Collaboration, Digital Production Center, Digitizing, Videos

Building a Digital Collection One Step at a Time

The Fall 2010 issue of Duke University Libraries Magazine includes an article on the steps it takes to create a digital collection.

Michael Adamo, Noah Huffman and Richard Murray

A visitor exploring one of the Duke Libraries’ digital collections is probably too engrossed in the content to think very much about how the collection got there. In fact, each digital collection is the product of a collaboration of eight to ten staff from several library departments who work together in a cross-functional team. The team begins each new project with a workplan and proceeds through a series of steps that culminates in the collection’s public launch.

Continue reading the article at Duke Magazine.

Announcements

Coming at you, and fast

Hello readers. We are in the process of moving information from our website to our blog. In order to do so I created posts for each entry and will be publishing them en masse. This means a lot of new (old) things in your RSS reader and they will also show up here. I apologize in advance, but after they are up we will be able to better organize and keep track of our news items. And that is what we are all about as librarians, yes? the better organization and dissemination of information?

I’ll schedule the posts overnight on Friday. You can delete them in one large group from your RSS reader, or you can relive the past with us over a hot cup of joe this weekend.

Image: “Casey Jones, the brave engineer” from DUL’s American Sheet Music collection.

Conservation

Sometimes You Get Lucky

2 Comments

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.

Digital Production Center, Exhibits

10 Projects: Analog to Digital

Our new exhibit it up!

10 Projects: Analog to Digital highlights some of our favorite digitization projects from the Digital Production Center. For the past five years the men and women in DPC have worked to bring our collections to new life in digital format. You can find these collections through Duke Digital Collections.

For more on the DPC staff, search our site for our Ten Years, Ten People posts. You might also want to follow the Digital Collections Blog, one of many blogs hosted by the Library.

The exhibit is open during regular Perkins/Bostock hours. We are located on the Lower Level (same level as the Link), by Room 023.

job announcement

Job Announcement, Senior Conservator for Special Collections

Senior Conservator for Special Collections

The Senior Conservator for Special Collections plans and executes individual intermediate and advanced treatment of special collections material from the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, University Archives, branch libraries, and University cultural heritage curatorial organizations. This position reports to the Head, Conservation Services Department. A full job description and application instructions can be found at http://library.duke.edu/jobs/srconservator.html.

Education:

Required: ALA-accredited MLS or Master’s degree in conservation of library and archival materials, or demonstration of a similar level of education and training required for the conservation of rare materials.

Preferred: Demonstrated record of continued education in areas relevant to this position.

Experience:

Required: Five years conservation-related experience with substantial demonstrated experience and participation in the field, leading to exceptional manual skills and a full understanding of conservation theory and practice; extensive knowledge of materials science and chemistry of the materials used to create library materials; demonstrated knowledge of current conservation theory and practice; commitment to AIC standards of practice; knowledge of conservation ethics and practices relevant to research library materials; knowledge of physical and chemical mechanisms of deterioration of library materials; ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing as well as possess strong interpersonal skills; ability to work independently and as part of a team in a changing environment; ability to instruct and demonstrate technique.

Preferred: Seven to 10 years conservation experience; experience working in a research library; additional expertise in the treatment of photographic materials, works on art on paper, vellum and parchment, or similar cultural heritage materials; teaching experience; supervisory experience; experience evaluating and treating materials selected for digital imaging projects; experience with exhibit preparation.

Duke University Libraries Preservation