Welcome back! Seeing that we’re all working from Mullins Library once again, here’s a look at our new space. The Libraries held a grand reopening in April, and the Preservation Lab was one of spaces open for touring. Visitors were welcome to explore the displays of tools and items we work with and use (almost)…Continue Reading Preservation Updates in 2025
Preservation Week, April 30 – May 6, inspires action to preserve personal, family, and community collections in addition to library, museum, and archive collections. It also raises awareness of the role libraries and other cultural institutions play in providing ongoing preservation education and information. The 2023 Preservation Week theme is Building Resilient Communities. Every year,…Continue Reading Preservation Week 2023
The American Institute for Conservation (AIC) is hosting Ask A Conservator Day today, November 18th. The day is meant to raise awareness about conservation, and conservators around the world will be participating on social media (follow the #AskAConservator hashtag across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to see what’s being posted and discussed by others). For a…Continue Reading It’s #AskAConservator Day!
In a change from our typical themes, we present a mystery: The Case of the Salt and Vinegar Microfilm. A frightening tale of degradation, fitting for Halloween this weekend. The piece is a work of fiction very loosely based on true events from Mullins Library. Oh, that smell… Sounds of a typewriter clicking and the…Continue Reading The Case of the Salt and Vinegar Microfilm
[Un]Boxing is a series where we’ll explore the creative and unusual ways to safely house fragile materials for the Libraries’ collections. This is the first installment and features a project finished in 2019 for the Archives in Special Collections. As part of the MC 1798 Ralph Hyman Papers there is a set of three miniature…Continue Reading [Un]Boxing: String Trio
One of our Preservation Unit interests is the impact of our work on the environment around us. We’re interested in implementing sustainable initiatives in all aspects of preservation work—any steps to change both our habits and typical procedures are worth taking. Understanding the goal of preservation helps when considering sustainability in our operations. Our aim…Continue Reading Library Preservation and Sustainability: Part 1
The Challenge Answering a petition by Peter Verheyen, of the BookArts group, one of my projects this summer was to showcase the versatility of the material of fish skin, through experimental research. The BookArts Bind-O-Rama project was to craft fish parchment or fish leather and make something out of it. By doing this project, it…Continue Reading Experimental Archaeology: Fish Leather
I came from a background of archaeology, and there’s a saying that an archaeologist creates their own tool-kit, borrowing tools designed for other fields. Conservation and Preservation tools are essentially the same. As the trade is still developing, there are so few tools designed for our work specifically that we often amass a hodgepodge of…Continue Reading 10 Unusual Tools on our Preservation Workbench
Image from the American Institute for Conservation website In this, our first post, we’re going to discuss two common questions about our field. What’s the difference between Preservation, Conservation, and Restoration when it relates to material culture and heritage? Are Conservators and Conservationists the same? Hopefully, by the end of this post, we’ll have cleared…Continue Reading Preservation, Conservation, or Restoration?