Small Gifts Can Make A Difference

Bound newspapers (before boxing)
Chicago Tribune (1906) newspapers before boxing.

‘Tis the season to give thanks for all that we have. In that spirit, we would like to express our appreciation for one of our donors, Mike Plaisance, for his generosity over the past several years. Mr. Plaisance has given to the Library every month since May, 2008.

His gifts have helped us purchase enclosures for the bound newspapers in the American Newspaper Repository. These enclosures protect the contents from environmental changes, and keep the bound volumes safe during transport between the Rubenstein Library reading room and the Library Service Center where this collection is housed.

While Mr. Plaisance’s gift is not the multi-million dollar contribution that we usually publicize, smaller gifts like these add up and can really make a difference. Mr. Plaisance’s monthly contribution has been a meaningful and useful gift, and has helped us protect and preserve this high-use collection. Thank you Mr. Plaisance!!

bound newspaper after boxing
If a newspaper is slightly smaller than the box, we custom fit a spacer to keep it from “swimming” inside during transportation.
Bound newspapers after boxing
Chicago Tribune (1906) after boxing.

 

1901 Project: A Lab With A View (Or Not)

This month on the 1091 Project we take a look at our physical lab spaces, how they are set up and how our location impacts our work. The Verne and Tanya Roberts Conservation Lab is located on Lower Level 1 of Perkins Library, Room 023. We share this level with The Link, Digital Production Center (DPC), Preservation, and Shipping and Receiving.

When you enter the lab you will see that the work benches are aligned along the left wall; the large equipment such as the board shears, job backer, cloth roll storage and standing press are in the center of the room; the washing sink, clean-up sink, flat file storage, rolling work table, ultrasonic polyester welder, and sorting shelves are to the right. We have several rooms within the space including a “dirty room” with fume hood, sink, Kwikprint and work table; the department head’s office; a store room for supplies; and a photo documentation room. This space opened in 2008 and was purpose-built as a conservation lab as part of the Perkins Project. You can see a virtual tour on Flickr, and there is a video near the end of this post.

Challenges

One of the challenges in designing the layout of the lab was the fact that we have several large columns in weird places around the room that cause bottlenecks in the flow of traffic through the space. Since these columns are holding up the building, we had to work around them to arrange the space to accommodate large equipment and the need to move materials through the room.

Another challenge is navigating full book trucks through so many self-closing doors. If I could wave a magic wand and go back in time, I would invent the automobile ask for doors that open automatically in response to motion or the wave of your foot. The doors would also be wide enough to easily accommodate a truck of large, flat objects or supplies.

What Works

Having the benches in a row encourages interaction between the staff. Being close to each other allows for easy collaboration and discovery, it’s easy to ask for opinions or to see what projects everyone is working on. It also allows for a more flexible space as you can use an empty bench behind you as a temporary landing space if you need to.

lab staff working

The separate spaces for the dirty room and photo documentation room allows that work to happen away from the main lab. For example, when someone is vacuuming mold in the fume hood, or taking pictures of their objects in the photo documentation room, the noise and visual disturbance is reduced and makes for a happier workplace.

One of the benefits of the renovation was getting upgrades in ergonomic equipment and features. We have a cork floor that is easier to stand on all day, sit-to-stand benches that raise and lower at the push of a button, and special chairs (designed for dental hygienists) that are comfortable and supportive when you have to sit for long periods. We also have daylight balanced lights, which not only helps in color matching but are brighter and more cheerful to be under (in my opinion) when you have no windows in your space.

On Being In The Basement

Being in the basement has its disadvantages and advantages. We have to push carts through several doors, around many corners, and into an elevator to retrieve materials from the stacks. Driving book trucks safely around obstacles like these can be tricky.

People also find it difficult to find the lab on this floor. Unfortunately there are two rooms on this level with the same room number (one in Perkins Library and one in the adjoining Bostock Library). Bostock 023 is a computer training room, so we often have students ringing our doorbell expecting the lab to be their classroom. I tell students applying for jobs, “If you can find the lab, you have cleared one hurdle to being hired.”

The biggest advantage to being in our space is…our space. In our previous location our supplies were on pallets on the floor in a public hallway that went through the middle of our two work rooms. The photo documentation setup was in my office, which was difficult for everyone. We had no room for a fume hood or washing sink. We now have a physical space that allows us to provide a higher level of service and to work more efficiently. I quickly shot a video of our lab early this morning before everyone arrived. Sorry about the wobbly picture but you get the idea of what the space looks like.

httpv://youtu.be/0rXaSVhOUpY

The best thing about our space is that it is a gem in the crown of our renovated library. Our lab, the staff and the work they do have become one of the highlights of library tours. It is really fun to invite people “behind the scenes” to show off the great people I work with and the amazing things they do for the collections. Thanks for visiting us. Be sure to head over to Parks Library Preservation to read about their space!

Quick Pic: The Halloween Edition

Happy Halloween everyone! To celebrate we would like to introduce you to “Fred” as we have named him. This German anatomical model dates to the 1930’s or 1940’s and is from the History of Medicine Collection.

Fred comes complete with removable lungs, liver and intestines, just the thing for today’s festivities. Jennifer is figuring out how to build a box for him to keep all his guts in place.

Have a safe Halloween! Watch out for zombies lurching and little children crossing the streets, and brush your teeth after you steal share your kid’s candy.

1091 Project: Interview With A Conservator

httpv://youtu.be/jn1adLnJqvU

This month as part of the 1091 project we are presenting an interview with our paper conservator, Grace White. Regular readers will remember that Grace joined the staff last year. Since then, she has worked on a variety of things including some very, very large WWI posters; she curated an exhibit on the tools of the trade; and has helped with a lot of the renovation prep, including the papyri rehousing project. Grace also writes the quarterly “What’s In The Lab” series for the Devil’s Tale.

In this interview, Grace discusses what she does, how she came to the conservation profession, her favorite treatment as well as her favorite tool. Check out our other staff interviews from our “10 Years, 10 People” series, and be sure to click over to Parks Library Preservation for their interview!

A Very Busy Year for Conservation Services

Conservation’s FY2012 annual report in a tweet.

As anyone in the lab will tell you, I love statistics. I wrote last year about the Conservation Department’s fiscal year 2011 statistics, I thought I would write about fiscal year 2012.

  • We have seven staff members, one of whom works only on the renovation project; seven students, five of whom worked on the renovation project; and two volunteers.
  • We repaired or rehoused 20,512 items from the collections last year.
  • Of that number, over 14,000 were enclosures, over half of these were renovation related.
  • 62% of our output was for Rubenstein Library; 24% for Perkins/Bostock; the remaining work was for our branch libraries.
  • We also presented two papers at AIC, served on ALA committees, participated in several library committees, gained skills in conserving papyrus and transparent papers, and Jennifer earned her MLIS (yea Jennifer!).
  • We had an 11% increase in unique visits to Preservation Underground; a 9% increase in overall page views; we passed 400 Facebook followers; have more than 500 images on Flickr; and we helped start the library’s Pinterest account.
Trends We Are Tracking
Exhibit preparation and installation.
  • We are doing more preparation and conservation work  in support of the Exhibits Program. We expect this upward trend to continue as we expand our program as part of Rubenstein Library renovation.
  • In FY2011 we started separating out stats for work we do to support digitization projects. Last year that total was 656. We expect this workflow to increase as our digitization program expands in the future.

Since fiscal year 2003, we have repaired or rehoused over 132,000 items from the library’s collections. This year we celebrate Conservation’s 10th year of service to the library. It is an honor to work with such an amazing, dedicated and fun group of people. Thanks to everyone in Conservation for their hard work!

New Exhibit: Help Wanted

Banana
The banana book makes its first public appearance in our new exhibit. Don’t miss it!

“Help Wanted: You Can Help Keep Our Collections In Good Condition” focuses on what our patrons can do to keep our books on the shelf and usable for everyone. The exhibit is intended to support reinforce the information we present at our annual Care and Handling training, which will be scheduled for late September or early October.

The exhibit is open during regular library hours. It is located just outside the Conservation Lab, Room 023, Perkins Lower Level 1.

Come see the banana book in person. There is another little surprise in there, too.

Celebrating Founders Day by Conserving Early Duke History

Written by Meg Brown, Special Collections Conservator and Exhibits Coordinator

Founders Day at Duke University has been celebrated since 1901 and marks a day to honor our benefactors and our University’s history. Duke University was originally formed when the Union Institute Society’s 1839 constitution established a body with responsibility for the oversight of the affairs of Union Institute Academy of Randolph County, North Carolina. The Board of Trustees was legally recognized in 1841 by an act of the North Carolina General Assembly incorporating Union Institute Academy as a private school for boys. A digital version of this constitution can be seen online.

Duke documents after treatment

In honor of Founders Day, Conservation Services would like to share a few early founder’s documents that have received treatment recently. These documents were sent to conservation after many years of sharing them with the Duke community–just in time to retain their original character as artifacts even though some of them are still very fragile.

These bound manuscript volumes include account records, meeting minutes, and signatures of many of Duke’s founding fathers including the Constitution of Union Institute Academy (bound with the Union Institute Academy Minutes and Accounts, 1839-1853), and the first three volumes of the minutes of Trinity College (June 19, 1860-June 12, 1879; June 9, 1880-June 10, 1891 and September 19, 1891-February 19, 1900.)

The pictures here show some “before treatment” images, with broken sewing, missing spines and torn up-bindings; the “after treatment” images show how they can now be safely used by our community for years to come. More images from this project can be found in our photo essay on Flickr.

 

Before Treatment (Left) and After Treatment (Right)

Union Institute 1839-before

Union Institute 1839-after

Trinity minutes 1880-1891 Before

Trinity minutes 1880-1891 After

Trinity minutes 1860-1879 Before

Trinity minutes 1860-1879 After

Trinity-BOD-minutes-1891-1900 Before

Trinity-BOD-minutes-1891-1900 After

Doris Duke Memorabilia: How Do I Box That?

Written by Jennifer Blomberg, Senior Conservation Technician

Sometimes you just never know what will come through the lab for boxing. These items from the Doris Duke Archives were recently sent to us for custom enclosures. Boxing a Louisville Slugger baseball bat, a football, and weathervane can present obvious challenges due to their unusual shapes and dimensions.  To read more about the provenance of these materials, please see the Rubenstein Library’s blog post.

Goals for Housing

The main goals for creating these housings were to protect the fragile materials while providing easy access for researchers. They had to fit the unusual shape and dimensions of the materials, keep them from shifting inside the box, and allow them to be shelved easily with other archival materials. Designing and fabricating these boxes offered a real challenge.

Creating the Enclosures

I made “telescoping” boxes for the baseball bat and weathervane. This type of box consists of a bottom tray that fits the object, and a separate lid that fits over the bottom tray. The football got a standard drop-spine or “clamshell” box. Each tray was lined with Volara foam to provide cushioning for the object.

Overall, I am content with the final enclosures and believe that they achieve the goals that we sought out to accomplish. These will provide supportive and protective enclosures, while also making them available and accessible to researchers.

Louisville Slugger baseball bat.
Football inscribed to Doris Duke.
Duke weathervane.

 

 

Last Chance To See “What’s Missing From Your Video History”

This week will be your last opportunity to see our exhibit “What’s Missing From Your Video History” sponsored by the Preservation Department and the Digital Scholarship and Production Services.

Audio-visual materials’ rapid deterioration (relative to print media), its wide adoption for commercial and personal use, and the range of formats and playback equipment that rose and fell around analog videotape, have profound implications for preserving those pieces of our 20th century history that were captured on videotape.

The exhibit is on Perkins Lower Level 1, outside the Digital Production Center, near room 023. Open during library hours.

 

Duke University Libraries Preservation