Yes Aries, it would be great if you could do something about January in Iowa.

I hope none of our readers is feeling as put upon by the season.  If you are, there are always the hopeful words I heard from a student walking on campus this morning, “spring break is just six weeks away.”

What is the 1091 Project?

Welcome to the inaugural post of the 1091 Project, a new collaboration between Iowa State University Library’s Preservation Department blog and Preservation Underground, the blog of Duke University Libraries’ Preservation Department.  Our preservation labs are located 1,091 miles apart, hence the title.  In this new series, we’ll be chronicling the similarities and differences of our two academic library preservation departments, engaging in dialogues and debates about critical preservation topics, and promoting collaboration across the miles.  We encourage you to join the conversation in the Comments section.  On the third Friday of each month, Conservator Beth Doyle at Duke and I will each write up a shared 1091 topic, so be sure to visit both blogs to get the full perspective.

A Day In The Life

It’s tough to nail down a “typical” day in the life of a Conservation Lab, since so much of our work involves an ever-changing palette of problem solving.

2011 Lennox Intern Lauren Calcote removes tape from a Special Collections map fragment.

Ours is a hybrid lab, meaning we treat both the circulating “General Collections” and the non-circulating “Special Collections.” We recently lost a technician to early retirement, so right now we have one Conservation Technician, one Preservation Assistant (our Jane-of-All-Trades), three student workers (1.0 FTE), and one part-time, volunteer conservation intern.  Each summer, we also host a Lennox Foundation Preservation/Conservation Intern full-time for three months.  I’m our only Conservator.  My position is fifty-percent administrative and fifty-percent benchwork, with almost all of my bench time spent treating Special Collections materials.  These might include books, manuscripts, maps, architectural/engineering drawings, photographs, and the occasional non-paper-based artifact.

Special Collections treatment in progress

I meet formally with Special Collections twice a month to pick up items and to discuss upcoming treatments and projects.  Luckily, our lab is located on the same floor of the Library as Special Collections, so casual drop-ins throughout the month help troubleshoot potential problems as they arise. Special Collections items are entered into their own database linked to written documentation for the treatments: condition assessments, treatment proposals, and treatment reports.  When our General Collections workflow is under control, the Conservation Technician assists me with treating Special Collections ephemera as well as designing and building unique Special Collections enclosures.  Our conservation interns mainly work on discrete Special Collections projects, but may also pitch in with the General Collections workflow according to their interests and our needs.

Sorting shelves, where General Collections items await repair

Our General Collections workflow comes mainly from the Circulation Desk, where the staff pulls visibly damaged books as they are returned by patrons to the Library.  Once a week, Circulation delivers these damaged items to the Conservation Lab, where we enter the items into our master tracking database, and sort them onto our holding shelves according to the type of treatment they need.  Other items may filter in throughout the week, especially if a book has gotten wet or moldy and can’t wait for the following week’s delivery.  Our Conservation Technician treats the books in batches to keep this workflow moving efficiently.  She also helps the student workers select appropriate treatments from the shelves according to their training and experience, and helps me oversee their work.

Conservation Technician Mindy Moeller is a master of batch repairs.

On any given day, I may need to check in with the heads of the Binding/Reformatting/Marking Unit or the Digital Initiatives Unit (both part of the Preservation Department), as we direct part of our workflow their way, or receive part of our workflow from them.  Some days, our Preservation Assistant and/or intern and I might be installing an exhibit over at the Special Collections Reading Room.

Preservation Assistant Mindy McCoy makes window mats for some prints.

Another day might see our entire staff dropping everything to respond to a disaster, like a leaking roof at the Library Storage Building, a burst sprinkler pipe in the main Library, or even a flood.  During the school year, we may give a tour to visiting donors or students in a School of Design or Museum Studies course.  Our Head of Preservation and I co-teach an undergraduate honors seminar on preservation during the Fall semester.  We also connect regularly with preservation professionals from the State Historical Society and the University of Iowa to administer and implement an IMLS Connecting to Collections grant for disaster preparedness in Iowa.

Conservator Melissa Tedone and Digital Initiatives Assistant Lori Bousson sort flood-soaked architectural drawings.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by.  I hope this post gives you a better understanding of what goes on day-to-day in the Iowa State University Library Preservation Lab.  Be sure to visit Preservation Underground‘s inaugural 1091 Project post for a glimpse into A Day In The Life at Duke University Libraries’ Preservation Department.

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1. Blade/back-guard of an electric guillotine.

2. Medium-grind vinyl eraser crumbs.

3. Gauge and tubes atop the paper deacidification spray unit.

4. Clamp of the job backer (used to hold books with spine upright for binding).

5. Hammer and anvil of the Minter ultrasonic encapsulator, used to “weld” sheets of protective polyester film together.

6. Bamboo and horsehair strainer for straining cooked wheat starch paste.

7. The foot pedal of the board crimper, which allows us to fold thick sheets of board.

8. The screw of an antique bookpress.

9. The counterbalance on the board shear; it assists in raising the board shear’s large cutting blade.

I mentioned that I found a surprise in the box of plans delivered from the Memorial Union. The plans included blueprints with the design of the Union’s zodiac, which is embedded in the floor at the entrance to the Gold Star Hall.

One of the first things you learn when you join the Iowa State community is that it is bad luck to step on the zodiac.

I always thought that this was a pretty clever preservation management strategy as it minimized wear and tear on the sculpture.  In fact I had planned to title this post “A Little Superstition Can Be a Good Thing.” Imagine my surprise when I learned that the designer had intended for the work to be worn down. The “Traditions, Myths and Stories” page of the Memorial Union website tells me that:

Architect/designer William T. Proudfoot chose to incorporate the ancient symbols of the zodiac into the north entry floor – classic Greek/Roman mythology for a classic-Greek/Roman-style building. In the 20s, the zodiac was not as well-known as it is now. Proudfoot planned for intentional wearing away of the bronze forms by placing them above the surface of the floor – to be sculpted further by building users until, eventually, they would be the same level as the floor. We know that by 1929, students had decided that if you stepped on the zodiac, it was unlucky – that you’d flunk your next test. Rumor has it that the students created this “curse” because they liked the raised effect of the zodiac and they wanted to preserve the zodiac signs even though it went against what the architect originally intended. Now most students, hedging their bets, walk around. If you accidently invoke the curse, you can throw a coin in the fountain to take it away!

One of the tenets of conservation is to respect the creator’s intent when caring for an object. Knowing that Mr. Proudfoot wanted the steps of the students to wear the zodiac down makes me consider walking on it despite the fact that I would most certainly raise a few eyebrows. I hesitate, however, because there is another way of looking at the situation.

The Memorial Union was built as a living memorial to members of the Iowa State community who lost their lives in World War One. Students and alumni raised the funds to build the building, and to this day they have a justifiable pride and sense of ownership of the building. The tradition of not walking on the zodiac has now become as much of the history of the building as the designer’s original intent.

Mr. Proudfoot died soon after finishing the plans for the Union, so we cannot know what he would have thought of the student’s reinterpretation of his ideas. I’m wondering what you think.  Would you walk across the zodiac to leave your mark as Proudfoot intended, or would you join the students in the tradition of walking around it?

Regular Tuesday Posts

As we start the new year, we’re making some changes to our regular blogging schedule.  For two years, we’ve posted twice per week on topics that range from the whimsical to the practical to the theoretical, and we have enjoyed every minute of it.  As we expand our social media presence and explore new ways to engage online, we’ve decided to focus on regular blog posts once per week, beginning this month.  So, visit the Parks Library Preservation blog on Tuesdays for new posts, and be sure to join our Facebook page or our Twitter feed, where we regularly post event information, link to news articles, and raise impromptu discussion topics.

The 1091 Series: A Collaborative Blogging Project

We’re excited about a new collaborative blogging project between our preservation blog here at Iowa State University Library and the Preservation Underground blog of the Preservation Department at Duke University Libraries.  The 1091 Series will post on the third Friday of every month.  Check back on January 20 for our first post and a description of the project.

We wish you all a happy, healthy, and preservation-friendly new year!