Category Archives: News

Covid-19, News, Statistics, Technology

Happy 11th Birthday, Preservation Underground!

On this day in 2009 our blog was born! Looking back, we have accomplished quite a lot here over those 11 years. We are rapidly approaching our 500th post. It seemed fitting to celebrate by highlighting our eleven most popular stories or “quick pics” from the lab:

1. Working From Home Options for Conservation Labs

2. A Fleet of Futons–Yours for the Making

3. It Came From The Bowels

4. What a Difference a [Press] Makes

5. Cradle Boxing Day

6. Moving the Duke Family

7.  The ‘Largest Sheet of Paper Ever Made and Printed’

8. When It Rains On The Inside

9. 1091 Project: Making Enclosures

10. Letter Spacing on Labels

11. Hold Me Closer… Protective Enclosure

I was a bit surprised to see that three of the top posts are from this calendar year. With the disruption to everyone’s work over the last 9 months, it has been a little more challenging to keep to our usual publishing schedule. But with everyone spending more time at home these days, I guess that also means more folks are looking for something to read. Welcome to our new readers and a huge ‘thank you’ to long-time followers who have stuck with us! Here’s to another 11 years of preservation stories, coming to you from the library basement. Have a safe and restful holiday.

Announcements, News

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.