Found a map of Texas stuck inside an early 19th cen book of German poetry. I have no idea what book the map belongs to, so now it goes in my pile of “things found in books that weren’t supposed to be in that book”. Cc stufffoundinbooks
This book went to get library bound in 1984, according to its original check-out card. And guess what? It gets to go get library bound AGAIN, which is why it’s on my bench. I’m taking off the old & worn library binding, cleaning the spine, putting a nice reversibility layer of Japanese tissue on it, […]
I had to leave these photographs in the humidification chamber (aka our paper washing sink) overnight because they were so curled. As a result, I had several nightmares about what I would find today when I returned to work this morning. Here they are: 1) Someone came in and stole all 30 of the photographs […]
Good advice, for bookbinders and non-bookbinders enough. However, sometimes you have to learn when it’s more advantageous to be “good enough” rather than perfect. (Photo by conservethis )
Circulation just sent me this book, which apparently is actually the halves of TWO different books bound together accidentally by our commercial binder. As far as I can tell, the first half of the book is “What we talk about when we talk about love" by Raymond Carver, and the second half is a book by […]
Weeding the conservation lab’s own research library, and these VHS tapes are getting scrutinized (by me) for their usefulness to future lab inhabitants. So far I’ve been able to find a DVD version available of “Into the Future”, which is also a great example of the 90′s era of internet optimism. As for the others, I […]
Just got a treat via Interlibrary Loan! The much-beloved, but limited-run journal known as “Recent Setbacks in Conservation”. Thanks to thegetty for loaning them! I’ll take good care of them while they’re in my possession. 🙂 Here’s just a sampling of what articles are contained within: “Restoration from Beyond: Is There a Happy Medium?” “Preserving a […]
We made pastepaper in the conservation lab today! Pastepaper is an economical (and fun!) way to make decorated paper for use as book covering material or endsheets. You can also use pastepaper to make your own stuck-on endbands! It is a technique that has been around for quite a long while. Our library has examples […]
What’s hiding under that book “repair” tape? Oh, it’s the original gold stamped spine, now ruined! (Source: https://vine.co/)
This black and white silver-gelatin photograph is showing “silver mirroring”, which is when the silver particles in the image degrade. From certain viewing angles, the mirroring is not noticeable, but from other angles it is VERY noticeable. This particular photograph was dry-mounted to a piece of foam-core board, and also matted, both of which probably contributed […]