Tag Archives: ucl

Challenge of a Millennia: How to Store an Oversized Clay Tablet?

The University of Cincinnati’s Archives and Rare Books Library owns a few cuneiform tablets that date around the 1st century BCE.  Most are small enough to fit within the palm of your hand.  However, the clay tablet in question measures 14 inches (W) by 14 inches (T) x 4.5 inches (D) and weighs roughly 40-50 lbs.

Assyrian cornerstone during surface cleaning

More accurately, it is thought to be an Assyrian cornerstone that dates between 860 and 824 BCE.  It is described in the catalog record to be from the ruins of Calah (near Ninevah) on the Tigris River.  It is likely the cornerstone of a temple or palace erected by Salmanser III, king of Assyria. The provenance of how the University acquired the tablet is uncertain.

A translation of the cuneiform writing reads, ““Salmaneser, the great king, the mighty king, king of the universe, king of Assyria, son of Asurnaserpal, the great king, the mighty king, the king of Assyria, son of Tukulbi-Ninib, king of the universe, king of Assyria, and indeed builder of the temple-tower of the city of Calah.”

After surface cleaning and digitizing the cornerstone, finding suitable storage for an Assyrian cornerstone tablet seemed like a straightforward task in the beginning.  I thought, “Let’s get it off the floor, house it, and protect it from dust!”  No problem, right?

But once we got the item back in the lab, the weight of the object combined with its fragility proved more of a challenge after Chris, Holly and I began thinking about how the object would be retrieved from storage and how it would be handled.  Rather than being stored in specialty shelving (such as items might be in a museum), this item was a library item.  We needed to fit the tablet amongst archival book shelving.  We were also faced with the prospect of transporting the cornerstone up and down a flight of stairs from the secure rare book storage. There is no easy elevator access!  And finally, once it was put in an enclosure, how would a librarian get it out to show researchers and students?

We decided on an industrial case with wheels that could be transported and stored anywhere. I knew I wanted a device with handles to pull the object in and out of the case, but immediately decided against the idea of ratchet straps. The threat of fracturing would be too great if the ratchet straps were over-tightened.

After careful thought (and the creation of mock up solutions!) the following custom design was created in five stages:

1. A waterproof, shock-proof rolling Nanuk 950 case (similar to a Pelican case) was purchased.  

2. The interior was customized with foam and supports.

3. The lid was fashioned with a Tyvek pillow screwed to the top with an interior Coroplast sheet.

4. The cornerstone was wrapped around all sides in a foam sheet with four flaps.

5. A cloth wrapper with custom handles was sewn to support the tablet during insertion into and retrieval from the case.

In addition, life-size surrogate photographs were printed by Jessica Ebert and stored in a polyester sleeve within the case.  These images may prove even more useful during exhibition or teaching than seeing the actual tablet as they were captured with raking light that beautifully highlights the cuneiform writing.  They could even be used as an alternative to handling the heavy tablet.

To help guide future librarians on how to handle the cuneiform tablet in the future, handling instructions were provided, a handling video was created, and a QR code of the video was pasted onto the case. Check out the video below.

I was appreciative to have been able to hearken back to my object’s conservation experience working at the Musical Instrument Museum. My prior experience helped guide me to dust the tablet and store surface cleaning samples, however, this was a project that took me out of my library conservation comfort zone.  The knowledge required to house such an object (and the amount of textile sewing used to create the cloth wrapper!) gave me even more appreciation for the work objects and textile conservators do to preserve our oversized and heavy materials – especially when transporting and taking them on and off display!

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer [CHPL] – Rare book and paper conservator

Video by Jessica Ebert

Work From Home

As things change daily in Ohio, we’re staying informed by listening to Governor Mike DeWine’s press briefings at 2pm, in addition to updates from UCL and the Public Library.

In particular, we recommend accessing the Public Library’s COVID-19 web page to see what info and resources the Library is sharing daily, such as how to obtain after school snacks provided by the UMC Food Ministry.

Another resource we’d like to pass along is about the management of collections when faced with a public health emergency. Please see the Massachusetts COSTEP website about collections maintenance, environmental cleaning, and library lending:

*Update 3/27/2020: The American Institute for Conservation (AIC) has also published a useful list of Collections Care Amid Covid-19 resources to check out. See the Ohio Preservation Council’s COVID-19 page as well.

As of Monday (3/16/2020) the Preservation Lab staff are practicing safe social distancing by sheltering in place. We have packed up our benches and transformed our personal living spaces into productive places to work from home. 

To stay connected, we use iPads or laptops and have a Preservation Lab Microsoft Team set up for instant communication, video chat, and file sharing. VPN and Remote Access were also heroically provided in extremely short notice by UCL IT staff.

Our work from home projects range from online learning opportunities, research we wish we always had the time to do, report writing, model making, exhibit preparation from pre-cut materials prepared ahead of time, box making (from pre-measured books), and general collections treatment.

We also have a longer list of work-from-home-ideas should the pandemic sheltering last more than a few weeks. These include:

  • Professional organization committee work (such as AIC/MRCG/& OPC)
  • Disaster preparedness updating
  • Creating videos
  • Writing blogs
  • Updating procedures and guidelines
  • Preparing instructional materials
  • Curriculum creation for teaching
  • Fabricating book furniture for Gothic binding treatments
  • Making book futons
  • Constructing silk screens for washing
  • Organizing emails and photography files
  • Sierra (online catalog) record cleanup
  • Uploading reports to the Preservation Digital Resource Commons
  • Creating databases such as one to record exhibition lighting

…And more such as the list provided by Duke’s Preservation Lab Team:

For those interested in learning along with us, the lab’s short list of at-home professional development opportunities include the following FREE courses/webinars:

With so much evolving on a daily basis, remember to take a second to take care of your mental well-being. We recommend the following UC presentation on Seeking Well-Being: Self Compassion and Mindfulness as well as The Science of of Well-Being course offered by Yale.

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer – Special Collections Conservator (PLCH)

A Virtual Preservation Lab Tour

Click on the link below for a virtual tour of our newly updated space:

Preservation Lab Virtual Tour Jan 2019

In October, the Preservation Lab welcomed special collections digital imaging to our workflow (for UC Libraries’ materials).  This new function necessitated a small lab renovation:

During (top three images) and after (bottom two images):

 

The results are wonderful and we are so happy to have a new staff member!

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer (PLCH) – Special Collections Conservator, Lab Manager

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