This past week the preservation lab hosted 3 classes with 3rd year fashion design majors.
The goal of the sessions were to familiarize the students with the basic parts of the book, explore different types of enclosures, and demonstrate how these simple structures can be “tweaked” to produce a wide range of compelling forms.
Veronica discusses a bound items with exposed sewing.
For library items that cannot stand by themselves because of their shape or size, placing them in an enclosure is a good solution to the problem. In this case we made a custom clamshell box with filler because the item, a book on monograms, is shaped like a spade.
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A few years ago if someone had asked me what I cut paper with I would have said, “A pair of scissors, of course.” Then I came to the Preservation Lab.
We cut a lot of paper here. It can be in big sheets, little sheets or tiny scraps. It might be heavy or lightweight, made of short fibers like the ubiquitous wood pulp paper or long fibers such as Japanese kozo paper. We use it for different things too. Heavy board for book covers and boxes, corrugated board for different boxes, light board for folders, paper for pages or repairing spines, Japanese paper for mending tears and making hinges, newsprint for waste paper to catch adhesive overflow. With so many variables it helps to have a few options for cutting the paper.
Probably the tool we all use most often for cutting paper is a scalpel. We each have a least a couple at our work station. My go-to scalpel is the #11 which has a fine tip and straight, angular blade. The #23 with its curved edge is good too, depending on the particular task. Scalpels are great when we need to make a nice clean cut trimming excess paper from a repair, or we use them with a metal straight edge when we need to make a long cut that wouldn’t be straight enough if cut with scissors.
This blog explains how we construct an acid-free enclosure to protect a book that is too small to stand alone on a shelf. The dimensions of the book in question are approximately 2” X 3”. As a rule University of Cincinnati Libraries requires that all shelved items be at least 5” X 7”.
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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.
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One of the (many) great things about our collaboration, and the State Library of Ohio grant that funded our collaborative lab, was being able to purchase new equipment and supplies. With grant funds, the lab purchased an additional board shear, a humidification/suction table, a ductless fume-hood, additional map cases to store paper and many other wonderful things. But there were certain unique and very specific items that we couldn’t find through outside vendor s, and that’s when UC’s talented group of carpenters came to our aid. The UC carpenters were essential when it came to renovating our existing lab, adding a second bench area for the conservator and two conservation technicians, and a second sink by the new work benches. But one of the most massive and impressive contraptions they constructed was multi-compartment structure to hold binders board, corrugated board, foam, and other various odds and ends. It’s mammoth, sturdy and expertly crafted. And more importantly offers an excellent storage solution to some of the new supplies we were ordering.
Yet, after the first year of our new created collaborative lab there was still one area where we still need some organization help…bookcloth and buckram storage. For ages we had been storing our bookcloth and buckram in an oversized laminate bin.
Imagine this but jammed full of three times the cloth and buckram.
Imagine a finely engraved map of London, circa 1749. The map is comprised of separate sheets that are mounted 8 across and 3 down. The 24 sheets are printed on cotton rag paper and mounted on coarsely woven linen. The map has been repaired, mounted, and framed by professional conservators. Though the conservation work was done over 20 years ago, the work is in-line with current best practices and the map has lovingly been cared for by the owners in the intervening years.
Lovingly cared for by Keith and Betty Stewart. Paper signs stating ” PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH” did the trick since 1996.
Recently we received an unusual item from the University of Cincinnati’s Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions: a prosthetic ear dating to the mid 1950’s accompanied by a small photograph and newspaper clipping depicting the patient modeling the false ear. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, the ear we received in the lab was a primary model used to construct the actual prosthetic, so it would not have been worn regularly by the patient. I have to admit this is one of the more gruesome items I’ve come across in a conservation lab. Not because it’s a prosthetic ear, but more so because improper housing and storage conditions led to deterioration which gave the ear a very bumpy almost wart-like surface appearance…and it looks so real…
The ear and its original housing materials. The photograph and clipping were stored in the yellow envelope.
One of the ways we repair damaged materials here is surface cleaning.
This is an old catalog that I am cleaning up for future digitization. The pages are very acidic and brittle. The original will be available for patron viewing but because it is degraded so badly we will photograph each page and make it available digitally. I have to be extra careful around tears and edges that I don’t break off any of the remaining paper. There has already been a lot of damage done to the catalog from previous handling. I don’t want to cause any further damage or loss of information. Luckily, only part of the outside of the images where there is no text has been lost. Many of the pieces found and breaks in the pages can be mended with heat set tissue. So here I go!
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