Category Archives: Conservation

Building the Broadside Digital Collection

We are currently digitizing our broadside collection. Before they go to the Digital Production Center, Conservation must prepare them by removing the old encapsulations and making sure they can be handled. There is additional information on this project over at the Digital Collections Blog.

Building the Broadsides Collection, Pt. 1

Building the Broadsides Collection, A large-scale digitization approach

Wow! This Job Sure Keeps Us Hopping

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

10 years, 10 Treatments

This year marks the Preservation Department’s tenth year serving the Duke University Libraries. This exhibit celebrates the work of  the conservation laboratory by displaying a variety of different treatments from the libraries collections.  The department is  planning several events to mark the occasion which includes this exhibit, an open house, and interviews with staff members; for  more information visit Preservation Underground.

(Displayed July 2010-October 2010)

Mastering Craft: Interpreting Historic Bookbindings

The Preservation Department’s new exhibit highlights work from the Triangle Research Libraries (TRLN) Master Bookbinders Group. Our group consists of staff members from the conservation labs of UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State and Duke University libraries. Its purpose is to research historic bookbindings to deepen our understanding of the history of the book, and develop knowledge and skills that help inform our daily conservation work.

(Displayed October 2010-January 2011)

Paste Paper Workshop

Just before leaving Trent Hall, the Conservation staff took advantage of the outdoor space to participate in a paste paper workshop on July 31, 2008. This technique of creating decorative paper using pigments and wheat starch paste is one of the earliest forms used for covers and endpapers. It is commonly found on materials from the 16th to 18th centuries and is still used today.

We used samples from the Jantz collection as inspiration to create, and in some cases re-create, patterns that are both decorative as well as useful for our work. Working outside on a hot and humid summer day was interesting, especially when it rained and we had to move into the women’s restroom in Trent Hall. Luckily for us there was plenty of space in the old dorm restroom to complete our work!  Duke University Library staff may read more about this in the September 2008 IB.

In other news, the Conservation Lab has returned to Perkins Library along with the Digital Production Center and Winston Atkins. We moved on August 25-26th, and have been unpacking and settling into our new space. At some point in the near future we hope to have a formal open house to officially open the new lab.

Conservation Featured in Hearld-Sun

The Herald-Sun, recently featured Conservation in an article titled “Conservators Give New Life to Old Books.”

The gorgeous book on Erin Hammeke’s table is 21 by 14 inches, 3 inches thick, with gold tulle and white vellum binding. It dates from the mid-17th century.

An atlas from the Dutch publisher Blaeu, it has gloriously vivid maps of the British isles. It also has a number of tears, some discolorations and maybe even some mold. It’s Hammeke’s job to repair and fix it all.

“[The repairs] are pretty straightforward,” Hammeke said the other day as she delicately worked on a tear. “You mend it with Japanese tissue and research paste. It’s transparent, and flexible. You just have to test all the colors to see if they are water soluble.”

Hammeke is one of five remarkably skilled technicians working in the conservation department of Duke University’s Perkins Library. They are responsible for keeping the library’s 6 million books and millions of other items in working condition for both current and future users, and for rehabilitating works that have suffered from decay or in some cases, disaster.

Read more: The Herald-Sun – Conservators give new life to old books

Sometimes You Get Lucky

I recently got a small diary in the lab that had been previously repaired. Instead of simply joining the split pages together with a thin strip of tissue, they opted to line the entire two-page folio with heat set tissue.

Dealing with prior repairs is always a conundrum for conservators. With time and resources limited do you leave old repairs if they are still working (even if they are really ugly), or do you replace them with more sympathetic and reversible repairs? As in all things conservation it depends.

In this instance I removed the old repairs because they were difficult to read through. Luckily, whoever lined the pages with heat-set tissue didn’t use a hot enough iron so the tissue didn’t attach well to the pages. Lucky for me because if they did use a hot iron, soaking in a solvent would have been my only recourse to remove the lining. I was able to simply peel off the old tissue (image left) and replace it with smaller strips of Japanese tissue adhered with wheat starch paste (image right).

The pages look much better and you can read them without the distraction of the all-over tissue lining. I feel like I got away easy this time.

Our New Toy (I mean, vital piece of lab equipment)

Yesterday we finally got our microscope! We are in the testing-phase with the camera attachment. This will allow us to take some great close-up shots of media and fibers as we work on materials. Until we can show you some pictures, go over to Parks Library Preservation and see what fun they have with their scope.

Aaron Cunningham (pictured left) from Martin Microscope Company set up the scope and patiently demonstrated how it all works. Erin Hammeke (pictured right) put the first object under the scope, an 8th Century manuscript that is in the lab for re-housing.

Evolution of Conservation

To better organize our digital photo files we have been applying a standard naming convention to our old images. In doing so I’ve found some old pictures of the lab dating back from the very beginning. It’s been a fun trip down memory lane.

On Flickr you will find images of the original space. You can also find images of our beautifully renovated Verne and Tanya Roberts Conservation Lab. We’ve come a long way, baby.