Category Archives: Announcements

Welcome Jovana!

Jovana Ivezic, Senior Conservation Technician

Jovana Ivezic, our new Senior Conservation Technician, started work at the end of March just as we were settling into the Governor’s work from home order. Jovana comes to Duke from the Library of Congress where she was a library technician. There she performed a variety of repairs from new spines, paper repairs, and at least one very large post binding.

She housed over 2000 items from the LC Collections in the three years she was there. These skills will come in very handy once we are back onsite and we start making enclosures for our regular workflows and the Lilly Enabling project.

What is your favorite tool?
My favorite tool is a tie between a scalpel with a fresh blade and my small brass triangle.
What is your favorite treatment?

My favorite treatment is a new case, especially in a three-quarters style binding. Nothing more satisfying than giving a sad, beaten up book some new life.

What’s it like starting a new job during a worldwide pandemic?
I never thought I’d ever be starting a job in these kinds of circumstances, especially one that isn’t particularly conducive to teleworking. I will say I’ve enjoyed using the extra time in my apartment to get properly settled in, as well as catch up on readings and training videos I wouldn’t normally have the time to read/watch otherwise. I look forward to getting to work with my new coworkers and colleagues in person once we’re back on campus though, and to check out all the amazing food places I keep being told to try once the stay-at-home order is lifted.
Do you have a memorable treatment you can share?

Here you can see an oversized atlas from the Library of Congress’s Geography & Maps division.

Due to its extraordinary size, the acidic nature of its pages, and the fact that this atlas was a frequently handled item, I decided that a post binding was the best housing choice. A post binding allows for safer handling by patrons, while protecting the original material better than a regular clamshell or four-flap box ever could.

Senior Conservation Technician Position Announced

Duke University Libraries seeks qualified applicants for the position of Senior Conservation Technician in the Verne and Tanya Roberts Conservation Lab. This position is an opportunity to work at a major ARL member library invested in the long-term care of and access to its collections. The successful candidate will demonstrate excellent hand skills, the capacity to learn new skills, customer focus, and creative problem solving. We seek candidates who will thrive in an open, engaging atmosphere that focuses on production, continuous learning, and sharing of knowledge among staff at all levels.

Major responsibilities include treating materials primarily from the circulating collections; creating custom enclosures for both circulating and special collections; overseeing the workflow of materials from circulation points in the Perkins-Bostock Library and the branch libraries; and training and oversight of student assistants. You can read the full position description and position requirements online. Candidates will be asked to submit examples of their work during the interview process.

Salary and Benefits: $18.77 per hour (minimum). Comprehensive benefits package upon eligibility includes vacation, 13 holidays, sick leave, health, dental, disability, life insurance, educational assistance, and tuition grants.

Duke University Libraries is actively committed to a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.  Submit an electronic resume, cover letter, and list of references to: https://careers.duke.edu/.  Refer to requisition # 12878.

Welcome to Our New Intern: Garrette Lewis-Thomas

Our new intern, Garrette Lewis-Thomas, has arrived and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Garrette is our second HBCU Library Alliance conservation intern. Like last year, she will spend eight weeks with us learning everything from minor repairs to making heat set tissue to preparing materials for digitization.

Garrette is a student at Fisk University where she is studying psychology and sociology.  She works at the John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library assisting the Access Services Desk. Her interest in John Hope Franklin fits in well with our collecting areas and we are excited to work with the Rubenstein John Hope Franklin Center to find some projects for her to work on.

Garrette folding boxes.

Day 1

The very first thing we did is take Garrette to a job talk by a candidate who applied for a library position. She got to see first hand what a job interview looks like in an academic library. The interview was at another location on campus, so she also got to learn how to get across campus during the summer on the bus. Day 1 was a little chaotic but it all worked out. She got a tour of a part of campus that we didn’t expect would happen on Day 1. It is a good reminder that not everything goes as planned.

Day 2

Day 2 brought another problem…something smelled terrible in the lab. It’s still unclear what the problem is or where it is coming from. Because we couldn’t be in the lab for any length of time we decamped to the Disaster Supply Room next door. We took the CoLibri machine in along with the newly-arrived shipment of vendor-supplied corrugated boxes. Garrette spent the day covering New & Noteworthy books and folding boxes. In the afternoon we hopped the bus to East Campus and toured through the Music Library and the Lilly Library. Lesson learned: there is always something to do to be productive even when you can’t get to your bench.

Day 3

It still smells in the lab, but it is getting better. Current theory: something dead is in the tunnels below the building and there isn’t anything we can do about it. We are airing out the lab and doing our best to ride this out. Garrette is  working on minor repairs and enclosures. We started the day in the Disaster Supply Room, but have moved back into the lab with all the fans running and doors open. Garrette has already proven to be very flexible, adaptable to change, and eager to learn. We can’t wait to see what the summer holds for her and for us.

Thanks to our supporters

These HBCU Library Alliance internships would not be possible without the help of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the University of Delaware College of Arts and Science, the Department of Art Conservation at the University of Delaware, and the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library (DE). Thanks also to Debbie Hess Norris and Melissa Tedone at the University of Delaware. A big thanks to We also wish to thank the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation for supporting this internship.

We will continue sharing more about this internship as it progresses, but for now: Welcome to Duke,  Garrette!

Welcome To Our New Intern: Phebe Pankey

This week the Conservation Services Department was joined by our first ever HBCU Library Alliance Summer intern, Phebe Pankey! Duke is one of five library conservation labs participating in this program to host an eight-week internship in preservation and conservation this summer.

Phebe is a junior at Winston Salem State University and has been involved in libraries most of her life through volunteering and community activities.  She is excited to learn more about conservation and this internship is a way to continue developing and expanding her library skills.

Phebe has jumped right into the lab workflows, learning to construct some of the quicker enclosures like CoLibri sleeves and 4-flap boxes. She has also been gaining experience with basic paper treatments, like humidification and flattening.

Phebe works with Conservation Specialist Rachel Penniman on humidification of paper.

At the conclusion of the eight weeks, interns are expected to take some of the skills they have learned back to their home institution to implement a library preservation project, building on the success of their summer experiences with an opportunity to perform meaningful work preserving significant HBCU library collections at their institution.

These internships would not have been possible without the help of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the University of Delaware College of Arts and Science, the Department of Art Conservation at the University of Delaware, and the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library (DE). Thanks also to Debbie Hess Norris and Melissa Tedone at the University of Delaware. We also wish to thank the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation for supporting this internship.

We will continue sharing more about this internship as it progresses, but for now: Welcome to Duke, Phebe!

Position Open in Conservation Services

Duke University Libraries seeks qualified applicants for the position of Conservation Technician in the Verne and Tanya Roberts Conservation Lab. This position is an opportunity to work at a major ARL member library invested in the long-term care of and access to its collections. The successful candidate will demonstrate excellent hand skills, the capacity to learn new skills, customer focus, and creative problem solving. We seek candidates who will thrive in an open, engaging atmosphere that focuses on production as well as continuous learning and sharing of knowledge among staff at all levels.

Major responsibilities include treating materials primarily in the circulating collections; creating custom enclosures for both circulating and special collections; overseeing the workflow of materials from circulation points in the Perkins-Bostock Library and the branch libraries; and training and oversight of student assistants. You can see the full position description and position requirements online.

Duke University Libraries values diversity of thought, perspective, experience, and people, and is actively committed to a culture of inclusion and respect. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.  An electronic resume, cover letter, and list of references should be submitted at: https://hr.duke.edu/careers/apply.  Refer to requisition # 401385532.

Duke University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual’s age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Duke also makes good faith efforts to recruit, hire, and promote qualified women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans. For more information on careers at Duke University, visit https://hr.duke.edu/careers.

 

HBCU Library Alliance Summer 2018 Library Preservation/Conservation Internship Program

Applications due February 19, 2018
For more information please visit: http://hbculibraries.org/students.html

HBCU undergraduate students interested in the humanities, arts, and sciences will have the opportunity to learn and practice hands-on library preservation skills during this full-time, eight week internship under the mentorship of professional conservators and library staff at a host site. Successful internship candidates will demonstrate a strong interest in libraries and archives and an attention to detail, as well as interest and academic success in history, the arts, and/or the sciences.

Interns will work on a range of possible projects, including:

  • surveying the condition of library collection materials;
  • conservation stabilization and treatment of historical documents, such as humidification and flattening, surface cleaning, and mending tears;
  • historical research;
  • digitization projects;
  • environmental monitoring; and/or
  • constructing custom storage enclosures for fragile archival materials.

Interns will then use their new expertise to implement a library preservation project designed in collaboration with their mentor and their home institution’s library staff, building on the success of their summer experiences with an opportunity to perform meaningful work preserving significant HBCU library collections at their institution.

The five (5) participating host sites are:
  1. American Philosophical Society Library
    The American Philosophical Society Library is a national center for research in the history of the sciences, early American history, and Native American ethnography and linguistics. The Conservation Department provides complete collection care, ranging from preventive care to single-item treatment, for all books, manuscripts, photographs, and works on paper and parchment held by the Library – numbering 350,000 bound volumes , 13 million manuscript pages, and 250,000 images.
  2. Duke University Libraries, Durham, NC
    Duke University Libraries (DUL) is committed to diversity in its patron communities, services, collections, staff and spaces. One of its guiding principles is to build, maintain, and provide access to an international and multilingual collection, representing the broadest possible spectrum of cultures, ideas, and information. Significant collections include the University Archives, the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture, the Human Rights Archives, and the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History & Culture. The core mission of the Conservation Services Department is to ensure that library materials can be used by patrons both now and in the future.
  3. The Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin, TX
    The Ransom Center is an internationally renowned humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin. Its extensive collections provide unique insight into the creative process of writers and artists, deepening our understanding and appreciation of literature, photography, film, art, and the performing arts. The Center’s Preservation and Conservation Division provides a full range of preventive and conservation treatment options for the long-term care of its collections.
  4. Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Wilmington, DE
    Winterthur Library collections promote the interdisciplinary study of American material culture, including art, architecture, decorative arts, and everyday life, dating from colonial times into the twentieth century. Its resources include printed books and serials; trade and auction catalogs; manuscripts, diaries, letter books, and family papers of artists, craftspeople, and merchants; design and architectural drawings; historic photographs; printed ephemera; a large collections of modern photographs; and institutional archives. Winterthur’s Library Conservation Lab is located within a larger Conservation Department with additional specialties in paintings, textiles, objects, furniture, works of art on paper, and scientific research and analytics.
  5. Yale University Library, New Haven, CT
    The Gates Conservation Laboratory at the Yale University Library opened in the fall of 2015 and is home to the conservation and exhibitions services program for the Yale Library’s collection of 14 million books, manuscripts, archival documents, photographs and artifacts, held in 16 libraries or collections on campus. The lab is staffed by a team of four conservators, four technicians, and one exhibits program manager, who provide expertise in book, parchment, paper and photograph conservation for both circulating materials and rare, special collections. The collections of the Library, especially those of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, document much of the human record, from Egyptian papyri to early Civil War photographs, and archives of writers, artists, and musicians of the Harlem Renaissance to those of student organizations on the Yale campus.

 

 

 

Happy Anniversary Preservation Underground!

We started Preservation Underground in 2009 as a way to bring our work out of the basement and into the light. In the past seven years, we’ve had some fun and we’ve had some disasters. What we really hope is that we’ve shown you a little bit of what we do and why our work is so important.

glass eyes
Glass eyeballs from the History of Medicine Collection. Here’s looking at you, statistics!

We wanted to take a look back at some data about our blog and highlight our most-favorited posts. The data is a bit sticky because WordPress analytics appear to begin in March 2011, while Google analytics start in September 2012. But, as my grad school chemistry professor always said, “Close enough for conservation.”

WordPress analytics appear to begin in March 2011…
87, 940 total views
279 comments

Google Analytics start in September 2012
Only reporting 9,000 page views
Traffic from 95 countries.

These posts received the most hits the past seven years:

  1. Quick Pic: Mysterious Messages (January 2012)
  2. 1091 Project: Making Enclosures (March 2012)
  3. Hold me closer… protective enclosure (January 2016)
  4. Florence: Days of Destruction (A Film by Franco Zeffirelli) (February 2012)
  5. DIY Book Repair And Its Consequences (July 2012)
  6. Why I Hate Mr. Clippy (January 2013)
  7. The ‘Largest Sheet of Paper Ever Made and Printed’ (October 2015)

Do you have a favorite post you want to share? if so, tell us in the comments.

Happy Fifth Birthday to Devil’s Tale!

 Image from Ophthalmodouleia, das ist Augendienst... by George Bartisch. Published in 1583, this item was on display for the Animated Anatomies exhibit.   Photo by Mark Zupan, Senior Graphic Designer for Duke University Libraries.

Image from Ophthalmodouleia, das ist Augendienst… by George Bartisch. Published in 1583, this item was on display for the Animated Anatomies exhibit.
Photo by Mark Zupan, Senior Graphic Designer for Duke University Libraries.

Today marks the fifth birthday of our sister blog The Devil’s Tale.

Happy birthday Devil’s Tale, and may you post many more eye opening dispatches from the Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Upcoming NCPC Conference: Significant Preservation: Inventories and Assessments for Strategic Planning

From the NCPC Press release:

Significant Preservation: Inventories and Assessments for Strategic Planning

North Carolina Preservation Consortium Annual Conference
William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
November 7, 2014

Inventories and assessments of heritage collections and sites are vital for meaningful strategic planning that conveys the importance of allocating scarce resources for preservation programs. Establishing the significance of tangible heritage to the communities we serve is essential for prioritizing conservation, storage, exhibition, and emergency planning decisions to protect cultural treasures for present and future generations. This conference will help you influence organizational, political, and community leaders who have the authority to improve preservation funding. Register today for a valuable learning experience with state, national, and international preservation leaders.

Keynote Speakers

Veronica Bullock is the Co-founder and Director of Significance International. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Prehistory/Archaeology from the Australian National University and a master’s degree in Applied Science (Materials Conservation) from the University of Western Sydney. Her fellowship at the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property explored how significance assessments and risk assessments are taught in graduate conservation programs in Australia, Canada, the United States, and several countries in Europe. Ms. Bullock will provide an overview of the Significance Assessment methodology developed by the Collections Council of Australia.

Lisa Ackerman is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the World Monuments Fund and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Pratt Institute. She holds a BA from Middlebury College, an MS in historic preservation from the Pratt Institute, and an MBA from New York University. Her professional service has included membership on the boards of the Historic House Trust of New York City, New York Preservation Archive Project, St. Ann Center for Restoration and the Arts, Partners for Sacred Places, Neighborhood Preservation Center, and the U.S. National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites. Ms. Ackerman will present an introduction to the Arches heritage inventory and management system.

Dr. Paul R. Green is a Cultural Resources Specialist for the U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Center, an Adjunct Associate Professor at Old Dominion University, and a modern Monuments Man. He holds a BS from Marshall University, MA from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a PhD in Anthropology (Archaeology) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Green is a member of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Historical/Cultural Advisory Group and the International Military Cultural Resources Working Group. He will address the challenges and importance of prioritizing global heritage collections and sites for the protection of cultural property during war and armed conflicts.

Lightening Session Speakers

Martha Battle Jackson is Chief Curator for North Carolina Historic Sites. She will provide an overview of the Museum Assessment Program (MAP) for Collection Stewardship sponsored by the American Alliance of Museums.

Andrea Gabriel is Outreach & Development Coordinator for the North Carolina State Archives. She will present an introduction to the Traveling Archivist Program (TAP) administered by the North Carolina Office of Archives & History.

David Goist is a painting conservator in private practice. He will give an overview of the Conservation Assessment Program (CAP) sponsored by Heritage Preservation.

 

For more information on the conference schedule, registration, scholarships, etc., see the NCPC events page.

 

 

 

 

New Adopt-A-Book Program Supports Conservation Dept.

Our Audubon double elephant folios are on the list of adoptable items along with many other books and manuscripts.

We are pleased to announce a new initiative we have been working on for some time. The Duke University Libraries new Adopt-a-Book Program will raise funds to support the Conservation Services Department by giving you an opportunity to adopt the costs of the conservation treatment for an item from the collection.

How Do You Decide What Is Adoptable?

We select items based on the three classic criteria used for our regular workflows: value, use and risk. An item can be valuable as an object, as part of a larger collection or because of who created or owned it. Use can be through circulation, in the Rubenstein Library reading room, in a class, publication, digital project, exhibit, etc. An item is at the most risk if it cannot be used safely without incurring further damage or loss, or if it cannot be used at all due to its current condition. We work closely with DUL and Rubenstein Library to find items to place on the adoption list that meet all three criteria.

How To Adopt

Collection materials are listed on our website. When you decide which item you would like to adopt, contact Kurt in our Development Office with your selection. He will notify us of your donation and we will schedule the project. When an item is adopted, we will remove it from the list and put a new item in its place. We hope to have a constant flow of new materials available for adoption, so check back often.

Benefits of Adoption

adopt
An electronic bookplate will be displayed in the record when you adopt its conservation treatment.

When you adopt an item we will list you as a contributor on our website, and we will place an electronic bookplate in the item’s catalog record. If you wish to remain anonymous, be sure to tell Development and we will honor your request. You may also adopt in honor of someone or something special such as your mom on Mother’s Day, your son or daughter at graduation, etc.

The adoption process is easy. One quick phone call or email can help save a book, manuscript or archival document. Your support helps us in our mission to protect our collections and make them accessible now and in the future.