Some scenes from the move of our archives and special collections: empty shelves contrasted with full book trays on their way to offsite storage. My library will be undergoing a massive renovation early this coming year, and I am the one managing the logistics involved in moving our collections to offsite storage and other points […]
Apparently our first university archivist/historian was a big fan of lamination. This just one of a couple hundred volumes containing some of our earliest university records and history that were meticulously laminated. I cannot accurately describe how aghast I must have looked while examining these. My coworker showed them to me today for the first […]
This parchment leaf from a Medieval choir book was mounted to somebody’s vision board before it was framed, many years ago. I’ve done a lot of backing removals over the years, but this one is probably the most inspirational of them all!
Ummm… …okay, that works I guess.
So I made a really big box, and I had to stand it on end when gluing the walls together. And while that was happening I started smashing some of my bone folders together and felt smarter for some unknown reason. Maybe it has something to do with this monolithic box…
This from a great little book called “A Library is to Know”, which is a parody of Maurice Sendak’s “A Hole is to Dig”. Parsons, Arthur Hudson, 1910-1959. A Library Is to Know. [Jacksonville, Ill.: New Method Book Bindery, 1961. You can read the whole thing for free on the HathiTrust!
Don’t look down! This library has metal grating instead of a solid floor. So you can see all the way to the bottom, three stories down! But hey, there’s complimentary flip flops so you don’t have to walk on the grating in bare feet. This is the University of Yangon Library in Myanmar. And the […]
Library dog in Mandalay
I was able to visit the famous Ludu Library and Archive, which is located in Mandalay, Myanmar. One of the library staff knew I was going to visiting, so he showed me this Burmese-language bookbinding manual when I arrived. You have no idea how excited I was to look through this book!
I can’t make this stuff up, it practically writes itself… in the margins of this book. Seriously, stop writing in library books!