Today was board-shear maintenance day! It takes two of us to change out the blades on the shear. That’s me under the shear, and Jennifer on the right.
The arm-blade is easily removed. The base-blade has bolts holding the screws on, so they need to be loosened from underneath. Once the blades are changed we replace the clamp and check to see that it cuts square. I also put some new lithium grease on the catch basin gears while I was down there.
It’s always great to put a sharp blade on the shear. It cuts “like butter” and makes a wonderful “swishing” sound.
Note to self: don’t wear black pants on blade-changing day; and closed-toe shoes are probably a better footwear choice.
This month on the 1091 Project we look at how we track materials that come to the lab. It’s important to know what is here both for project management as well as for staff who may be looking for an item.
We track items from both general collections and special collections. We use different methods depending on where the materials are coming from.
General Collections
We use our integrated library system, ALEPH, to track materials from the general (circulating) collections. When books come to the lab we scan the bar code and change the “item process status” (IPS) to “PV.” A preservation status shows up in both the staff view as well as the online catalog. We have other IPS code for materials we send for commercial binding (BD), commercial boxing (PB), reformatting (PR) and disaster recovery (PX).
When the item process status is changed to PV, the item record displays as either “preservation” or “being repaired.”
Special Collections
We have an ALEPH-IPS for special collections (PS) as well. Now that we have implemented AEON in the Rubenstein Library reading room, we have been using the AEON workflow function to indicate when items come to the lab.
We still use an Excel-based lab log to keep track of special collections items as they come and go from the lab. Our database has more information than what we is in AEON including who is working on the project and how many treatment hours the project took.
The lab log is an Excel spreadsheet with a unique identification number, call number, bar code and other information.
It’s a belt-and-suspenders workflow but there is no perfect software/system yet that tracks everything we need to track. There are some products for the museum world that come close, and a couple others that are more library-based in the works, but nothing has yet risen to the top in terms of cost/benefit. If you are interested in a discussion of these systems, see the write up on the Conservators Converse from this year’s session at the AIC annual meeting.
Vault Inventory Day
At least twice a year we hold a vault inventory day where we compare our lab log and AEON with what is in our vault. Today happens to be that day!
Checking the lab log against the physical objects in the vault.
We are working through our spreadsheet making sure that what the lab log says is here is actually physically here. Inventories always bring up something, whether it is an item that was returned but not noted in the lab log, or a project that has stalled and needs to get back on the front burner. We take this time to resolve discrepancies so that we know the lab log is correct.
If you work in a lab, what system do you have in place to track materials? Parks Library has their own system, be sure to check out their 1091 post.
While this is a fascinating piece from our History of Medicine Collection, it does make me very happy to be living in an era of modern medicine (e.g. anesthesia).
This is in the lab for evaluation prior to being loaned for an exhibit at the Duke Medical Center Library. It’s an amazing thing to contemplate.
Today we received the following email from Debra Hess Norris, Director of the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. She has given me permission to re-post her email in its entirety. Please consider re-posting or linking to this information so that we can spread this widely, time is of the essence.*
Dear Friends,
In the last two days I have exchanged multiple emails with Stephanie Diakité (see her bio below) who worked tirelessly in 2012 with others to evacuate 300,000 manuscripts from Timbuktu in the midst of civil war.
These medieval African documents are a living testimony of the highly advanced and refined civilization in sub-Saharan Africa. They cover diverse subjects, including mathematics, chemistry, physics, optics, astronomy, medicine, Islamic sciences, history, geography, governance, legislation and treaties, jurisprudence and literary and artistic subjects, including poetry, music and even culinary arts.
Contents of a footlocker of evacuated manuscripts in a safehouse in Bamako
Subsequent to evacuation to the south, the manuscripts were crammed in metal chests used for their transport and continued mobility. The chests are heavy and the manuscripts risk immediate physical damage as they are tightly packed, without additional housing. The rains will start later this month and many fear these irreplaceable documents risk immediate degradation, including permanent deformation and mold.
Efforts are underway to raise urgently needed funds and supplies as these documents must be protected from humidity and further damage.
The German government, in collaboration with the Gerda Henkel Foundation, will support the conservation of 20,000 manuscripts. 280,000 manuscripts remain to be housed in archival-quality boxes buffered with silica gel to trap humidity. The work will be done in the safehouses under the protection of nightfall by members of the library families.
To raise funds and to build awareness and support, Stephanie and her colleagues have launched a world-wide initiative entitled T-160K Timbuktu Libraries in Exile. To date, more than 400 contributors have shown their support for implementation of this emergency conservation strategy through direct donations.
I hope you will join me and others in helping to save these ancient African manuscripts for the world. A donation of $30 will rehouse one manuscript. Together, we can do much more! Donations must be received by June 20, 2013.
Many, many thanks and with best regards, Debbie
Information About The Conservators
Stephanie Diakité, JC-JD/MBA/Phd is an attorney and a poverty eradication institutional development specialist working in more than 40 countries in sub-Saharan Africa through her firm, Dintl, and a book artist and book and paper conservation specialist. She has extensive program and funding management experience and has provided services to some of the most important multilateral and bilateral, private sector, and philanthropic donors working in Sub-Saharan Africa (see her website for a selection of organizations Dintl has worked with).
She has trained hundreds of generational artisans back to book arts and book conservation in northern Mali. She has designed, developed and delivered socio-economic development programming based on indigenous scholarship and revised legislation protecting the rights of stakeholders in indigenous knowledge in Mali, all ECOWAS and African Union member states.
Abdel Kader in his family library before it was evacuated from Timbuktu
Abdel Kader Haidara is the generational curator of one of the most important libraries of manuscripts in Timbuktu and founder of SAVAMA DCI, an association of private Timbuktu libraries committed to public access. SAVAMA DCI has extensive program implementation experience and has successfully managed grants from organizations ranging from the Ford Foundation to bilateral aid agencies (see the SAVAMA DCI website for a selection of organizations SAVAMA DCI has partnered with). He was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of Lyon for his work in support of the Timbuktu Manuscripts.
*The usual disclaimer: The views and policies herein do not reflect those of Duke University or Duke University Libraries. Duke University and Duke University Libraries do not endorse any individuals, websites or programs referred to herein.
Two illustrations of ocean-going ships sail across a lovely map dated 1584. From “Didaco Mendezio Auctore. La Florida/auctore Hieron” by Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598)
In the lab today are some beautiful maps that will be loaned to Duke University’s Nasher Museum for an exhibit in the fall.
While most of the maps are in good condition, some need conservation beforehand. Rachel has been doing some dry cleaning, and Grace is washing a few to remove old repairs and stains. Once the conservation is done, we will help to mount them so they can be matted and framed at the Nasher.
For Preservation Week we are sharing a “Day In The Lab” montage. Today the lab is full of activity and fun projects. Who would suspect that all of this goes on under your feet as you walk into the library? Hope you had a great Preservation Week.
Jennifer is boxing up “Mr. Money” aka “The Man” from the Human Rights Archives. This is a very large puppet with a paper mache head and a PVC-pipe body.Meg is washing a giant book, page by page.Tedd just finished a fabulous box for our Cigarette Rolling Machine Patent Model. All of the wheels actually spin!And Beth is outside vacuuming mouse poop droppings from a manuscript collection. This is how we get to see the outdoors during the day. Don’t be jealous.
This month on the 1091 Project we highlight those materials that come to the lab that some would say are explicit or offensive and shouldn’t be in a library, but in the context of our collections they are important materials that deserve the same attention as any other. These materials cross multiple academic themes including political science, art and art history, religion, social science, etc. I am a firm believer in collecting these things because they are an important window into our culture and society. Yet if a VIP tour is coming through the lab, I don’t necessarily want to have them out on the bench.
Some materials in the Human Rights Archives fit this description because those fighting against human rights often use hate speech and violence to express their viewpoint. We recently worked on a collection of materials from a deceased member of a certain fraternal hate organization. This collection included his membership card and several group photographs from conventions of the membership. These pictures are not dissimilar from what a group picture taken at a library convention looks like, except of course for the clothing they are wearing, which is rather distinctive. These materials are unsettling to me not in content per se but in the their ordinariness.
Last month Grace worked on preparing the Musee de Horreurs for digitization and exhibit. This collection of political caricatures was published in 1889-1900 in response to the Dreyfus Affair. While many of these materials are disturbing to see, they contain information that, in the context of the collection, sheds light on many aspects of French society at the turn of the 20th century. As objects they are beautifully rendered and printed, as social commentary they are incredibly effective albeit quite offensive.
Treatment image of one print from the Musee de Horreurs.
For the past few months we have been making enclosures for the Sallie Bingham Center’sDrewey Wayne Gunn and Jacques Murat Collection of Gay American Pulps. These materials date primarily from the 1970’s and were printed on low quality paper with very cheaply produced paperback bindings. The content, though sexually graphic, makes sense in the context of the Bingham Center’s collection and is very valuable to researchers. We are not boxing these materials because of what they are but because, like any other brittle paperback, they need enclosures to keep them protected on the shelf and during transportation.
Volumes in the Gunn collection before boxing (above) and after (below).
HOM provides us with a lot of extraordinarily graphic material that is also historic and very educational on many levels. I think my favorite items that have been in the lab recently are the medical flap books. Erin worked on these to get them ready for exhibit, and her treatments generated what we like to call, “the best before treatment image ever.”
Context is everything but we can still have a sense of humor about the collections we encounter! Let’s see what materials Parks Library Preservation is working on that are similar to these.
The new book presses and board shear arrived from Germany in April 2003. The first large equipment for the young Conservation Unit, then part of the Preservation Department.
Happy Birthday Conservation! Today is our 10th Equipment Day, the day we celebrate the arrival from Germany of our large board shear and book presses. Conservation was consolidated into a unit in July 2002 as part of the Preservation Department. It took until April 2003 to get the large equipment here from Europe, in the mean time we did what we could with the equipment we had, including an old board shear that we found in a supply closet. Back then the lab was in two rooms with a public hallway going down the middle. Today we are in a beautiful lab space custom built for us during the last renovation phase.
When I started at Duke the lab had three technicians and myself. We now have 2.75FTE technicians and 3.25 FTE conservators, 0.5FTE students, and two volunteers. We’ve expanded our services from mostly general-collection conservation to a full suite of services for both general and special collections.
The Verne and Tanya Roberts Conservation Lab opened in 2008.
Since 2002 we have repaired over 66,000 books and manuscripts and created over 65,000 enclosures. I’m so very proud of the lab staff and how hard they work to keep our collections in good shape for our patrons. We of course have a lot of help from all over the library. Our colleagues are quick to send us anything in need of repair and we very much appreciate their help.
Looking back it is amazing where we have been and what we have accomplished. Looking forward I’m very excited about where we are going and can’t wait to share our story with you here on Preservation Underground. Happy birthday to us, and thank you all for reading.
Pages sliced from a binding. Whole text blocks removed. Maps stolen. We don’t like to talk about the seedy side of what happens in libraries, but the fact is that theft and mutilation is an occasional thing that we have to deal with. No one likes to talk about it, and some feel we shouldn’t go public when it happens, but I think this is important information to share so that others can learn from our experience.
Several years ago we discovered a problem with a certain section of the collection. We found that a serial set was being mutilated, sometimes a few pages were taken, sometimes whole chapters. I looked through that section of the stacks and found a few more books that were also missing material. Clearly this person was interested in a particular subject and rather than checking the books out, s/he decided to just take the parts they wanted. Through Interlibrary Loan we were able to borrow copies to make replacement pages, then we moved the items off site in hopes that it would deter the problem.
A couple of weeks ago while preparing the newspapers for the renovation, one of my staff members found a few envelopes stuffed into a newspaper box. Obviously the materials weren’t related to the newspapers so she brought them to my attention. I immediately knew what they were based on my previous experience. We had accidentally found the perpetrator’s stash. I went back to the stack area where this subject matter is located and found several more books that were missing pages. While we have some clues we won’t ever know beyond a shadow of a doubt who did this or when it happened, but we can learn from the experience and talk about how to identify and prevent this sort of thing from happening again.
Identifying missing materials
It can be difficult to notice when a book has had a single page or image removed, these are normally found later when the next person checks the book out. But when whole chapters or textblocks are taken, there are tell-tale signs. Notice the gaps in the top two books in the image on the left? Those are missing whole chapters. The bottom book is missing its entire textblock and the boards have taken on a “floppy” feeling and trapezoidal shape.
Paying attention is the best thing anyone who works with the collection can do to identify missing materials. Reading room staff can watch patrons use the collections and check for completeness when items are returned to the desk. Circulation Desk staff can quickly and easily look for obvious gaps in a text block as they check items in or out. Re-shelving staff often know the collections better than most of us and can watch for unusual activity such as thread or bits of paper on the floor, or oddly shelved books or books stashed in places they shouldn’t be. We rely on staff members to be vigilant and bring these problems to our attention and truly appreciate it when they do.
Preventive measures
We do a lot in the library to prepare materials for the stacks. We implement policies and procedures to both deter theft and alert the proper authorities when it happens; and when it does happen we work with local and sometimes national used-book dealers who may be the first to encounter them outside the library. Loose materials are identified in the item records and a note to “check for materials in pocket” alerts desk staff to check that the item is present; security strips and RFID tags are applied to books and a/v materials and will set off an alarm if not deactivated at the Circulation desk; loose-sheet publications are bound to keep the pages together and to deter theft, etc. There are additional methods we employ that are designed to go unnoticed by the layperson. All of these methods help keep books on the shelf and available to researchers.
For the items we found recently, I continue to work on reuniting the missing parts. Hopefully some of these books can be made whole again and be put back into circulation.
