Category Archives: Conservation

Conservation, What Others Say About us

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

Conservation

Sometimes You Get Lucky

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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.

Conservation

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

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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.

Conservation

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.

Announcements, Awards, Conservation

Mellon Awards Libraries $1.25 Million for Conservation

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Foundation Award Will Expand Department

DURHAM, NC: The Duke University Libraries have received a $1.25 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to create a new senior conservator position to help care for the Libraries’ extensive research collections. During the next three years, the Libraries will raise a matching $1 million to endow the position, while $250,000 of the grant will allow the Libraries to proceed with appointing someone before the endowment is fully funded.

The new senior conservator position will help the Libraries to address a growing need to preserve and make accessible a wide variety of materials that are currently unavailable to researchers or could be damaged by use because of their fragile condition. It will also allow the Libraries’ Conservation Services Department to expand partnerships on campus and throughout the Triangle area.

Demand For Skilled Conservators

The demand for skilled conservation professionals has never been higher, as historical library collections age and technology poses new questions about long-term access to information. A recent survey of Duke’s Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library (RBMSCL) indicated that nearly one-third of its holdings require conservation treatments. That translates to a significant need: the RBMSCL has collections of more than 350,000 printed volumes, 20 million manuscripts, and 200,000 photographs, in addition to numerous other formats, from ancient papyri to born-digital records. Many of these materials come with unique conservation needs that must be addressed before researchers can use them.

Duke’s experienced team of library conservation professionals serves as a local and regional resource on a range of conservation-related issues. Conservators regularly collaborate with other Duke units, such as the Nasher Museum of Art and the Center for Documentary Studies, and with partners in the Triangle Research Libraries Network (North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). The addition of a senior conservator will increase the department’s level of expertise and the opportunities for outreach and conservation education to the community.

Mellon’s Previous Support of the Libraries

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has generously supported several other Duke University Libraries initiatives. Previous Mellon grants are helping to develop a portal for integrated access to international papyrus collections; a next-generation, open-source library system that fits modern library workflows; and campus-wide institutional strategies for managing and preserving Duke’s vast and varied digital assets.

“We could not realize our most ambitious goals without the Mellon Foundation’s generous support,” said Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs. “Our research collections are both deep and diverse in coverage and a powerful draw to scholars working in many disciplines. By improving our ability to preserve these materials for the next generation, this grant is supporting not just Duke, but the entire scholarly community.”

The job announcement has been posted.



Conservation

12 Days of Conservation (singalong edition)

12 Days of Conservation
On the twelfth day of Christmas,
Conservation sent to me:
Twelve clamshell boxes,
Eleven paper cases,
Ten leather rebacks,
Nine pamphlet bindings,
Eight encapsulations,
Seven CD pockets,
Six scalpel blades
Five bone folders,
Four laying presses,
Three French knives,
Two fume hoods,
And a board shear with a sharp blade!

Shanna Leino handmade tools

Be sure to look at Shanna Leino’s tools, they are amazing. For more 12 Days checklists, check out the Digital Collections Blog. Have a safe and happy holiday. Thank you for reading our blog, we appreciate your eyeballs and comments. See you next year!

Conservation

Last Minute Gift Ideas

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Welcome to the new version of our blog! We just migrated over to WordPress, please adjust your bookmarks accordingly. We have a new URL, but we have set up a re-direct for the old one so you can still find us.

The holiday season is upon us, and is our tradition we offer up some last minute gifts for that hard-to-buy-for conservator or preservation enthusiast on your list. This year it’s all about fiction and movies sine we read enough technical literature for our jobs. All work and no play…

Books
Homicide in Hardcover: A Bibliophile Mystery by Kate Carlisle. The description reads, “The streets of San Francisco would be lined with hardcovers if rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright had her way. And her mentor wouldn’t be lying in a pool of his own blood on the eve of a celebration for his latest book restoration.” Intriguing, no?

The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga. Written in 1995, the book follows a young conservator on her journey to Florence to help with the recovery of books affected by the floods of 1966 (a seminal year in the history of library conservation theory and practice). Along the way our heroine discovers more than just a rare volume of erotica.

The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva. Part of the Gabriel Allon series, the main character is an Israeli intelligence operative who also happens to be a paintings conservator. Don’t you think some of your colleagues may be secret undercover agents with mad spy skills?

Movies
National Treasure. What better way to represent conservators than one that is willing to squirt lemon juice on the U.S. Constitution in the name of discovering long lost treasure? And Nicholas Cage is just fun to watch, in my opinion.

Ghostbusters II. Admittedly not as good as the original but still a fun movie filled with ectoplasm and all around hijinks. Siguorney Weaver’s character, Dana Barrett, is a paintings conservator.

Holly Hunter also plays a paintings conservator in Home for the Holidays. Why do paintings conservators get all the character lines? Anyway, a light and funny film especially good for those of you traveling to meet family this year.

More
For more finds be sure to visit Conservation Online’s listing of books, movies and more, all with a conservation theme or character. If you have any to add, leave us a note.

Boxing Day, Conservation

A Very Big Challenge

I think this is the biggest box I’ve tried to make, it’s for a Torah that was recently on exhibit and needs to go back to RBMSCL.

I’m experimenting with using double-walled corrugated board rather than binders board since it has strength but not weight. The board surface is easily marred but with the book cloth adhered it seems pretty solid. I’m going with a telescoping design, that is a smaller tray that has aslightly larger lid that fits over it.

What I’m not sure of yet is the design of the lid. The base is too big to make a lid from one piece of board, so I will have to cobble something together. I’m also considering experimenting with a polyester lid so you can see into the box. Nothing will be stored on top of this box, so having a sturdy lid may not be an issue, but would it provide enough protection? More thought is needed. Luckily the next few days are chock full of meetings, so I’ll have time to mull it over.