Category Archives: Conservation

Announcements, Conservation

Welcome To Our New Staff: Jennifer Blomberg

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Jennifer Blomberg has joined the DUL Conservation Department as our technician for special collections. She has been with us since February 2011, and has already made over 700 custom enclosures! I’ve promised her some repair work, too, not to worry.

When asked to describe one of her favorite conservation projects, she answered:

The “Herbert Sondheim Company” scrapbook of fashion drawings from the Fashion Institute of Technology has been one of my most favorite conservation treatments to date. Herbert Sondheim ran a dressmaking company that made affordable versions of high-end fashion.

These drawings, many of which are hand-colored on thin tracing paper, date from the 1920’s to the 1940’s and depict works of Vionnet, Chanel, Molyneux and other noted designers. Not only are the drawings visually interesting, the treatment offered many challenges that included collation, systematically removing the drawings from the acidic scrapbook pages without disturbing the water soluble inks, mending and flattening the sketches, and re-housing.

Jennifer has a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Conservation with a concentration in Collections Care, along with minors in Art History and Fine Arts from the University of Delaware. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences. She is earning her MLIS with a specialization in Archives, Preservation, and Records Management. Prior to coming to Duke Jennifer was a Conservation Technician at the Conservation Center for Art and Historical Artifacts in Philadelphia, PA.

Welcome to Duke Jennifer!

Collaboration, Conservation, Digital Production Center

Repairing de Bry, One Piece At A Time

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Written by Erin Hammeke, Conservator for Special Collections.

I recently completed the treatment of three separate volumes from Theodor de Bry’s account of the Americas, and I thought I would share an anecdote from the treatment of one of the volumes, Das vierdte Buch von der Neuwen Welt (Frankfurt, 1594).

This item has an engraved map of the Florida coast and Gulf of Mexico bound in at the front of the text. The curators informed me that this map was missing about a half of the complete printed map, the whole right side. They felt that it would be useful to indicate to researchers just how much of the map was missing by doing a repair and fill to the original dimensions of the plate.

An interesting thing happened. There was a small fragment, apparently tucked in with the map that I assumed belonged along the torn edge, but upon closer inspection, did not appear to line up with any part of the map along that edge.

Lucky for us, UNC Wilson Library has a version of this volume with a complete map. We contacted our conservation colleagues at UNC and arranged to see the map at their conservation lab. I took an image of the fragment with me to see if we could place it while we were there, but we couldn’t, so, we took a digital photograph of their map in its entirety and headed back to our lab.

I blew up the digital image and printed it out to the actual dimensions of the original, and I superimposed this printout onto our partial map on a light table. I was surprised to find that the small fragment actually belonged near to the center of the missing portion of the plate.

After some head-scratching, the curators and I decided that it was best to adhere the fragment in its rightful place. Again, using the light-table and printout as a guide, I adhered it precisely where it belonged.

I was pleased to be able to share this project with scholars who use these works at a recent symposium dedicated to the latest issue of the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. And I am happy to say that all three of the treated volumes were recently digitized by the Digital Production Center and are now available through the library’s catalog.

Here is a picture of the map after washing, lining, repairing, and adhering the loose fragment with paste.

Conservation, Preservation, Preservation Week

Preservation Video Rodeo Roundup, pt. 5 (The Rest of the Videos)

Welcome to the final day of our Preservation Week video rodeo roundup. Today is a grab bag of preservation and conservation related videos, and a couple plain ol’ library videos, that we like. If you have found others you like that are in this same genre, please leave a link in the comments.

Book artist and author Bea Nettles on learning about preservation and how it has changed her work.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE0cx4gM_fo

LYRASIS (formerly SOLINET) shows you how to safely remove a paperclip. I know you want to send this to all of your processors, don’t you? They will also show you how to remove staples.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI27vwFuEjM

Library security from the T.C. Beirne Law Library at the University of Queensland, Australia.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsRNYIdiVdE

Just for fun: In 2009 to take a break from studying, an estimated 3,000 students created a flashmob at the UNC Chapel Hill Davis Library. Hmmm, today is the last day of classes here, I wonder if our students will do something like this?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faXpUBgQnd8

Conservation, Preservation, Preservation Week

Preservation Video Rodeo Roundup, pt. 4 (Insects and Disasters)

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Welcome to part four of our Preservation Week video roundup. Today we have for your enjoyment some fun videos on not-so-fun topics: insects and disasters.

First up, my favorite insect video from the University of Florida Smathers Library Preservation Department. This, my friends, is why you want to keep the lid on the trash cans.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcV-5C8tDP0

From our former colleague comes this humorous video. Thanks to UNC-Greensboro Preservation Committee for a fun look at insects in the library.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SD_HaAw-4Q

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne Preservation Department recently put together some books on shelves to see what happens when a sprinkler head goes off. It’s always fun to watch books get wet.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD66a9cTa_c

After a flash flood hit the Hamilton Library on the campus of the University of Hawaii, the Conservation Department had to clean and repair the damage.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi9jYpWo4oM

Just for fun: Mr. Bean tries to thwart security at his local library.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyDY0hiMZy8

Conservation, Preservation Week

It’s Preservation Week! Preservation Video Rodeo Roundup, pt. 1 (Conservation)

Happy 2nd Annual Preservation Week to you all.  There are many exciting events happening across the country for PW this year. To find an event near you, simply find one on the ALA PW map.

In our library, the Preservation Office is hosting a lecture by Ryan Shaw on Wednesday, details can be found at our previous blog post.

Here at Preservation Underground we are hosting a Preservation Video Rodeo Roundup. Each day will have a theme, and we will link to videos related to that theme that we have found on the web. There are tons of videos out there, we will link to our favorites. Please participate! If you have  favorite preservation, conservation or digitization themed videos we should know about, tell us about it in the comment section.

Today’s Theme: Conservation

The J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah put together a fine video showing their beautiful conservation lab. This video highlights some of the work they are doing in both the book lab and the paper lab. Hosted by Randy Silverman, Preservation Librarian.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQNmEDkyOEU

Brigham Young University has a hilarious take on the old TV show called ER. In this video, titled “BR” you get to see the work of the “book doctors” in the conservation lab.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyNbUWvq2mM

The Georgia Archives offers this fantastic video on a recent project to conserve a map dating from 1808.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym-NkKcA7LM&feature=share

Our very own Erin Hammeke was interviewed last year by Duke at Work. We have our own videos listed in the “video” category if you want to see more.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDNbU-XW300

Just for fun: Jeff Peachey, maker of wonderful paring knives, shows us just how easy paring leather should be.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB5ZHNdqTPQ

Conservation, Exhibits

Best Before Treatment Image Ever

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Conservators take images both before and after treatment to document what the item looked like when it comes to the lab, and what it looks like when it leaves the lab. We also create written documentation that describes the condition of the objects as well as the materials and techniques we will use to fix them.

To get ready for the next exhibit “Animated Anatomies,” Erin is working on repairing two flap books from the History of Medicine Collection that will be on display. Her before-treatment documentation has created some of the best treatment images ever.

The exhibit opens on April 6th. These are rare and beautiful research materials from as early as the sixteenth century. If you are in the area be sure to see visit the library to see them.

Image of Witkowski, “Human Anatomy and Physiology” pt. 7.

P.S. If you haven’t done so, please take a couple minutes to answer the five questions in our blog survey. We are currently the front runner in survey responses, but the lawyers are quickly closing in on us. Please help! Your input is important to us.

Collaboration, Conservation, Digital Production Center, Digitizing

Learning On The Job

Recently Alex from the Digital Production Center came by to ask if I could fix a cassette tape. The tape broke while they were digitizing it, and they just needed it to hold together long enough to record Side B. I know a lot about the chemical and physical make-up of magnetic tapes, but I have never had to actually fix one before.

Librarian skills activate! I searched the professional literature and the internet to no avail. There are a lot of DIY articles on the web, but we try to hold ourselves to a higher standard in our lab whenever possible. I finally called a friend who actually does this for a living.

Hannah Frost, Manager of the Stanford University Media Preservation Lab, walked me through how to repair the tape and assured me that I had the skills necessary to do it correctly. In the end the repair took less than ten minutes, and now I know how to do this the next time it happens.

The thing about working in a library is that we collect everything from the usual stuff like paper and skins but we also have poison arrows, glass plate negatives, hair, textiles, paintings, glass eyeballs and magnetic media. I can’t tell you how important it is for a library conservator to create a large network of friends and colleagues who specialize in areas that are not your own. Sooner or later you will find yourself working on something completely different and unknown, and you need to know who to call. Thanks Hannah, I owe you a drink at the next AIC conference.