What’s Archival About It?

“I use this stuff on my family photographs and documents.  It says it’s archival.  It’s okay to use isn’t it?”  It’s the inevitable question after every “caring for your family treasures” talk.  Or, “I saw this product at a scrap booking store and it says its acid-free.  What do you think?”  Of course I launch into “archival” doesn’t really mean anything in this situation and “acid-free” is only one concern of many.

These products always catch me by surprise and I can only address their properties in a very general way as they relate to what we consider appropriate for conservation.  I guess I should spend more time in scrap booking and hobby stores.  What’s out there? How much of it is acceptable?  Everyone who seeks our advice generally has good intentions when they start out organizing and caring for their collections, but then cost, availability and ease of use affect their decision making.

Are sticky blue dots or adhesive dot rollers something we should approve if individual handmade, Japanese tissue photo corners  attached with hand-stirred wheat starch paste are not really an option?  Let’s face it, archival photo corners often fail quickly and what we expect from conservators goes well beyond the skills, knowledge, and patience of anyone else.  Is there something in between?  Sticky blue dots state that they are photo safe and permanent.  No mention of staining over time or cold flow issues.  Will it soften emulsions over time?  Indirect contact or not, there is opportunity for adverse chemical reactions, but are there any?  Adhesive dots are from the same company that brought us Post-It, a removable adhesive that becomes pretty permanent over time.  Did they warn us about that?  I’m not picking on 3M, I love their stuff, but our intentions and expectations my be different when viewed with time as a variable and also reversibility as a criteria.

Maybe you all can help me out with my grocery list.  What have you been asked about? What have you heard about or seen that made you go “hmmm?”  Perhaps I’ll have a chance to do some simple testing on my own and at least understand what the potential risks are.

 

What’s Under That Label?

One day I started to disassemble a book titled This Way to the Big Show by Dexter W. Fellows and Andrew A. Freeman (1936) to do a full repair on it.  As I was taking off the pastedown from inside the front cover, I discovered stamped words underneath the Iowa State College catalog label stating “I.S.C. Book Club” and a penciled-in date of 7-18-36.  This lead me to wonder what the I.S.C. Book Club was, as I had not heard of it before.  With assistance from co-workers Mindy McCoy (Preservation) and Laura Sullivan (Special Collections), I was able to find out more information about the I.S.C. Book Club.

In 1925, the college library began helping in the educational program of the local radio station WOI.  Three years later, the reading of books over the air waves was begun, and the Radio Book Club was formed in early 1930.  Membership in this club was open to all persons within three hundred miles of Ames – the size of a postal zone, with mostly rural customers who had no public library close by.  Over 1,200 persons were using this service, and not just in Iowa.

A pamphlet listed 715 available items with a brief comment about each title, and demand was so high for some books that there would be seven to eight copies available.  The general library of Iowa State College or the Faculty Book Club would supply books not on the regular list.  As a book was purchased by the Radio Book Club, an announcement (and usually a review) was broadcast from Ames.  A variety of titles were read on the airwaves, such as “As the Earth Turns,” “A Lantern in Her Hand,” “Life Begins at Forty,” “100,000,000 Guinea Pigs,” “Men and Machines, “Out of My Life and Thought,” and “Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God.”  The Radio Book Club was self-supporting, and the average cost to the borrower was twenty cents in both directions.

Sources

School & Society, v. 38, is. 981, pages 508-9, Edward S. Allen

 

Reality Bytes

Last week, our Collections Librarian brought us four floppies (yes, 3.5” diskettes) that contained a copy of Iowa in the Past: A Bibliography of Materials Published Before 1952 compiled by David Hudson. This title was never actually published and there are only two known print copies in Iowa, one at the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI) in Des Moines and one at SHSI in Iowa City. The author gave us permission to print and bind copies for the ISU library. He even brought us the disks from Iowa City fearing they might get lost in the mail; this was his only copy.

Various computer storage devices.

Luckily, my CPU still has a 3.5” drive (our Collections Librarian’s did not), and the files were in Word (97-2000) and saved in 1999 to the disks. Three of the four disks copied perfectly and the latest version of Word was able to open the documents without causing any page formatting problems. Unfortunately, the first disk was corrupted and all I was able to access was the title page. I had IT try to run various salvage programs, but it was too far gone. Thankfully, SHSI in Des Moines has graciously offered to copy the missing sections for us so there will be at least three libraries maintaining a print copy.

As a preservation librarian, these are the concerns that I have and am always trying to educate individuals on how to store and manage electronic files. Anytime I present helpful hints such as keeping multiple  copies in different locations and migrating to more current storage devices and file formats, I think everyone already knows all of this and I’m just wasting their time. From now on, I will think back to this experience as a reminder that everyone does not know what our profession knows and that we need to continue talking about the basics.  In this case, the basics include storage devices, hardware/software changes, standard formats, the cloud, and how digital actually complicates saving things for the future.

Does anyone have creative ideas on ways to teach the public about storing and managing their electronic files?  Or proven tricks used to extract information from corrupted storage media?

 

1091 Project: Training, Not Just for Athletes

Currently, we don’t do much in the way of formal care and handling training for staff at Iowa State University Library, for two reasons: (1) Preservation enjoys a high profile in our institution, so there is a general awareness of preservation concerns across the Library, and (2) our Library does not have a lot of turnover; many key staff members have been in their positions for upwards of ten or twenty years, and they are very well-versed in care and handling concerns.  The Circulation staff and Stacks Management staff in particular know what to look for and when to call Preservation for assistance.  Likewise, Special Collections staff enjoy a close working relationship with our department, and they are sensitive to potential issues.  So, “training” really only happens on a case-by-case basis, as specific causes for concern arise.  For example, the University Archivist recently requested that I test some plastic sleeves housing new acquisitions, just in case they contained PVC.  Fortunately, the sleeves proved to be PVC-free, but I appreciated her diligence in contacting us to be sure.

We reach out to educate Library users in various ways.  Special Collections staff provide instruction to each user visiting the Special Collections Reading Room on how to handle the materials safely, when a book cradle is necessary, when to wear cotton gloves, etc.  The Preservation Department holds occasional events which are open to the public (particularly during Preservation Week each April), such as free webinars for specific care and handling of photographs, textiles, and other specialized materials.

The Conservation Unit also works closely with Circulation to educate users on care and handling issues, especially issues such as mold.  In some cases, circulating books have returned to the Library severely infested with mold.  If the book is beyond salvage and a new copy must be purchased for the collection, the user will be charged to replace the book.  On some occasions, users have wanted to keep the moldy item after paying the replacement cost.  Circulation and Conservation work together in such situations to educate the user on the dangers of mold, such as its potential health hazards, and the risk of the mold spreading to other books, drapery, rugs, and upholstered furniture if left unmitigated in the user’s home.

Contrasting with the more informal, small-scale approach to staff and user training which suits our institutional culture right now, Duke University Libraries has developed a more formal training program.  Let’s head over to Preservation Underground to learn more about it.

 

Working In Preservation with Pain

In 1996, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) after suffering extreme fatigue, pain, and tenderness in my limbs for about 18 months.  FMS is chronic, widespread pain in the connective tissues that happens in certain areas of the body, mine more so in the legs.  In October 1997, I moved to a position in the Preservation Department “to get up on my feet more” instead of the computer desk job I previously had.  Recently I was also diagnosed with Plantar Fasciitis (PF), which is pain in the feet.  So now I have a lot of pain in my lower extremities.  My preservation job has me sitting for extended periods of time either at my office desk or at my bench in the lab, but I try to keep flexible by getting up every so often to stretch my legs and relieve the stiffness.  Staying physically active at work and home has helped.

Over the years, I have found ways to continue with my job while in pain.  I do a lot of batch work in book repair so when I have several items waiting to dry, press, or soak, I may move into the office and input books, make title labels or check items out of the inventory so I can ice my feet on a frozen water bottle while sitting.  Then it’s back to the lab to work on more books, anywhere from 10 to 20 at the same time.  I don’t stand much at my bench and have a nice comfortable chair with arms on it to rest upon.  I don’t rest my feet on the rail below my chair, but instead have a box to set my feet flat upon.  A stool would work equally well.  I try to walk around the lab and library when working as much as possible and even go walking on campus during my breaks and lunch time.  This relieves some stiffness and I get some exercise and feel refreshed.  On good days, I will take the stairs over the elevator to limber up.

Some days my coordination isn’t good, and my fingers don’t work as well, so there are some book treatments I will not attempt to do until I have a better day.  This can include tip-ins, gluing down end sheets in full repairs and recases, and turning in the ends of rebacks.  I must feel confident that my fingers will work well enough to do the job, or the books can wait a day or two to be completed.  In January this year, I fell and broke my left hand, which brought on new challenges with my job repairing books.  I did a lot of prep work of the books, such as taking them apart and cleaning them, so when my hand healed I had books ready to complete.

I am currently with a new doctor and trying a new medicine for FMS as well as wearing night splints for PF.  So far, I am seeing positive results already and reduced pain.  Every person is different with FMS, so treatment is not the same from person to person. I am thankful my job allows for flexibility on my good and bad days with FMS and am appreciative of my supportive fellow co-workers who understand my painful days.