Monthly Archives: May 2015

Preservation Week 2015!

Demonstration CollageWe love preservation. Of course we do. And as people who love preservation, we naturally love Preservation Week! Truly, we do. We love it so much that we take to the streets and invite people over to share it with us. We were so excited that we decided to start early this year, with live technical demonstrations in the mornings leading up to the big day. We wanted people to see what we were up to, ask lots of questions, and learn more about what we do.
We showed off the past year’s work, including some excellent pieces done by our pre-program volunteer, Catarina Figueirinhas. Everyone’s favorite, the hot stamper, made a return appearance. We topped off the festivities with a raffle for a book, handmade by one of our students, and of course, cookies (we don’t have open houses for the sweets, but they are a nice bonus!).  We had such a great time with all of our friends and colleagues, and as always, we look forward to doing it again next year.
Open House Collage
Hyacinth Tucker (UCL) — Binding Processor

Preservation Exhibit

One of the perks of being on UC Libraries’ Exhibits Committee, besides working with a fantastic group of people, is being able to share and promote the interesting things we are doing here in the Lab. The most recent exhibit I curated for the committee is entitled “Preserving the Past for the Future” and showcases a variety of UCL and PLCH special collection materials that have been treated in the Lab over the last year and a half. As the conservation technician who performs the bulk of the photo documentation for the Lab, I thought sharing these “before”, “after” and often “during” photos alongside the information about the treatments would make this exhibit more visually descriptive for the public, who are primarily UC students. This exhibit, which was so beautifully brought to life by Melissa Cox Norris, director of library communications, and Amanda Jackson, former communications co-op design student, is displayed on the 5th floor of Langsam Library and the full online exhibit created by Lisa Haitz, web developer, can be viewed via LiBlog at https://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/liblog/2015/04/preservation-exhibit/. I hope you get a chance to check it out and enjoy seeing a little bit of what we do here in the Preservation Lab.
 
Jessica Ebert (UCL) — Conservation Technician