Category Archives: Enclosures

Call for Applications: Ohio Preservation Council 2020 Professional Development Grant

The Ohio Preservation Council has updated grant procedures and awards 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

For more information on how to apply visit: http://ohiopreservationcouncil.org/Grants

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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.

For more information on how to apply visit: http://ohiopreservationcouncil.org/Grants

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer – Ohio Preservation Council Vice Chair

The Protective Power of Interleaving

You might know the importance of a protective enclosure, but how often to you consider the quality of storage materials?  In fact, the composition of storage materials plays a significant role in the preservation of archival collections.  But how?
Since storage plays a passive role, the positive and negative interactions of storage materials may not be readily apparent.  Chemical reactions that occur between library and storage materials are often a slow process, spanning over a number of months or years before a visual change occurs.  Without the gratification of seeing immediate effects, many may not realize how some storage materials can be problematic, let alone the ramifications for using non-archival materials.

 
To illustrate some of the effects, I thought I’d share a vivid example of protection from acidic materials during storage. The following photograph shows the positive effects of archival buffering paper (also known as interleaving), as well as the danger of using non-archival boards and tapes – even when they are not in direct contact with the object!
The protected object is a 17th century printed broadside.  It’s a single sheet of paper with printed black text on the front.  The broadside was stored for many years in a green cloth-covered portfolio.

Within the portfolio, the broadside was secured beneath with folded sheets of plastic film with a blank sheet of paper.  You can see the plastic film is attached to the portfolio around the edges with green tape.


This image shows the front of the blank sheet of paper stored side the plastic film, below the broadside. The plastic has yellowed overtime.


Here, the blank sheet is removed, revealing yellowish-brown discoloration around the top and right edge. This discoloration aligns perfectly with the green tape that is adhered on top of the plastic –located on the top and right side of the plastic.


When you flip the paper over, the back of the blank sheet shows even more discoloration. In fact, the discoloration is a mirror image of the materials below the plastic! This has occurred because the plastic is “breathable.” The materials below are all acidic, except for the white fragments of paper, which protected a portion of the paper from turning brown.


The interleaving paper served two purposes here:

  1. Acts as a support for the broadside when handled.
  2. The interleaving served as a sacrificial barrier that absorbed the bulk of acidic off-gassing from the non-archival paper and tape.

In summary, this enclosure is an excellent example of how different materials can interact with one another in nuanced ways, and how plastic is actually a permeable barrier to gasses overtime!
General storage tips:

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer (PLCH) —- Book and Paper Conservator

Upcoming OPC workshop

Our conservator Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer will be assisting paper conservator Jamye Jamison in an upcoming Ohio Preservation Council workshop.  Seats are still available!  prints in mylar sleeves and backing paper
Workshop description: This course is for archivists, librarians, or anyone who is interested in caring for their family documents, print collections, or other ephemera. The class will begin with a short discussion of materials and what to look for when making archival enclosures for flat paper objects. Each participant will then make a small portfolio of reference samples of various enclosures for paper materials, including a simple four-flap, polyester sleeve, paper envelope and a “back and wrap” enclosure, which can be used for display. Each participant is asked to bring four objects no larger than 4 x 6 inches (roughly postcard size) that can be used to make the reference samples. No previous experience necessary.
Learn more and register at —-  http://opc.wildapricot.org/event-3357153

A Little Box Magic

I just had to share this beauty of a box that was made by conservation technician, Chris Voynovich, to house the Public Library’s collection of Marguerite Lloyd’s diaries.  These ten diaries are part of the library’s Genealogy & Local History Department.  Marguerite Lloyd was the daughter of Major Harlan Page Lloyd, the former law partner of Alphonso Taft, the father of President William Howard Taft.
This is a gif (a graphics interchange format) showing a cloth covered clamshell box with two interior trays, each of which holds 5 diaries. The gif first shows the box being opened, then the top tray pulling out slightly, then the bottom tray pulling out further and then completely coming out.
Chris created this lovely cloth covered clamshell box with two removable trays that each house 5 diaries.  The compartments for the two smaller diaries have a custom fill to accommodate for their smaller size.  All the diaries have received a polyester jacket and the linen tabs under each volume make them easy to remove and handle.
Jessica Ebert (UCL) – Conservation Technician, Lead Photographic Documentation Tech

Comics by Chris

Check out the latest comic creation from our conservation technician, Chris Voynovich [PLCH], inspired by a recent enclosure project for Hebrew Union College…

“Loving the Japanese Style Cloth Covered Four Flap Enclosure with Bone Clasps” by Chris Voynovich


Want to create your own one page wonder of this fantastic comic?Go right ahead, print double sided to include The Preservation Lab information and links —OnePgWonder_JapaneseStyle4FlapWithInterior

The slow march towards the digital age…

Our colleagues in the Classics Library sent us an interesting housing project.  The goal, to secure and keep together a textbook and accompanying electronic content.
The additional electronic content was not in the form of a URL for on-line supplements, nor a DVD, but a small shiny USB drive.  The drive was originally attached it to the book at the end of a long silky bookmark adhered to the text block.  A neat idea, but the drive was almost impossible to use attached to the anchor of the heavy book.
Ah, the mashup of the old and new!
Our solution was to make a simple corrugated enclosure with a volara foam compartment and a photographic surrogate on the end of the bookmark.  The surrogate directs users to the compartment holding the USB port.  Additionally, a message in the item record alerts library workers to “check for one USB device”.
To me the pleasure of this item is that it illustrates so clearly the tension between the easy functionality of the book and the limits of its fixed form. It also speaks to how slow the march towards the digital age feels – illustrating a change in technology without much of an improvement, such as the move from DVD to USB storage.
[And here is where I lament that I STILL don’t have a hovercraft or a robot maid.]
Though many of us have vowed to get out of the prediction game, let me predict in 10 years our students will marvel at this USB device the way they do now at floppy disks and zip drives.
LONG LIVE THE BOOK!

Enclosure by Jessica Ebert, conservation technician


Holly Prochaska (UCL) —- Preservation Librarian

The Preservation Lab…in the news

Check out this new article about the work of the Preservation Lab by our collaborator Melissa Norris, with assistance from Ashleigh Schieszer, Jessica Ebert, and Kevin Grace at https://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/source/preserving-taft/.
Isn’t Preservation just so cool!

Conserving a head sculpture.

Ashleigh Schieszer works on Taft’s maquette. (Photo credit Jessica Ebert)


And for our loyal followers a bonus image of the housing of the William Howard Taft letters…
Taft letters bound

Encapsulated binding by Chris Voynovich, design by Ashleigh Schieszer (photo credit Jessica Ebert)


 

Slipcase Race

One of the Lab’s big projects recently has been to help the University of Cincinnati’s Classics Library with preparations for a move of a large section of their collection’s rare books. Moves like this are a great opportunity to assess the condition of a collection, and to provide enclosures for more vulnerable materials so they are protected in transit and beyond. In this particular case the Librarian also requested the lab maintain visibility of the original books as much as possible.
There are quite a few vellum books in the Classics Library collection. Vellum bindings are generally pretty sturdy, but may become brittle over time. They can also expand and contract quite a bit more than other types of bindings, depending on the relative humidity where they are stored. The Image Permanence Institute at the Rochester Institute of Technology has a fun time-lapse video demonstrating this effect – the book looks as if it’s haunted! Given time this expansion and contraction can cause distortion.
Hard-sided slipcases do make it possible to protect most of a book while keeping its spine decoration and information visible, but they are not generally a preservation go-to. They can abrade the edges and covers when pulling the book in and out, and they don’t usually hold up over time because it can be difficult to insert fingers around the book to pull it out if the case is tight, resulting in a broken box or, alternatively, damaged endcaps.
A soft-sided slipcase can work well for vellum-bound books. The vellum is smooth, so abrasion is not a concern. The flexible sides give a little when reaching fingers in to remove a book, so the box won’t eventually fail and there is no need to grab the book from its endcap, damaging it. The cloth allows the book to breathe and flex somewhat, while at the same time preventing it from expanding too far at the fore edge, and squeezing its neighbors.
With a deadline looming we needed to figure out a way to produce soft-sided slipcases quickly and easily. Our solution was to create a template in an Excel spreadsheet, allowing us to simply plug in the book’s measurements and know exactly what size to cut the cloth and where the creases need to be, without needing to have the book handy.
We measured several books where they were, then took the measurements back to the Lab, where we used the spreadsheet to make a handful of slipcases. I was holding my breath when the time came to unite them with their books. Much to my relief  they fit perfectly!
Check out this picture showing 4 vellum books – the one on the left was already housed in a hard-sided, cloth-covered, board slipcase, while the 3 on the right are in the brand new soft-sided cloth slipcases. The books are protected, but the spines are still visible. Win, win.

Now that we know it works it’s time to go ahead and make the rest of them!
We’d like to share the Excel spreadsheet used to create these slipcases – Soft-Sided_Slipcase_template.  Try it out and let us know what you think!
Veronica Sorcher (PLCH) – Conservation Technician
 

18th Century Poetry Pamphlets

This past April, during one of the UCL Special Collections meetings, the Lab received a new stabilization/housing project; a collection of Latin poetry pamphlets translated into German from 1830-1917.  This collection of 79 volumes is part of the Classics Library’s collection.  While the Lab will be treating and housing all 79 volumes, the collection is being brought to the Lab in small, manageable batches. The first batch received by the Lab were pamphlets bd.66 to pamphlets bd.79.
 

After consulting with the Lab’s conservator, each pamphlet was evaluated and treated individually. The condition of each pamphlet greatly varied; some pamphlets were in good condition, with only small tears along the outer joints of the paper cover. Other pamphlets were in poor condition, with missing covers, detached covers, split textblocks, torn or missing covers.

After the first batch of pamphlets was evaluated and treated, four stabilization treatment types were established for future batches.  According to the condition of the pamphlet, from good condition, fair condition, poor condition, to severe condition, each pamphlet received either no treatment, a minimal treatment, a minor treatment, a major treatment with stabilization though encapsulation, respectively. For future batches received by the Lab, the same treatments will be applied with small variations when needed.
 No treatmentFor any pamphlets in good condition do not require treatment, these pamphlets will simply be surface cleaned and receive a polyester film jacket.
Each image below shows an example of the treatments mentioned above.  Click on the photo to view the full size image:
 Fair condition/ minimal treatment: This group of pamphlets were in fair condition. There were minor tears on the cover that were mended.

Poor condition/minor treatment: This pamphlet was in poor condition. The  cover was torn and detached and the textblock was broken with loose gatherings.  The cover was mended and the textblock was repaired. The cover was reattached to the textblock.

Severe condition/ Major treatment – stabilization through encapsulation: This pamphlet was received in severe condition. The covers were detached from the textblock and showed major losses. The textblock was stapled and the staples had corroded overtime which stained the paper. The staples were removed and the textblock was sewn. The covers were encapsulated and sewn onto the textblock using Usu Mino tissue hinges.

Once the treatment of the first batch of pamphlets was concluded, the pamphlets were housed together in a custom made corrugated clamshell box with a clear spine. This model of a modified corrugated clamshell box will be used for the future batches of these pamphlets that the lab receives from the Classics Library.

Modified corrugated clamshell box with a clear spine.


Modified corrugated clamshell box with a clear spine.


At the moment, I am working on the second batch of pamphlets; pamphlet bd. 50-bd. 65. On this second batch most pamphlets are in poor condition. The covers are detached and some pamphlets have missing covers. However, the textblocks are in good condition.  Below you will find a sneak peak of this ongoing treatment.

Pamphlets bd. 43 – 49 – small portion of the second batch of pamphlets received by the Lab.



Catarina Figueirinhas (UCL) — Sr. Conservation Technician
Photographic Documentation:  Jessica Ebert (UCL) — Conservation Technician

Fun with PhotoDoc – Edition 4

The amazing enclosure made by our very own conservation technician, Chris Voynovich, for volume 1 of the W.S. Porter Collection.


We very recently returned a two volume collection of photographs taken by William S. Porter, known as the W.S. Porter Collection, to the Public Library.  William S. Porter is known in Cincinnati as one of the two photographers responsible for the 1848 Cincinnati Panorama (you can read more about and even explore this amazing daguerreotype panorama here). Volume one of the collection consists of 7 cased photographs (including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes) and 1 non-cased tintype, all reportedly taken by W.S. Porter, while volume 2 consists of one framed daguerreotype of W.S. Porter and a preservation print of that photograph.  When these photographs arrived in the Lab for treatment, many of the cases were damaged (especially along the spine – some broken completely, one previously “repaired” with tape, etc.), the framed photograph needed re-packaging, and the collection needed two custom enclosures (vol. 1 & 2) to safely store all the photographs.

(Left) Before “bench” photos of one of the cased photographs labeled “John Wesley Lever”, (Right) After photos of the mended case.


Now, as anyone who does photographic documentation will tell you, taking treatment documentation photos of photographs is a pain, especially on the copy stand (i.e. from above) and especially when you were trained in-house in a book and paper lab.  Glass objects just aren’t as common around these parts.  During PhotoDoc glass just acts as a mirror, reflecting all your light and even your camera lens and obstructing the actual photograph you are trying to capture.  But we knew that we wanted some good quality photos of the photographs to print as surrogates and to also use in the enclosures.  Black foam core and an Olfa rotary cutter to the rescue!  Using these two supplies I created a non-reflective black surface to place around the camera lens to help reduce reflections and absorb light.

In order to mount this black foam core on the camera lens I measured the diameter of our lens and the distance from the edge of the lens to the neck of the copy stand when the camera was in place.


The foam core allows enough flexibility for the deflector to just slide past the UV filter and snap into place securely.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
With the black non-reflective board in place, I was able, with guidance from our conservator, to get some pretty good shots of the photographs to be used as surrogates.  The photos were also printed out and attached to the back of individual tuxedo boxes for each cased photograph.  Instructions to “store face down” were placed on the front of each tuxedo box to assist patrons in proper storage.  (The glass on all of these photographs is degraded and if stored face up the glass can actually weep onto the photograph causing significant damage, therefore cased daguerreotypes/ambrotypes/tintypes are generally stored up-side-down to prevent further damage to the actual photograph).  All of the tuxedo boxes for volume 1 were housed within a two-tiered clamshell box with two removable trays made by our resident “Box Master”, Chris Voynovich.  It should be noted that it’s a miracle this enclosure made it out of the lab and back to the Public Library, because several staff members were so enamored with it and thought it would make the best jewelry box!  I mean, it kind of would, wouldn’t it?
Here are the images I was able to obtain using my homemade non-reflective board:

Jessica Ebert (UCL) – Conservation Technician