Join us on the 6th floor of Hatcher this Thursday, 19 March, between 4-6p for our next Third Thursdays at the Library event of the semester! This open house will feature conservation work. 

Come chat with the conservators and technicians who care for the library’s rare and special collections.  The Preservation Services department is charged with caring for vast and diverse collections — from the world’s first atlas to (fake) blood-stained movie costumes. 

Projects on view will include structural repairs of bindings, complex paper washing, intricate custom boxes, and a large scale rehousing project. Some examples of projects involving technical analysis and multi-band imaging will also be presented.

I feel like so much focus has been put on arsenic green pigments, with just minor discussions on yellow and red (chromium, mercury, lead), almost always talking about book covers (book cloth and painted vellum/leather) or decorative endpapers.

I’ve found ONE article that mentions testing ONE green edge-painted book. That’s not a great sample. I want more info. I’m curious about the green painted book I’ve got on a shelf, and now wondering about the red edge painted books I have too…and apparently lead was commonly used for a few different things aside from pigment coloring?

I asked my Twitter feed for advice for MLIS students who discovered an interest in conservation work (primarily book and paper conservation). Here is a compilation of answers. The original thread is here.

Q1: Do you have any advice for current MLIS students who want further training in this area?

For Q1, the best advice that I can give is to try to get a student or tech job in a library conservation lab to get some experience/exposure. Also to take some bookbinding classes or workshops. Figure out if they actually like the work before diving in to a 2nd grad program.

AIC (The American Institute for Conservation) is the professional association here in the states, and they have a guide to breaking into the field https://culturalheritage.org/about-conservation/become-a-conservator… . The AIC section most relevant to Library resources is Book and Paper (https://culturalheritage.org/membership/groups-and-networks/book-and-paper-group…) 

Take physical and organic chem and go to Winterthur or Buffalo. North Bennet also good but no chem, Likewise some MFA programs like 'Bama and Iowa.  

One of my coworkers took some conservation training at the Campbell Center in Illinois: http://icpn.museum.state.il.us/institution/campbell-center-historic-preservation-studies

NEDCC has trainings/workshops: https://www.nedcc.org/

Q2. Any favorite readings or textbooks?

For Q2: Laura Young's "Bookbinding & Conservation by Hand" is a good intro manual. 

Resource: https://www.nedcc.org/

 "Books Will Speak Plain" series and the BPG Annual (https://culturalheritage.org/membership/groups-and-networks/book-and-paper-group/about-the-annual/bpgannual…) have lots of more interesting articles on treatments.

Victoria McCargar has some good articles

I had to read: scribes, scripts, and books: the book arts from antiquity to the Renaissance by Leila Avrin for my preservation class

Here’s a good overview textbook:  Preservation and Conservation for Libraries and Archives: Reissued reprint Edition by Nelly Balloffet (Author), Jenny Hille (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Preservation-Conservation-Libraries-Archives-Balloffet/dp/083891005X

It's a little old at this point, but free, and since it's emergency preparedness, is a broader perspective of the basic foundations you'd want to have in place to build conservation ON.  https://getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/pdf/emergency_plan.pdf… 

As a collections care conservator at a library, I use all these resources: https://icon.org.uk/groups-and-networks/care-of-collections/ccg-resources.html…

Increase Mather's Cases of Conscience Concerning Witchcraft is a collection of manuscript pages and was previously bound in a marbled paper case that was not original to the handwritten pages. Due to the fragility and acidity of this paper case, it had since split from the sewing structure, which was no longer keeping the manuscript pages together. In preparation for the Religious Change exhibition, the book underwent a simple treatment. We gave it a new conservation paper case that would not only protect the manuscript pages, but also the new sewing structure. Awls were used to ensure the original sewing holes were utilized [first image] as the book received a simple pamphlet stitch sewing structure. Thanks to sewing the book into a new case of archival quality paper, Mather's pages are not only ready for exhibit but are also safely protected in this conservation binding and thus usable for research for decades to come.

For any exhibition, conservation plays an important role. Conservators clean and repair manuscripts and bindings; find or craft book supports and cradles to display materials in cases; mat, frame, and mount paintings, maps, and posters; and control light, humidity, and temperature levels in the exhibition environment. With an ambitious project like Religious Change, conservation’s role only grows.

The sheer number of items involved increased, as did the ways they would be used for the project. Digital resources demanded photography and preservation work; many of the documents found in the curatorial discovery process required cleaning or more intensive conservation treatment; and exhibiting over 150 items—some quite large or unusually shaped—meant a very organized and careful process.

One item that was particularly challenging for its size was a six-paneled 1629 map depicting the Siege of La Rochelle [Novacco 4F 112]. The piece shows a battle scene at the height of tensions between Protestants and Catholics in France, and rather than being a traditional navigational map is a large printed illustration meant as art. Its subject was perfect for the exhibition; it visualizes the impact of the rifts the Reformation caused and exemplifies their cultural significance.

The matting and framing, however, posed quite the challenge. The six poster-sized sheets would need to be framed in one piece. Each sheet was secured to the mat board individually, using linen thread instead of paper hinges to give the fragile paper extra flexibility. Then the conservators covered the matting with a large piece of custom-cut plexiglass and reinforced it with a backing board, sealing it all together with a passe-partout. This was then secured to the frame.

One last challenge remained. To prevent dust from entering during the framing process, the map was framed in the Newberry’s Conservation Lab; but then the item, measuring 66”x66” when framed, had to be transported to the gallery space. It just barely fit through the doors leading out of the lab, and would need to be finessed diagonally into the elevator so the team could hang it securely in the gallery.

Posters, posters, and more posters!

A recent donation of several hundred movie posters (not all are shown above) recently invaded the conservation lab. The posters had been rolled for storage, and while a few unrolled easily, those printed on heavyweight paper didn’t want to be flat.

I knew that trying to humidify and flatten each poster individually would drive me to the brink of insanity (and take a long, long time), so I did some research and found a great article by Stephanie Watkins in the Book and Paper Annual, entitled Practical Considerations for Humidifying and Flattening Paper.

Following the description in the article, I covered our drying rack in plastic sheeting and hooked up our ultrasonic humidifier in the back.  This pumped in cool, moist air.  I placed a thermometer/hygrometer inside the improvised chamber to monitor the temperature and humidity.

Once the posters were nice and relaxed, I removed them from the chamber, and placed them between hollytex and blotter to dry.

Just passing along the info...this is not my library, so I can’t answer any questions about this internship. This is a great opportunity for those of you who aren’t already in a conservation program, but who would like to get the experience that will help when applying to a program. It’s also paid! Wow! Go get it!

The University of Washington Libraries is offering a pre-program internship for an individual with a demonstrated interest in conservation. Applicants are expected to be preparing for or enrolled in a graduate level conservation program.

This is a full-time (40 hours per week) summer program.  Duration is 10 weeks, exact dates falling between July 1 through September 2016. The University of Washington Libraries provides a $5,000 stipend.  Applicants should be clear to work in the United States.

Working under the supervision of the Senior Conservator, the intern will have the opportunity to perform a broad range of conservation treatments on rare books, manuscripts, prints, drawings, maps, and other unbound archival and special collections materials on paper and vellum. The intern will develop skills in treatment decision-making, prepare condition and treatment reports with appropriate photo documentation, and gain additional experience in conservation treatment.

For additional information, or to apply, see

http://www.lib.washington.edu/about/employment/internships/conservation