Monthly Archives: April 2020

Celebrating Our Dedicated Student Staff Members

As you might know, the Lab generally employs anywhere from 4 to 6 student staff members at a given time. Our student staff are invaluable to the Lab, helping us keep up with our general circulating repairs, custom enclosures, Colibri covers, and commercial binding. Seven weeks ago, when both our parent institutions closed due to the pandemic, the Preservation Lab staff moved to working remotely. Two of our student staff members, Lexie Febel and Christine Shi, joined us in this adventure of remote work during COVID-19. Christine and Lexie are both conservation student staff members and our two most senior student employees.

Due to the nature of working remotely, general collections repair at home was unfortunately thrown out the window for our student staff, mainly due to a lack of time to prepare materials and projects before vacating the library. Fortunately for me, my fellow student staff supervisor in the Lab, Sidney Gao, was willing to collaborate to create thoughtful, virtual work-from-home assignments for Lexie and Christine. Sidney and I wanted to create assignments that would allow our student staff members to research and provide feedback on a topic that was important to both of them personally and professionally, while simultaneously helping us create a better work environment for student staff members. We also hoped that this opportunity would allow us to strengthen our skills as student staff supervisors.

Sidney and I decided to focus our assignments on mental health in the workplace, knowing that Lexie, as a Secondary Education major, and Christine, as a Psychology degree graduate starting her PhD in Psychology, would be passionate about this topic. The project includes three parts: research, synthesis of research and self-reflection, and recommendations for the Lab. Throughout the project we have been using Microsoft Teams to assign projects, communicate, share files, and offer feedback. And it is of no surprise to us that Christine and Lexie are doing a phenomenal job of their projects so far!

Part one of the Mental Health in the Workplace assignment. We’ve been using the Teacher Dashboard app within Teams to assign the various parts of the project and provide feedback when assignments are completed.

Since our student staff members and their work, both under normal circumstances and now, are so valuable to the Lab, it seemed only fitting for Christine and Lexie to share a little bit about their experiences working in the Lab:

Lexie:

(a 2020 Library Quality Service Award recipient)

Getting the opportunity to work at the Preservation Lab has been one of my favorite parts about college. This past March marked the 2^nd anniversary of me working at the Lab, and I hope to stay there until I graduate in 2021. Working from home and completing assignments revolving around mental health has really enlightened me on certain topics and has encouraged me to reflect on my own mental health practices. On a normal day when I am actually at work in the Lab, I enjoy completing spine repairs, but one of my favorite things that Christine and I have gotten the chance to do was to make our own books, using marbled paper for the covers.

Christine:

Working at the Preservation Lab has been an opportunity unlike any I have ever had. I’ve always had a passion for craftsmanship and the creative arts as well as a love and reverence for libraries, scholarship, and conservation. But after switching out of a design degree, I didn’t ever think I could have a job at the intersection of so many of my creative interests! The culture, work, and people at the Preservation Lab created a space for me to escape from a stressful campus and dive into a place of meditative craft and supportive learning. I loved being able to learn and practice new skills in bookmaking and repairs but also the opportunity to be a part of such an important mission.

Sidney and I wanted to reflect on our roles as student supervisors and have an opportunity to thank Christine and Lexie for their dedication and hardwork:

Sidney:

Working from home has allowed me the time to reflect on my position as a student supervisor, and on the value of student labor within libraries. I’ve gotten the chance to consider how my work-related philosophies influence those I supervise, and I realized that we truly cannot overlook the amount of mental and emotional labor that our student staff put into making libraries the wonderful places that they are.

The research I’ve done over this period of working from home has helped me understand the value of creating safe spaces and strong relationships with those I supervise. I feel so lucky to have gotten the chance to work with Christine and Lexie on this assignment. They’ve used their personal experience and academic expertise to help me better understand the ways in which I can support those around me. For that, I am truly grateful.

Jessica:

My role as student supervisor has never been something that has come easily to me. In fact, when I took on this responsibility several years ago, it was something that made me anxious, and, I’ll be honest, that I dreaded. My fear and anxiety was twofold. First, I am a very introverted person and I struggled to see how I could be an effective student supervisor. Second, I feared that I would mess up, that I wouldn’t be good at it and the impact that would have on the students. These are two fears that I continue to struggle with today, but I am conscious of them and I like to think that I am continuing to grow and evolve as I continue this role. As I often tell my student employees and our volunteers when they make a mistake or the repair didn’t turn out quite the way they wanted, “You are not a robot! You are human!” We all make mistakes, the most important thing is that we learn from them and use that knowledge as we go forward. We are flawed, and that is okay.

When I reflect on Christine and Lexie, I am so proud of them. I am grateful for their commitment to the Lab and to their work. But beyond that, I am truly thankful that they came to work in the Lab and that I have had the honor to work with them, both in the Lab and remotely. I could go on and on about their amazing hand-skills, their dedication and focus, their intelligence, and their thoughtfulness. I am hopeful that the work they have done remotely will not only allow Sidney and I to create a happier and healthier workplace for student staff, but that it will impact me and my ability to continuously improve as a supervisor. I have no doubt that I will gain new understandings and grow; and that will directly impact future Preservation Lab student staff for the better. So, thank you both!

A huge thank you, on behalf of the entire Lab, to Christine and Lexie (who have been working with us remotely this past month) and Emily Wagner and Charles Harte (who will hopefully return back to the Lab once the pandemic ends and our “new normal” begins) for being valuable members of our team!

Jessica Ebert [UCL] – Student Supervisor/Conservation Tech/Photographic Documentation Specialist

*While student employees are generally referred to as “student workers”, Sidney and I have decided to make a conscious shift in the language we use. We prefer the term “student staff”, as it more accurately portrays their role as members of our team and the great contributions they make to the Lab and to the libraries.

Sharing Our Work With The Public

Happy Preservation Week 2020 – Day 3!

Working in the basement of Langsam Library, we’re not often afforded many opportunities to connect directly with the general public. As Catarina mentioned yesterday, therefore, our usual “go-to” is to host an open house once a year during Preservation Week. Since we’re all hunkered down at home, we’d like to invite you check out some of the work we do, DIGITALLY.

If you’re curious about what we’re working on at home, be sure to check out this prior blog post.

This Friday, May 1st, 2020 at noon:

Please join Special Collections Conservator, Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer on Facebook Live to talk about scrapbooks.

Facebook Live with the Public Library, May 1st, 2020

Designed as a family event, there’s a little something for all ages:

During the session, we’ll fold a One-Page Wonder coloring book comic strip (created by Senior Conservation Technician, Christopher Voynovich) that highlights treatment of a 3 x 4 foot oversized scrapbook!
We’ll also talk about typical condition issues found in historic scrapbooks, such as those owned by the Public Library
As well as answer any questions you might have about preserving your own at home.

If you were unable to join, you can still check out the FB Live archived event here.

You can also download and print Chris’ comic and check out this video on how to fold a One-Page Wonder:

Airing after May 2nd:

Be on the lookout for the Lab’s 30-minute segment with Cincinnati’s Waycross Government TV station, or watch below.

This video highlights the collaborative nature of the Lab’s work that spans a variety of preservation and library-related activities. Meet conservation staff and hear stories from each staff member about some of their favorite projects, including the treatment of an iron gall ink manuscript, as well as where you can check out the lab’s online treatment documentation.

Stay tuned for more Preservation Week updates tomorrow, and don’t forget to check out ALA’s Preservation Week resources: http://www.ala.org/alcts/preservationweek. Take advantage of free webinars, information on preserving oral history, and more!

Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer [PLCH] – Lab Manager, Conservator

A Long Journey of Model Making – The Nag Hammadi Codices

Each year, the Preservation Lab hosts an annual open house during ALA’s Preservation Week, inviting the entire community to visit the Lab and tour our facilities. Each Preservation Week we choose a theme and dedicate our annual open house to that theme. For instance, last year was dedicated to the history of the codex, where the community was able to discover and explore hands-on the evolution and history of the codex, through various book models created by the Preservation Lab staff. This was a great opportunity to share, with the public, the importance of the materiality of the book and how we can use primary resources as teaching tools.

The history of the codex is a subject that I am deeply interested and has led me to meet and learn from great scholars such as Julia Miller, an expert in early book forms. As a result, I have been developing my own research skills, learning more about the history of the codex, creating historical book models, and sharing this knowledge with my colleagues and with different communities through opportunities such as Preservation Week.

One of the most famous pictures of the Nag Hammadi Codices. Image retrieved from https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/the-nag-hammadi-codices/

My interest in the history of the codex has led to a fascination for the Nag Hammadi Codices (NHC), also known as Gnostic Gospels. The Nag Hammadi Codices were discovered in 1945 in Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi. The Nag Hammadi Codices appear to have been written during the fourth century. These codices are among some of the oldest codices to have survived with their bindings still intact. There were thirteen codices found, but only eleven bindings have survived. At the time of the discovery eleven covers were found with their texts, text fragments of a twelfth codex, and one text unbound (Codex XIII – tractate (treatise))¹.The codices were leather bound with Coptic text written on papyrus sheets. The writings in these codices include fifty-two mostly Gnostic treatises, but they also include other works, such as the Corpus Hermeticum.

This discovery was extremely important, since there were many texts within the Nag Hammadi Codices that were not known elsewhere at the time. For instance, one of the most famous writings is the Gospel of Thomas which is only complete in the Nag Hammadi Codices². This was an incredible discovery not only in the world of paleography, religion but also codicology.

Because of my fascination with the Nag Hammadi Codices, I decided to dedicate some time to creating my own Nag Hammadi models over the years; creating to-scale the eleven bindings found in 1945.

There are many reasons one chooses to make a model of a book structure, to learn its unique features, how the different materials work together, among others. In my case, I wanted to understand the differences between each of the covers, what features made each cover unique and not exactly the same as the others, and the differences between cover and quire attachment, as well as why some of the codices were more elaborate than others, with cover decoration and blind tooling. This has not been an easy task and has become much longer journey than expected. The tremendous research conducted by scholars and researchers over the years on the study of these texts within the Nag Hammadi Codices, as well as the bindings itself, has helped a great deal in my task of model making. I still have so much more to learn.

The long journey of model making

I should start by saying that over the years, Julia Miller has been a great mentor to me; providing resources, guidance and advice throughout my endeavors to complete my full set of the NHC models.

My first NHC model with its many mistakes, such as parchment tackets (not found in any NHC).

My first attempt to create a Nag Hammadi Codex (NHC) model was back in 2013. I started by reading The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding by J.A. Szirmai, where the NHC are explored in the first chapters related to single-quire codices. I also based my initial model from one created by the Lab’s conservator, Ashleigh Schieszer. At that time, I knew little about the unique features of each Nag Hammadi Codex and their bindings.

In 2017, I was able to attend a week-long course at the American Academy of Bookbinding (AAB) on early book forms with the conservator and researcher, Julia Miller. It was at the AAB that my interest for these historical structures solidified and where I learned a lot more about early codex forms. It was also in this workshop that I learn about the mistakes I had made with my first NHC model. This only deepened my interest and conviction that I had to make my own set of NHC to understand how these early codices were made.

Codex VI created in the Morgan Conservatory workshop

I would come to learn from Julia Miller again when I attended a weekend workshop at the Morgan Conservatory. During this weekend workshop, I created my first full-scale Nag Hammadi Codex VI model. In addition, as a side project I was able to create a small version of Nag Hammadi Codex VIII. This was a great opportunity to learn about each codex and their unique binding and quire attachment features. With the full-scale model of Codex VI, I was on the right path to continue with my other full-scale models.

Another model created at the Morgan Conservatory workshop.

Two resources that have been extremely helpful in creating the full-scale models are the Meeting by Accident, by Julia Miller, where there is a dedicated chapter on the Nag Hammadi Codices with full descriptions, measurements and pictures of each codex; and The facsimile edition of the Nag Hammadi codices by James M. Robinson. At times I became lost reading Robinson’s description of the measurements of each codex cover, and other features as it is all written in a continuous text. Luckily, Julia Miller’s book has each description organized, which makes the task of taking notes and model making a lot simpler.

Another resource that has helped me immensely in this process was studying Julia’s own set of NHC models and paper templates. Seeing Julia’s physical models provided me further insights into visualizing and understanding the descriptions within her book and Robinson’s descriptions.

For the rest of the NHC models, I started by attempting to make Codex I without any paper template. I soon learned that this was a big mistake, as I ended up making the wrong dimensions of the cover and ruining the model. I realized that by first making a paper template, it allowed me to make mistakes without wasting materials such as leather and papyrus. Even though these were only models, representations of the NHC, I wanted to be as accurate as possible.

As I mentioned before, my model making journey has been long; each model beginning with research and note taking. Once I am satisfied with my research, I create a paper template that I will use to create the model with materials used at the time, such as leather and papyrus. This process of model making has been a great learning opportunity for me.

This past Spring I was able to share what I had learned more broadly when the Preservation Lab co-taught a Book Arts class with UC’s English Department. I taught our students about the Nah Hammadi Codices, and together we created a small model of a Nag Hammadi Codex VIII.

The Book Arts students learning about the Nag Hammadi Codex VIII (photo courtesty: Melissa Cox Norris)

As we continue to work from home, I have been able to dedicate time to continue my model making of the NHC, and research more about early book structures and their discoveries. So far I have completed the following NHC models:

Codex I
Codec IV
Codex VI
Codex VIII
Codex X
Codex XI
Codex XIII

These models are not perfect, but they represent the unique features of the different Nag Hammadi Codices found in 1945. I am hopeful that these models will be a great addition to the teaching collection at the Preservation Lab, and that perhaps I have inspired others to start their own model making journey during this Preservation Week 2020!

All the models that I have created so far: Codex I, IV, VI, VIII, X, XI, XIII.

References:

Miller, J. (., Spitzmueller, P. J., & Legacy Press. (2018). Meeting by accident: Selected historical bindings. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The Legacy Press.
Layton, B., & Sieber, J. H. (1991). Nag Hammadi codex VIII. E.J. Brill. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.kent.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip&db=cat02507a&AN=ohiolink.b31949312&site=eds-live&scope=site
Robinson, J. M. (1972). The facsimile edition of the Nag Hammadi codices. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Robinson, J. M. (2000). The Coptic gnostic library: a complete edition of the Nag Hammadi codices. Netherlands: Brill.

Additional sources for more information:

The Gnostic Society Library – http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html
The Nag Hammadi Archive http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/nha
Researcher and author Brent Nongbri blog: https://brentnongbri.com/

Catarina Figueirinhas [UCL] – Assistant Conservator

Make sure to check out our Instagram (@thepreservationlab) where we’ll share Catarina’s process of making her Codex X model later today. And, if you missed yesterday’s Instagram stories where Jessica shared the exciting journey of photography the choir psalter then take a look at our “PresWeek 2020” story highlight (see below).

Partners in Crime: Digitization Meets Preservation

Book & paper preservation and digitization seem antithetical in many ways; the former focuses on the physical and the hands-on, while the latter hones in on the digital and the technical. Even though there are differences between the fields, I like to think of them as partners in crime. Both preservation and digitization work to ensure that books filled with precious knowledge are around for learning well into the future; they just take different (often intersecting) paths to get there.

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to digitize a beautiful choir psalter from the UC Classics Library. This large book is theorized to have been used as a choir book in 15th century Italy, possibly the north-eastern area of Veneto. Its knowledge laden parchment pages and mysterious past rendered it the perfect candidate for both preservation and digitization. After it received treatment from the Lab’s conservator, I whisked it away to be digitized.

A book this distinguished required the care and attention of more than one person (it had nothing to do with how heavy it was… really). I was joined by the Lab’s photographic documentation extraordinaire Jessica, and that’s when the collaborative magic between preservation and digitization happened. Jessica and I sprinkled in some preservation-oriented photographic documentation as we digitized, allowing us to get a closer look at the materiality of the book while we had it on the copy stand. One of the most impactful imaging techniques we used on the antiphoner was that of raking light.

Raking light involves the use of one lighting source to illuminate an object from a low angle, highlighting texture and depth. Using this technique on the choir book allowed us to see and feel the true age and history of a book that survived centuries of use; the mountains and valleys of each aged page suddenly revealed themselves in the same places they hid in normal illumination.

The normal illumination used to digitize allows us to read the book as it was meant to be read, and preservation-focused raking light allows us to experience the materiality of the object. The combination of both techniques allows for those who cannot physically interact with the book to experience (almost) all it has to offer. While there’s really no substitute for seeing the antiphoner in person, we’d like to think we can replicate the experience a little better by utilizing tools provided by our partners in crime: preservation and digitization.

You can read more about the research done on this choir psalter in the Classics Library’s blog post, “Mystery at the Library”.

Also, make sure to check out of our Instragram (@thepreservationlab) where Jessica will be sharing some conservation photography of this beauty.

Sidney Gao [UCL] – Digital Imaging Coordinator

Prepare Yourself for Preservation Week: Virtual Edition

Despite working from home right now, we here at The Preservation Lab are getting very excited for ALA’s Preservation Week, which starts on Monday, April 27^th! If you are familiar with us at all, you know we love to host our annual Preservation Week Open House. We truly treasure opening the doors of our lab to the community to talk about our work caring for the collections from both the University of Cincinnati and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. And of course you might remember those delicious cookies we like to share too!

Well, I hope you are stocked with your cookies at home this year, because while our in-person open house is cancelled, we will be fully celebrating Preservation Week virtually this year!

Stay tuned throughout all of Preservation Week as we post a daily blog (right here!) to highlight some of the great things we are working on. We’ll cover the digitization of an antiphonary (and if you don’t know what that is, be sure to check out the post!); share some content and media we have been creating while working from home; have a blast from the past with a look at past Preservation Week Open House events; and more!

The Lab and our annual Preservation Week open house were recently featured in Cincinnati Magazine. You can read more about it via Twitter and on Cincinnati Magazine’s website.

Remember to follow us on Instagram @thepreservationlab, if you aren’t already!

Kasie Janssen (PLCH) – Senior Conservation Technician

Book Arts Course and Remote Learning

As mentioned in an earlier post, this Spring the Preservation Lab is partnering with the English Department to co-teach Book Arts (ENG3097), with the Lab staff leading the hands-on experiential learning portion of the course. Unfortunately due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all courses needed to move to a remote learning curriculum for the remainder of the semester. So far one of the biggest challenges has been student access to supplies and materials – papers, leathers, book cloths, etc.

In recognition of this obstacle, I created four different books using the same series of black and white 8.5″x11″ laser prints as the base structure. Ideally the exercise communicates the advantages and disadvantages of each form in expressing my loose narrative, and shows the variety of structures that can be achieved using cheap printer paper. The four structures used are – snake book, accordion with pocket, volvelle inside a scene, and Hedi Kyle’s pocket-link book.

Base images for the snake book and accordion with pockets. I added some color using watercolor pencils.

First up, an exploration of the snake book.

(FRONT) The snake book requires the image to be cut into small sections along a circuitous route.

(FOLDED) Because the snake book has folds that go every which way, it is hard to understand the overall image, without unfolding it completely. There are few opportunities to provide additional text or images if this is viewed, or interacted with, as a traditional book.

I’d say that the snake book isn’t a successful structure for my image. Next, let’s try the accordion with pockets.

(OUTSIDE) Cutting the 8.5×11 sheet in half and pasting it together at the short edge, an 8 panel accordion was created.

(INSIDE) By folding the outside bottom of the accordion towards the inside, a small pocket is created. In the pocket I placed images of items found in my house…that’s why these two little examples are titled “Household Objects.”

The accordion seems to work better for my image. The outside image is clearer and easier to interpret and the inside blank space provides room to tell a story.

Next, using the same base image, I incorporate two techniques that we covered in class – the construction of volvelles and the use of pochoir (adding color with stencils).

(FRONT) A double sided-volvelle. The front side poses a question or makes an observation.

Musings on staying at home these past three weeks turn a little grim in this small (8″x7″) scene with an internal volvelle. Turn the wheel and two conversations take place, one on the front and the other on the back, both a bleak internal dialog. The paper dolls are on Neenah UV/ultra translucent paper allowing much of the background drawing to show through, giving the impression of haunting or drifting, not being fully present. These dolls line-up and are sewn together with small pamphlet stitches, with the printer paper substrate in between.

Watercolor paints and stencils, a quick way to make multiple color prints.

The last book builds upon the volvelle scene, expanding the content and transforming it into a traditional codex using the pocket-link structure. The structure has pockets created by the way the pages are linked, you can see them on the left side of the double spreads. I’ll be filling these pockets with mementos of my time haunting my house.

Click on this LINK, or the image below, to flip through the book – Ghost in my home.

All four of these books are just models, but I think they all have potential! Maybe you do too and want to try your hand at these simple forms. If so, check out these “how to” links on snake book, accordion book, and volvelle inside a scene. [Unfortunately, I don’t have an authorized set of instructions for the pocket-link structure to share.]

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little diversion into book arts and wishing you well…

Holly Prochaska (UCL) —- Preservation Librarian

At Home Model-Making: Ms 987

The Preservation Lab staff are all settled into the new reality of working from home. Today marks the close of our third week working remotely and quarantining ourselves during COVID-19, and after two weeks of adjustments, realizations, and finding our grooves, we thought week three was the perfect time to tackle a fun group project! You may recall last April when we were fortunate enough to have the wonderful Julia Miller come to the lab and teach us a variety of historical structures. In that one week with Julia we learned so many structures, from tablets to scrolls & rolls to a model of Ms 815. Julia also left each of us with a packet of all the materials we needed to create a model of Ms 987; a single-quire codex containing the proverbs of Solomon, which is part of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin’s collection. But in the past year, our day-to-day priorities always took precedent over model-making and we just never found the time to work on it together. Well, what better way to relieve a little stress and commemorate the anniversary of our workshop with Julia than with a little coordinated model-making!?

Since Catarina had made an Ms 987 model in a previous workshop she had taken with Julia [pictured below], she was kind enough to guide us through the steps in two Microsoft Teams chat sessions. She was also available via chat to answer any questions we had as we went along.

*Catarina’s model from a previous workshop that we used as a reference during our at-home-model-making*

Here are the finished at-home models:

Catarina’s model that will become part of the Lab’s permanent model collection

Many of us also took photos of our progress as we were making the models and we posted them in our Instagram stories. You can find those images within our story highlight entitled “Ms.987 Models” in the profile. We also shared our models with each other in our scheduled Friday morning video chat!

Where you can find our highlighted stories of our Ms 987 models

Kasie, Catarina, Holly, Ashleigh, and me (in the corner) showing off our models

We are so grateful to Julia for preparing all the materials for this model, as part of our workshop last April. The preparation she did for us made it so easy to construct these models at home. I would also like to thank Catarina for walking us through the construction process and for answering all our questions throughout.

Happy Friday everyone! Stay happy, stay healthy and stay safe!

Jessica Ebert [UCL] – Conservation Tech/Photographic Documentation Tech