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University of Iowa

University Libraries

Nov 12 2008

Making A Difference With Baskets

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The African American Museum has a collection of baskets that were sent to us after being damaged in the flood. In September we were sent to the Campbell Center in Mt. Carroll, IL for training in cleaning and preserving these baskets. This is an example of one of the baskets I cleaned. This particular basket is actually a tray with seven smaller “cup like” baskets nested into it. This picture shows two of the cups, the one on the right has been cleaned, the one on the left has not. This particular basket took roughly 40 hours to clean using swabs and saliva.

Nov 10 2008

Leigh Ann Randak Visits

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 the ceiling and take up the entire room, we moved into the hall to unpack the boxes and resort them. Caitlin and I repacked and took notes. There are several City High year books–and I found photos of my father-in-law. There are Iowa State Registers (“red books”) that may be able to be replaced easily. After we marked all the boxes, we stacked them up again. Leigh Ann left with as much as could fit in her car. We agreed that Gary would develop treatment strategies for the larger bound books. Although we were prepared with gloves and masks, in the picture I am wearing my mask on the back of my head–the smell is mostly dissipated, and we were relabeling boxes in the hall.

Nov 6 2008

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 that come back looking perfectly fine will need to be inspected page-by-page to make sure there are no surprises. Grit, leaves, and bugs are the most common things that get stuck in books after a flood. I leave the rest to your imagination.

Nov 4 2008

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 so far.

Nov 3 2008

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 the Czech/Slovak or the African American Museum, a few items slipped through the cracks and needed to be identified. Stefanie had to make some tough decisions. The museum can not afford to have all items conserved.

Oct 30 2008

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 middle flap folds in first, then the side flaps are folded in. The 3 ply of the 10 pt. card gives it added support, The fact that the flaps are loose eliminates the problem of seams and adhesives. They will be housed in polyethylene sleeves with the original covers. 

Oct 22 2008

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 were delivered to the University of Iowa Main Library. We couldn’t wait to see what the books looked like so we opened up a few boxes right away. The items from the JCHS collection were flooded from underground water so they aren’t muddy. These ledgers from the JCHS are wrinkled and show some bleeding of ink — all in all, not too bad!

Here’s hoping the rest look as good.

Oct 17 2008

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 the buttons by material and worked with Gary Frost to determine the best method of cleaning for each. This is among the items that will be returned to the African American Museum on Feb. 3, 2009.

Oct 15 2008

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 then went in to do the detailing with swabs and saliva. According to Susan Kuecker they look better than they did before the flood!