattening LP Covers”
Stacking LPs
Tuesday, July 8, 2008 These are some of the first records that we cleaned for the Czech Slovak museum. This is one small stack of the 1,200 33 1/3rds ahead of us.
Moving Back
Monday, July 7, 2008 After three days of guests and almost no flood related activities, it was very hard to get mentally back to work. My host, Engineer Librarian John Forys, gave me a tip on where to find great coffee — The T-spoons. Fortified, I tackled my close to 700 emails, hoping to get partContinue reading “Moving Back”
Drying Out LP’s
Thursday, July 3, 2008 As we are taking out the LPs from their disgusting boxes, the covers and the records themselves are still wet. And caked with mud. And they need to be dried–preferably with some semblance of the order they are in. Luckily, Tim Barrett has allowed us to take over the Paper LabContinue reading “Drying Out LP’s”
Mass Drying
Monday, July 7, 2008 We try to utilize the entire drying rack daily. The records are hung staggered with the covers, which allows air to pass around them all. We set up a few fans around the room, not directly on the rack, as it caused some of the covers to fall, but just toContinue reading “Mass Drying”
Respirator Fitting
Wednesday, July 2, 2008 Because we were working with materials that were covered in mold we had to wear respirators the whole time we worked on the Czech record project. To be most effective, respirators have to be specially fit and tested for each person. This photo illustrates one of the tests they used toContinue reading “Respirator Fitting”
Washing LP Records
Tuesday, July 1, 2008 So how do you wash LP records? It’s quite simple as it turns out. Assemble your tools: plastic tub, garbage can on wheels, brush, and photo flo. We’re using regular tap water as we plan on re-washing everything in the conservation lab once the records are safe to handle.