Innovative Storage Solutions: A Clever Clamshell Box for a Fragile Binding

Recently, the Preservation Services staff had the opportunity to treat a copy of Henry Noel Humphreys’ A Record of The Black Prince, published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans in 1849. This volume is held in the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections of UNCG’s Walter Clinton Jackson Library. It is beautifully illustrated and has original molded papier-mâché covers, likely meant to mimic carved ebony. 

Before treatment - both covers are perforated to reveal red endsheets.

The book is full of colorful illustrations. For more detail about the binding, click here.

The item was in good condition but with weakened hinges due to the heavy weight of the covers and a broken and partially detached spine. The textblock is double-fan adhesive bound, meaning there are single sheets of paper adhered together at the spine as opposed to folded sheets sewn together at the spine. The original adhesive was quite brittle and had begun to fail, resulting in the textblock being in two pieces. 

Before treatment - the hinges were cracked and part of the spine was broken and worn.

Before treatment - the adhesive at the spine was so brittle the textblock was split in the gutter.

The original spine and linings were removed prior to consolidating and relining the spine. The original spine was remounted and restored using Japanese paper and wheat starch paste followed by a coat of SC6000/Klucel-G mix to consolidate and further protect the leather and Japanese paper as well as to match the sheen of the Japanese paper to the original leather.

After treatment - the spine was reattached and restored.

Due to the heavy covers, this binding is somewhat weak at the hinges by design. In order to allow patrons to view and enjoy this lovely volume, it was deemed necessary to construct a protective enclosure with an integral book cradle that allows both hands of the viewer to be free for turning pages. The book can now rest open in its cradle and is restricted from being opened too far so as to avoid putting too much stress on the spine or hinges. This clamshell box with integral book cradle was built according to a design by Jeff Peachy.

The clamshell box created for protective storage.

After treatment - the mended book resting open in its cradle.

Book conservation is often about finding creative solutions to unique problems. In the case of Henry Noel Humphreys’ A Record of The Black Prince, we were able to restore some of the original beauty of the book while also constructing a protective enclosure for storage that includes a clever support to more easily share this distinctive volume with library patrons.

After treatment - a clever clamshell box for a fragile binding.

Best Practices for Small Digitization Projects

Have you already start a digitization project in your library or archive?  Do you have family materials in need of digitization? Does your community church have records in need of preservation? Preservation of paper materials through digitization provides accessibility of information to many different communities around the world.  

UNCG Preservation Services and UNCG Digital Projects worked together for No Boundaries in Preservation to create an informative guideline for digitizing personal archives and collections in small libraries.

The benefits of digitizing historic books or documents are beyond our imagination and geographic boundaries.

A video was created to guide through a few basic steps on how to start digitizing using cameras together with a poster which is ready for download on No Boundaries in Preservation project website.

http://library.uncg.edu/preserve

We did not forget to give some tips on saving your digitized images.  So do not forget to visit our website for all the links in three languages: English,Portuguese and Spanish.

Don't forget to follow us:

Facebook: UNCGPreservationServices
Twitter:  @UNCGPRESERV

Awareness on cleaning your collections

How do you approach your collection when it is time for physically clean your books and documents? 

Cleaning a collection prolongs its life and makes it less vulnerable to several factors, including organic and inorganic materials that accumulate over the years.

On the second video and poster from No Boundaries in Preservation we will cover the evaluation of materials under two points of view, the extrinsic values and the intrinsic values. Assessing them will determine the type of treatment, hours to spend on the cleaning process and materials to use. 

Different types of conservation conditions will lead you to different types of cleaning that is why is important to create a plan of cleaning procedures. Fragile items, dust, insects, mold are a some of the subjects we will cover. 

No Boundaries in Preservation is a three languages project - English, Portuguese and Spanish -  and is committed to outreach a large number of communities in the Americas and Western Europe, offering videos and posters with basic technical information in the libraries and archives preservation field. 

Don't forget to join and follow us on social media to get the latest news on this project. 
Facebook: UNCGPreservationServices
Twitter:  @UNCGPRESERV

Funding for No Boundaries in Preservation was generously provided by the University Libraries Innovation Grant Program at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA.

A 1/4 Leather Book from 1766

Interesting Historical Events on the Province of Bengal - Indostan - 1766

I'm always searching for great findings in our library stacks and rescue them for Jackson Library Special Collection and University Archives (SCUA). The book here presented is from 1766 with original cover in poor condition, leather was degraded and marble paper was very abraded.

Indostan was a term used to designate the region today know by India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal.

A total of nine maps gives the reader a broad view of what Bengal Province region looked like in the XVIII century. The book is a great source for the researcher looking into the modern history of the Indian civilization.

Following several conservation procedures in its treatment, we can highlight the new binding in 1/4 calf leather and marble papers. The maps were mended and folded 'per original'. The original sewn endbands were gone, new ones, in linen, were added.

Also new handmade conservation endpapers replaced the ones used when book was originally bound, they were very acidic and did not belonged to the same type of paper used on the printed book.

Here is the Google url shortner link for this book in our Special Collection:

http://goo.gl/hhH65Z

Preservation Services on YouTube

The Preservation Services is releasing its first film about procedures in conservation treatments that are performed in our Division of the University Libraries. The film was possible through a joint effort with the Digital Media Commons, especially Cheryl Cross, who patiently recorded hours of  this treatment, to then be reduced to just eight minutes of viewing. What a fast conservation treatment!!!

The book, I Vespri Sicilliani, is part of our Cello Music Collection and was a donation received in 2013 from George Darden Piano and Opera collection.
http://uncgspecial.blogspot.com/2013/10/george-darden-martha-blakeney-hodges.html

PRESERVATION WEEK at UNCG

ALA Preservation Week is a nationwide event held in many libraries across the country every year. The intent of this event is to connect communities through promoting and creating awareness on how to handle and care for collections in general.

The University Libraries, at UNCG, is participating in this journey with the support of the Preservation Lab. On the week of April 28 to May 2, 2014 we are having a few events, at Jackson Library, focusing on preservation and conservation of our collections. From a small exhibit on conservation procedures in the main lobby and the "Take A Look, Grab a Book" point, in front of the main desk, with books about preservation and conservation ; to an open Preservation Lab tour, where you will be able to ask us questions regarding your personal collection and what we do here.

Below is the schedule and the details for that week:

JACKSON LIBRARY.

Exhibit

You will see several types of enclosures we create and build at the Preservation Lab; they go from the simplest phase boxes to those with a more complex design to house a specific book or artifact.  Browse some of our books and the conservation treatment performed, including restoration. 

If you enjoyed what you saw and want to learn more, you can go to the next point of our preservation week tour and grab a book from our collection at the:

Take A Look, Grab a Book display near the Access Services desk

Browse some of the titles we picked at Jackson Library especially for you about bookbinding, books about books, conservation and preservation!

Last but not the least, the last point of the tour,  visit our Preservation Lab, where we do "magical things" like a patron said to us one time. All are welcome, students, staff and patrons, to visit and ask us a question and see, ‘in loco’, our space, the tools and materials we use and what we have been working on. 

Preservation tour hours and days:

Monday - April 28th 2014, from 10 am to 12 noon.

Tuesday - April 29th 2014, from 10 am to 12 noon.

Thursday - May 1st, 2014, from 10 am to 12 noon.

Friday - May 2nd, 2014, from 10 am to 12 noon.

Useful links

ALA Preservation Week

http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/preswk

Preservation at Your Library

http://www.atyourlibrary.org/passiton

University Products – Preservation and Conservation Products

http://www.universityproducts.com/