In honor of Preservation Week, the lab threw the doors wide open to the UC and PLCH communities for a Preservation Lab Open House.  Colleagues from both libraries came to find out a little bit more about what lab staff do to keep our collections healthy and patron-ready.
We pulled out all the stops to give our guests a tour of our home away from home.

Jessica and Veronica talked in-house work, including the simplicity and sturdiness of spine repair that leaves books better than new, as well as the basic book-saving physics of flush binds for heavier books.


Using one of his works in progress, Chris demonstrated a spine repair for an older volume.


Pat shared the myriad of enclosures for delicate, small, oddly-shaped, or multi-part items.



Kathy discussed preserving special collections, and showed off the much-discussed prosthetic ear to great interest. [Learn more about the ear.]



In all, over 60 people came down to visit and learn about our work. All sorts of great subjects came up, from the binding on children’s pop-up books to the logistics of building a clamshell box for an artists’ book. It was wonderful to see the conversation between members of both institutions.


And of course, no great gathering would be complete without a little cake!

Hyacinth Tucker —- Binding Coordinator (UCL)