Today in the conservation lab…I’m evaluating books from our circulating collection, to determine if we should have them withdrawn or order replacements. These are books that, for some reason, cannot be easily or efficiently repaired. Many of them are brittle, but others are missing many of their pages due to vandalism, or cannot be rebound […]
Making paste on a Monday morning.
Could you pass this dexterity test? If you interview for a job in my lab – as in many other library conservation labs – you will have to take a test like this to demonstrate your manual dexterity. This is just one example of a dexterity test that we used in the past. The test […]
This was a Wall Street Journal article about the Bookkeeper deacidification system. I rather like that they called it a “dunking machine”, as though it’s operated by Michael Jordan.
Opening an uncut book, with a paper knife. Whoever had checked this out before it was sent to the lab must not have read very much of it because half of the textblock was uncut, and thus unreadable! (Source: http://bookbindingdictionary.com/)
TGIF! This book has a LOT of problems, which I’ve helpfully indicated on its treatment flag.
This book just arrived in the lab with this sad (yet hilarious) note attached. The note reads “Sad Bergey’s :(”, and the book is “Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology”. It is VERY sad indeed, as not only is the binding failing but students have marked it up with highlighting and pencil underlining almost to the point of […]
This book was the victim of both a bookworm and a librarian, who put cellophane tape over the bookworm’s holes many years ago.
This photograph is longer than Shaquille O’Neal is tall! I measured it at a whopping 7 feet 9 inches, or 2.36 meters!
Remember my post from yesterday? http://conservethis.tumblr.com/post/131514951634/this-box-just-got-delivered-to-preservation-today Well, turns out they were bedbugs AND cockroaches AND they were STILL ALIVE!! Also, this bug poops on camera, just for you! In conservation, we refer to insect poop as “frass”. (Source: https://embed.tumblr.com/)