Monthly Archives: February 2018

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)


 

For a good conversation call…

Yesterday we did some General Collections evaluation. This is when the Conservation Technicians get together to inspect the General Collections books that have been sent to us, and determine the best way to treat them. Since these materials circulate some of them are heavily used, and sometimes we find little surprises in them. This batch had a couple of especially fun ones. I found out that someone likes their vitamin gummies:

Then Jessica came across this unusual bookmark:

And then she was looking through this book about Nikola Tesla:

Complete with this invitation (number redacted for privacy):

I don’t know about you, but I think that sounds way better than, “for a good time call…”!
Veronica Sorcher (PLCH) – Conservation Technician

Tracking treatments

Most preservation labs track their conservation treatments through a database that links to, or shadows, their institution’s library or museum catalog.  For many years these databases were home grown, with labs using Access or FileMaker Pro – and that is what The Preservation Lab opted to do.   While there are now commercial and consortial alternatives, we are still using our homegrown Access database for now.
Occasionally the lab is asked to share what we use.  So, by semi-popular demand, attached please find the Treatment Database!  Though not perfect, it might serve as a good model to those beginning to organize their treatment documentation beyond printed sheets and physical file cabinets.  Some data has been kept so that you can experiment with the functionality.

Access database, conservation treatment

Screenshot of Treatment Database


To download the treatment database go to the following web address – https://uc.box.com/s/8sq75e5dxe889ezwzteh2dsrrbkmt7t1.  Read this file first, https://uc.box.com/s/rn34n4we0wrxpdj1s2p7xg6abg7mavdx, to help make sense of the databases organization.
[Note:  Access databases won’t PREVIEW in this cloud based storage, but once you download the database it will function just fine.]
Once you download them, make them your own…they are clay ready to be molded to your needs!  Go forth and be productive!
Holly Prochaska (UCL) — Preservation Librarian