If you read our last blog post you know all about the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County’s collection of music scores we’re working on here at the Lab. Check out the frankenscores we received in the latest batch – just in time for Halloween!
Clearly some previous owners worked hard to bring these back to life!
Veronica Sorcher (PLCH) — Conservation Technician
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Score!
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County has recently set a plan in motion to digitize a collection of music scores. But before they can be digitized, the scores need to cataloged at the item level so metadata can be added to the digital files that are uploaded to the Virtual Public Library. But first, they are traveling to the lab to receive stabilization, to improve legibility, and rehousing. There are more than 200 boxes in the collection, each containing fifty or more scores, so this will be an ongoing project for many months to come. Because there are so many, and the Library would like to have them digitized as soon as possible, the decision was made to keep the treatments minimal –enough to stabilize the materials and render them more legible but no more.
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We love artists' books!
While all the books, documents, and objects that we receive in the lab are interesting and exciting, artists’ books are definitely a crowd favorite, especially amongst the technicians. When Holly and Ashleigh come back from the PLCH rare books meeting and announce they’ve brought back some artists’ book we all get a little excited and know that there are probably some fun cloth covered clamshell boxes in our future. Last week when the techs met with Ashleigh, our conservator, to discuss upcoming projects there was quite a bit of oohing and ahhing when she unwrapped and assembled the two artists’ book they had brought back to the Lab for enclosures.
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Preservation Scholarship/Grant Opportunities
FYI for our colleagues: There are two exciting new scholarship/grant opportunities made possible by two organizations in which many of the staff of the lab are card carrying members!
The first is the MRCG (description and text from our lab conservator, Ashleigh Schieszer) –
The Midwest Regional Conservation Guild is a 35 year old organization that connects conservation professionals together in the Midwest. Each year the Guild gets together for an annual meeting at a different location around the region. As a pre-program intern, I attended my first conference in 2008 in Kansas City where I found the group of professionals extremely fun, friendly and approachable. Conferences are always a laid back environment, partly due to the fact that it’s a much smaller group than an AIC meeting. This also makes the annual meeting a great place for Emerging Conservation Professionals to present. As a pre-program intern, I helped Heugh-Edmondson present about a KY wallpaper conservation project and nobody even booed me off the stage!
If you’re a pre-program student, current graduate student, or recent graduate and are interested in attending an MRCG annual meeting, there is now a new scholarship opportunity! The 2015 annual meeting will be held in Ann Arbor, MI at the Kelsey Museum. There will be regional lab tours at the University of Michigan, Henry Ford, and Detroit Institute of Arts in addition to the regular talks. The deadline for online submissions is July 31st. The award covers hotel room cost, registration fees, and a 1 year membership to the guild.
Check it out at https://themrcg.wordpress.com/2015-mrcg-symposium/emerging-professionals-scholarship/.
The second is the OPC (description and text from the OPC website) –
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 September and March.
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 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.
Check out the grant information and application at http://opc.ohionet.org/opcjoomla/resources/opc-grant.
Preservation Week 2015!
We love preservation. Of course we do. And as people who love preservation, we naturally love Preservation Week! Truly, we do. We love it so much that we take to the streets and invite people over to share it with us. We were so excited that we decided to start early this year, with live technical demonstrations in the mornings leading up to the big day. We wanted people to see what we were up to, ask lots of questions, and learn more about what we do.
We showed off the past year’s work, including some excellent pieces done by our pre-program volunteer, Catarina Figueirinhas. Everyone’s favorite, the hot stamper, made a return appearance. We topped off the festivities with a raffle for a book, handmade by one of our students, and of course, cookies (we don’t have open houses for the sweets, but they are a nice bonus!). We had such a great time with all of our friends and colleagues, and as always, we look forward to doing it again next year.
Hyacinth Tucker (UCL) — Binding Processor
Preservation Exhibit
One of the perks of being on UC Libraries’ Exhibits Committee, besides working with a fantastic group of people, is being able to share and promote the interesting things we are doing here in the Lab. The most recent exhibit I curated for the committee is entitled “Preserving the Past for the Future” and showcases a variety of UCL and PLCH special collection materials that have been treated in the Lab over the last year and a half. As the conservation technician who performs the bulk of the photo documentation for the Lab, I thought sharing these “before”, “after” and often “during” photos alongside the information about the treatments would make this exhibit more visually descriptive for the public, who are primarily UC students. This exhibit, which was so beautifully brought to life by Melissa Cox Norris, director of library communications, and Amanda Jackson, former communications co-op design student, is displayed on the 5th floor of Langsam Library and the full online exhibit created by Lisa Haitz, web developer, can be viewed via LiBlog at https://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/liblog/2015/04/preservation-exhibit/. I hope you get a chance to check it out and enjoy seeing a little bit of what we do here in the Preservation Lab.
Jessica Ebert (UCL) — Conservation Technician
Come celebrate Preservation Week at the collaborative lab!
Open to the public! There will be refreshments and a door prize!
Housing the Public Library's historic stained glass
When the original Main Library at 629 Vine Street opened to the public in 1873, three beautiful and intricate stained glass windows graced one of the reading rooms in the building. In 1955, when the building was demolished, the windows were sold at auction, later to resurface as part of the decor of the Old Spaghetti Factory on Pete Rose Way. After the restaurant closed to make room for Paul Brown Stadium, the Library purchased the windows and began making plans to return them to the Main Library for the appreciation and enjoyment of our customers and staff. Thanks to the generosity of the Friends and the Annabel Fey Trust Fund, the three windows have now been re-created and restored to their original glory and will be on permanent display in the Main Library.
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Pictures (and more) for an Exhibition
18th and 19th century leather: A Conservation Challenge!
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of handling special collection materials, you may have noticed that some books stand the test of time better than others.
In particular, why is it that some older leather books that date to the 15th century still function well, while other leather covered books from the 1700’s and 1800’s fall apart and turn to powder in our hands?
The reason is twofold. Books made in the Carolingian, Romanesque and Gothic periods were highly engineered luxury items that were made with high quality materials. Later, as books become more of a household commodity, quality was sacrificed to meet rising production needs, leading to books being made cheaply with poor quality materials. The common degradation we find in 18th and 19th century tightback leather bindings is a direct result of poor construction combined with the use of poor quality materials.
What exactly is causing this later leather to degrade? There are many reasons such as environmental factors, but two of the most common condition issues are caused by the type of animal skin used, and the materials used to tan the leather.
For example, sheepskin leather exhibits characteristic degradation of shearing away in layers while calfskin does not. This is essentially because sheep have a thicker undercoat of fur. The roots of the sheep’s undercoat grow in-between the lower corium and upper grain layers of the skin, and after the hair is removed during the tanning process, a microscopic void is left between the layers of skin. As a result, the leather becomes vulnerable to delamination overtime (see photo below).
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