As you might imagine remote work for a preservation lab is…complicated. Not all items awaiting treatment are good candidates for repair in the home studios of staff – the repair might require specialized equipment that is only available in the lab (e.g. suction table), the item may be too valuable to transport to a private home without engaging UC risk management and CHPL administration (i.e. all our special collections!), or the object may be too large to safely be worked on in our diminutive setups (e.g. many books with the folio designation).
But, that doesn’t mean that work from home isn’t happening! The image below is a batch of completed treatments awaiting return to our partners. These treatments are general circulating items that have been repaired, as well as items receiving custom enclosures created without the object, using just the objects measurements. The materials have been treated from home and now, on our new abbreviated lab schedule, are being end processed and returned to their originating institutions.
Though we all deeply miss the day-to-day work in the Preservation Lab, remotely we maintain our ethos of preservation stewardship keeping us connected to the lab’s preservation mission and the missions of our parent institutions. In this, we remain unchanged.
University of Cincinnati Libraries (UCL) and Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library (CHPL) materials awaiting packing for delivery.
Tuxedo boxes are fantastic, accessible enclosures. Sadly, they do have their limitations, as anything does. If you’re working with a piece that is a larger or heavier (or both!), a piece that is a bit more delicate and in need of more protection, or a piece that isn’t all in one piece, you may want to look at a corrugated clamshell.
The corrugated clamshell is a slightly more complex, yet infinitely versatile addition to a good basic preservation enclosure arsenal. Developed by Andrea Krupp in 1988, it’s great for pieces that are awaiting treatment but need stabilization in the meantime. It also works beautifully for boxing sets of items that don’t quite merit the time commitment that a cloth-covered clamshell might. I have also found a corrugated clamshell to be perfect for things like experimental music scores (which may include cards, CDs, or any number of other unexpected items) that need to be shelf-ready in a hurry.
So let’s make one. The material list for this is actually surprisingly small:
A cutting implement, such as a scalpel or X-acto or Olfa knife
At least one ruler. I generally use two – a meter rule for laying down lines, and a 12-inch rule for most cuts.
A bone folder. This should have at least one end that is fully rounded. You don’t want to push through your board!
PVA; archival quality, of course. While there are a few ways to make a non-adhesive box that I won’t get into with this entry, the method we use here in the Lab does require it.
A way to secure the adhered portions of the box. In the Lab, this would be done with large bulldog or binders clips with board scraps to prevent marring, but if you’re at home without something like those, some strategically-placed weights will do nicely.
And of course, your corrugated board. Again, archival quality. For most projects, we use B flute (3mm thickness), but we do use E flute (1.6mm thickness) as well. E flute is used for my example photographs, throughout the entry.
In the Lab, planning for our corrugated boxes begins with an Excel spreadsheet. Brought to us by Ashleigh via UCLA, this greatly shortens our box making time by automating the measurements needed for each project. With just the height, width, and thickness of your piece, the sheet maps out every measurement you need for a snug, custom enclosure. As you can imagine, in a production lab like ours, this is a huge boon. I highly recommend it, and I would be happy to send it to you! (Feel free to email me any time at hyacinth.tucker@uc.edu or check out this link to past OPC workshop handouts!)
E flute spreadsheet, prepped and ready!
Corrugated board, ready for cutting and scoring.
Once we have our measurements secured, it’s time to cut our board down to size and lay down our guide-lines. Two things to remember: 1) be sure to make all your markings on the side of the board with visible corrugated lines, this way the guide-lines and the less aesthetically pleasing side of the box are on the inside of the enclosure (with the exception of fragile items that might rub against the corrugation such as red rotted leather); and 2) do your best to orient the grain in the proper direction. When the box is finished, the visible corrugated lines should run in the same direction as the spine of the book. The overall board sizing can be done with your larger ruler, rather than a board shear or oversized paper cutter, if you’re very careful. That same ruler can then be used to measure out the cutting and scoring lines.
Work in progress, a closeup of a flap cut.
Next, let’s make our box cuts. If you have one, the smaller ruler is great here. Again, the spreadsheet makes this part simple. Cut on the solid lines, score and fold on the dashed lines. One thing that the sheet doesn’t mention is that the inner corners of each box wall need to be cut. Not much; you don’t want to expose your materials to the elements. Just a little corner to keep them from catching on each other when you close your completed box.
Almost done!
Now that all of the cuts are done, we move on to the scoring and creasing. In the Lab, all of the creasing across the width of the box is done with a large crimper, and the lengthwise work is done by hand. Fortunately, if you don’t have access to a crimper, it’s pretty easy to score with one of your rulers and the rounded bone folder. Just take your time, and don’t press too hard; you don’t want to break through the board.
In the absence of bulldog clips, properly placed weights can help hold everything together while the adhesive dries.
Next, let’s pull it all together. First, fold up the sides of your box, to define your inner trays. If you are using 3mm board, this is a great time to use your bone folder to flatten the flaps, in order to prevent bulk when pasted down. Next, tuck the flaps into the fold over portions at each end. This is where the PVA comes in. Put it on the flaps and the interior of the fold-overs. Be generous, but not too generous; we don’t want it to gush out when we make the folds. Secure the fold-overs with the clips/weights, and leave it all to dry. I aim for overnight, if I can, so that the PVA can off-gas a bit before I put the piece inside. If you can leave it for longer, that’s even better.
And there you have it, a lovely custom corrugated clamshell that’s perfect for your needs. In my next post we’ll look at some non-adhesive solutions, and a great way to customize them.
Until next time!
Hyacinth Tucker (UCL) — Bindery and Conservation Technician
When in the course of an item’s history it becomes clear that the book or artifact could use extra attention, or just another element of design to aid in its care and preservation, we create enclosures.
Enclosures create a microclimate that provides a darker more consistent environment for works to be stored in. There are many types of enclosures used for many different reasons, ranging from an impermanent simple paper wrap to more long-term solutions such as cloth covered clamshells.
We use enclosures to provide a range of protection for their contents.
A microclimate providing enhanced consistency concerning heat and humidity fluctuations.
A barrier against damaging UV rays.
Dust and pest control.
A strong support for contents.
Because there is so much documentation done on customized high-end enclosures that require greater skill and experience, such as cloth covered clamshells, I will discuss easy to make, low cost enclosures. To be honest, saving time and money is at the forefront of any business. Enter the elegant tux box.
A tux box serves admirably the need for a cheap, easy first line of defense. We usually create tux boxes using 20-point Bristol board with measurements custom to the book. The tux box provides an adequate barrier against dust and light. Another virtue of the tux box is thatold books that have suffered degradation and have become brittle are provided a more stable structure for storage and handling. It should be mentioned though that because of the nature of the design, temperature, humidity and some dust and light may enter inside the tux box through the exposed corners, possibly allowing these damaging elements inside.
So, let’s make one.
First make 3 jigs. The jigs will provide a guide to add extra board thicknesses to our book box dimensions to account for overlapping our boards during folding. We use 20-point Bristol board. Our jigs are three thicknesses – 1 thickness, 2 thicknesses and 3 thicknesses. We’ll label them 1,2 and 3.
Let’s also make a handy-dandy information guide that will record all our objects measurements and identifying info on a scrap of bristol board. Record the books thickness (TH), width (W), height (H), call number and title of our book. Use tic marks to record measurements as seen below. This will be useful for quick reference as we create our tux box.
There is a grain direction in Bristol board, (the grain direction is which way the fibers are aligned) for this purpose we will cut 1 length of the Bristol board with the grain running the (H) of our book and 1 length the (W) of our book plus 1 board thickness (W+1BT).
Use our information guide and jigs to measure, score and fold the horizontal or inner height-based board as follows: (W-1BT), (TH), (W), (TH) then (W-1BT).
For the outer vertical width-based board we also score and fold starting with an x lightly placed in the corner to identify the outermost flap. With our information guide and jigs and starting from the side with our x we measure, (H), (TH+3BT), (H+1BT), (TH+2BT), (H).
Wrap the horizontal piece around the book and then fit it into the vertical part. You can either use double sided tape or PVA to adhere these two together.
Here is the tux box in its open position. Note where the two boards are joined – only the panel where the back cover will sit.
Next, the tricky part. Creating the flap to secure its closed position. Measure, mark and cut the tongue on the outermost flap, let’s use a visual for this part.
Lastly, cut a slot for the tongue to fit into which secures the tux box closed. Close the tux box as if it is finished with tongue out. With a pencil draw a light “v” in the corner where the tab lays closed. Open the tab and place 2 small holes with a Japanese hole punch or an awl. Cut 2 lines connecting the holes forming a slot. Fit tab into the slot to close. Feel free to round the corners of the tab and all flaps using a corner rounder.
Tux box in the open position.
Tux box in the closed position.
You can also customize tux boxes to accommodate a varity of book sizes. No one wants to add an enclosure to their collection that is the size of a miniature book, it would be so tiny it would get lost. We can adapt the enclosure by adding spacers to bring the overall size of the tux box to at least 5”x7”.
Here is a link to an adaptation made to a clam shell that could also be used in a tux box as well.
So, the tux box is an easy-peasy solution for an extra layer of strength and protection for its contents. Unlike the Hostess Twinkie, the tux box is not expected to endure the apocalypse. I feel given the cost of materials and time spent to make one, it’s a fine, adaptable addition our enclosure family.
Chris Voynovich (CHPL) — Senior Conservation Technician
Did you know that UC Libraries’ Digital Collections & Preservation Librarian, James Van Mil, and Digital Imaging Coordinator, Sidney Gao, have recently created a website and blog to share their digital collections documentation? No? Well, head on over and check it out: https://uclibs.github.io/digitization-workflow/ It covers all their hard work establishing UCL’s digital collection strategy, selection guidelines, accessibility standards, and so much more. As they continue to work to create a more robust and thoughtful digitization and digital preservation program for UCL this site will continue to evolve and grown and they will share their progress along the way via the blog.
In their very first blog post they tackled the important subject of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and accessibility. Sidney shared their results from a recent experiment to see which OCR software performed the best under six document tests. They employed and tested six OCR softwares, some of which are proprietary and some that are open source: ABBYY Finereader for Mac, Google Cloud Vision, Tranksribus, Equidox, Adobe Acrobat Pro, and Tesseract.
Here is a preview of the six documents that Sidney and James tested:
Test One
Test Two
Test Three
Test Four
Test Five
Test Six
To see how these six OCR softwares performed and how they stack up to their competitors, head on over to their blog and check out their results: https://uclibs.github.io/digitization-workflow/2020/08/07/ocr-comparison.html James and Sidney do plan to conduct further OCR tests in the future, so make sure to subscribe to their site in order to receive notification when they share the results from the next round.
If you have any direct questions for Sidney or James, you can find their contact information here.
Jessica Ebert [UCL] – Photographic Documentation Specialist (in working with Sidney Gao [UCL] – Digital Imaging Coordinator)
After nearly 5 months of working from home, Preservation Lab staff are finally returning to the Lab and to UC’s campus in a very safe and limited way. In mid-March, like most of the country, UC Libraries and the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library shut down, forcing staff from both institutions to pivot and begin working remotely. After many months of webinars, research, model making, box making, some general collections treatment, and a whole lot of Microsoft Teams meetings and town halls, both institutions are beginning to open back up and offer some services. Luckily for the Lab staff, throughout this period of solely remote work, our UCL co-manager and Preservation Librarian, Holly, would make weekly or bi-weekly runs to the Lab to pick up materials we might need while working from home. We would then schedule our contact-free pick up of requested materials with her. The whole process ran rather smoothly and got us by for many, many months.
Since the Lab is located on UC’s campus, in Langsam Library, the Lab follows UC’s procedures for Returning to Campus. The preparation for returning to the Lab involved a workplace assessment of the space, a phased plan for returning to the Lab (which was vetted and approved), mandatory COVID-19 training, daily wellness checks, mandatory facial coverings, and social distancing.
Jessica and Catarina, all masked up, during one of their first shifts in the Lab.
The Preservation Lab’s plan to return includes the use of a cohort system to reduce exposure and better aid in contact tracing, if needed in the future. For the month of August, two cohorts would go back for 3 to 3 ½ hour shifts, one day a week. For example, cohort #1 consists of Catarina and myself while cohort #2 consists of Kasie and Holly. Cohort #1 goes into the Lab on Monday mornings, while cohort #2 goes in Friday mornings. While working in the Lab, our focus is on production and treatment – this means that we are either actively treating special collections items or working to evaluate, measure or prep materials to take home for treatment or housing.
Catarina working on special collection materials from third party client Conner Prairie.
Catarina working on special collection materials from UC Libraries’ Classics Library.
Materials evaluated and prepped for split board bindings to be done at home by Kasie.
Materials evaluated and prepped for split board bindings to be done at home by Jessica.
We’ve also made slight adjustments to our workspaces so that staff can stay as distanced as possible while they work. For example, Catarina has moved to our student staff bench area since she and I, under normal circumstances, are benchmates and work right across from each other. I don’t think Catarina is minding having all this space to herself to spread out and work on multiple projects at once while she’s in the Lab.
In anticipation for this exciting and overwhelming change – going from working from home for over 4 months and basically living in quarantine to going back into the Lab and onto campus with another human being, while wearing a mask the whole time – we made thoughtful decisions regarding shifts and breaks. We only work 3 to 3 ½ hours at a time and we take individual breaks once an hour in our outdoor space just outside the lab.
Our little jungle oasis, just outside the Lab.
A place where we can go outside, take off our mask, have a snack and breathe some fresh air.
We each have dedicated sanitation supplies to make sure we disinfect before, during and after our shifts. We also decided that we would dispose of our own garbage at home, in order to further restrict access to our floor from non-Lab staff members, like housekeeping. Langsam Library, where the Lab is located, is also using a channel on Microsoft Teams to check-in and out while you are in the building. This not only let’s you know who else is in the building with you, who you might come across while in certain parts of the building (for example, the restroom), but will also give us a fairly accurate record to present to any contact tracing efforts in the future, if needed.
Overall, I think our approach to returning to the Lab has been a thoughtful and cautious one. From UC’s COVID procedures (wellness checks, facial coverings, social distancing, etc.) to our use of the cohort system and the small adjustments made to our workflow and setup, I feel very safe returning to the Lab and very fortunate to have the time/space to prep materials to take home.
Jessica and Catarina wrapping up their shift by sanitizing and taking their garbage with them – while also wearing their masks and distancing!
We are looking forward to expanding our plan in September to possibly include another cohort. Until then, make sure to check out our Instagram (@thePreservationLab) where you can see all the things we’re working on remotely and in the Lab.
The Ohio Preservation Council has updated grant procedures andawards to reflect the current emphasis on remote learning and virtual conferences.
In 2020, the Ohio Preservation Council will offer four awards of up to $250 each in support of continuing education for Ohio Students and Professionals with an interest in preserving our cultural heritage. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and awardees will be notified after the 3rd Thursday of: August, September, November, December. Full details can be found here.
The Ohio Preservation Council serves as a coalition of preservationists, conservators, librarians, archivists, curators, records managers, the institutions they represent, and other concerned citizens who recognize the serious threat to documentary heritage. The Council’s mission is to provide a network for preservation education and to support preservation activities within the state of Ohio. The Council believes in cooperative, state-wide efforts across geographic and professional lines are needed to meet preservation challenges.
The Ohio Preservation Council recognizes the value of professional meetings, conferences, and other educational opportunities to advance the field of preservation and provide a forum to voice the need for ongoing stewardship of our documentary heritage. When possible, the OPC shall provide financial support to individuals to develop skills, expand knowledge, and gain experience relevant to the mission and goals of the Ohio Preservation Council. Applications are due the first Mondays in March and September.
Individuals requesting financial support must meet the following criteria:
• Working in the state of Ohio OR pursuing an advanced degree or certificate in the state of Ohio;
• Working directly in the field of preservation (as described above) OR pursuing a degree or certificate within the field;
• Request is for professional development that clearly relates to preservation issues and/or preservation skills;
• Have not received financial support from the OPC Grant within 3 calendar years.
The monographic series, Suave Mechanicals: Essays on the History of Bookbinding, just released volume 6 this month. Edited by Julia Miller and published by The Legacy Press (Cathleen A. Baker, publisher), the series focuses on in-depth analysis of historical binding structures, avenues for documenting these structures, and spreading awareness of their importance in bibliographic, conservation, and interdisciplinary research.
Included in this new volume is an essay co-authored by Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer and myself titled “Adding Value: Increasing Access and Visibility to Historic Binding Structures.” The essay reviews work conducted in the Preservation Lab to document, preserve, and promote the special collections of the University of Cincinnati Libraries and the Public Library or Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
The processes and production described in our essay would not have been possible without the knowledge and expertise of the Lab’s staff, student staff, and volunteers who have traveled through our basement doors to make the Preservation Lab the special place it is today…and always has been. As our essay went to the publisher prior to the hiring of our newest team member, we would like to provide the following amended acknowledgement list:
This essay is couched in terms of “what the lab does and why.” Behind each of these actions is a staff member that had the idea and made it happen. The authors are grateful to the past and current Preservation Lab staff: Jessica Ebert, Catarina Figueirinhas, Gabrielle Fox, Sidney Gao, Kasie Janssen, Kathy Lechuga, Patrick Schmude, Veronica Sorcher, Hyacinth Tucker, Chris Voynovich, and our dedicated students and volunteers.
Please visit The Legacy Press (http://www.thelegacypress.com/) to learn more about this volume and to peruse the other amazing books they have to offer.
Holly Prochaska (UCL) — Preservation Librarian, and co-manager, The Preservation Lab
In case you missed last night’s Facebook live event “Preserving Your Personal Library”, you can still watch it here on Facebook or on our MediaSpace channel:
Kasie, Catarina and I had a great time doing our first live event, although to be honest we were a bit nervous, however we thought it went quite well!
Part of the livestream included a step-by-step demo on how to create a simple paper slipcase at home. It requires no special tools and is really so easy to make that we encourage you to give it a try! You can find the full instructional video, complete with closed captions on our MediaSpace channel…
We want to send our deepest gratitude and thanks to Austin Winters for guiding us through this livestream and for coordinating everything for us. It was an absolute pleasure working with you, Austin! Also, we want to thank everyone who joined the livestream and for all your wonderful comments; it really means so much to us. And I want to personally thank my co-presenters, Catarina and Kasie, who are truly wonderful colleagues and collaborators.
Join Preservation Lab team members, Kasie Janssen, Catarina Figueirinhas, and Jessica Ebert for a special Facebook Live event hosted by our parent institutions: the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and the University of Cincinnati Libraries. The event, entitled “Preserving Your Personal Library”, will take place on Tuesday, June 16th at 7pm.
Kasie, Catarina and Jessica will be discussing at-home preservation concerns like temperature, humidity, pests, light damage and storage. They will be providing tips and tricks on how to address these concerns in a practical way, and Catarina will be offering up step-by-step instructions on how to make a simple yet protective paper slipcase at home! You can access the event via the Public Library’s Facebook events page: https://www.facebook.com/events/317097016118724/.
Welcome to the final day of Preservation Week. Though we were unable to have our traditional open house this year, the Lab staff (see our glamour shots below) hope you enjoyed our week of blog entries. Though a blog can’t replace the energy of meeting in person, we hope we offered new insights into the profession of preservation, the work we are currently doing from home, our individual research interests, and how we’ve come together to make The Preservation Lab a productive and collaborative team.
This year ALA’s Preservation Week marks its 10 year milestone. The Lab is proud to have participated since the beginning of our institutional collaboration in 2012. Our first few open house events were an opportunity for staff from both the public library and UC to see our facility, meet the lab team, and learn about the types of treatments and repairs available to them. As time has gone on, we have opened the event to the public and delved deeper into the research and expertise required to do our work, such as knowledge of historic structures, the materiality of the book, and photographic techniques that make the invisible visible.
We look forward to seeing everyone in person for next year’s Preservation Week. 2021 will be a banner year for the Preservation Lab as we will embark on our 10th year of collaboration, preservation, stewardship, and team work. Expect an open house celebration worthy of such an anniversary. And as always, there will be cookies. We have much to look forward to; hang in there!
We’ll say goodbye to Preservation Week with a walk down memory lane…Preservation Week Open House invites from 2012-present.
