The Art of Preservation
Yesterday I had to go to school all day for my Preservation class. This class deals with how to repair damage to books and other documents, as well as how to protect them from further degradation. We have three lab sessions over the course of the semester, yesterday being the first one. Hands on experience is really a necessity for this class since it deals so much with procedures that sometimes don't make sense until you actually perform them yourself.
Although I was dreading the loss of most of a Saturday, I have to say that it actually turned out to be kind of fun. In the first part of the class we each received a piece of paper with an image on it. In addition to the image the papers had marks made in pencil, ballpoint pen, and crayon. There was also a strip of scotch tape and a strip of masking tape. The papers also had two tears in them and one of the corners ripped off. In the morning part of the class we learned about some of the methods for removing unwanted markings and adhesives. Then we got to try our hands at removing the pencil, pen, and crayon marks and the tape. We had a variety of tools at our disposal. None of them worked worth a damn on the ballpoint pen, but the other things did show some improvement.
After lunch we learned about mending tears and torn corners. We got to mend the two tears in our papers using two different methods, and then we mended the torn corners. The final part of the day we made book wraps and jackets out of Mylar. We all got our own bone folders to take home with us. So far I'm liking this class as much as I thought I would. I love doing hands-on work, and that's what this stuff is all about.
In an interesting change from the norm, the professor for this class is actually kind of hot. She's married though, so if she asks me out I'll have to say "maybe".
Although I was dreading the loss of most of a Saturday, I have to say that it actually turned out to be kind of fun. In the first part of the class we each received a piece of paper with an image on it. In addition to the image the papers had marks made in pencil, ballpoint pen, and crayon. There was also a strip of scotch tape and a strip of masking tape. The papers also had two tears in them and one of the corners ripped off. In the morning part of the class we learned about some of the methods for removing unwanted markings and adhesives. Then we got to try our hands at removing the pencil, pen, and crayon marks and the tape. We had a variety of tools at our disposal. None of them worked worth a damn on the ballpoint pen, but the other things did show some improvement.
After lunch we learned about mending tears and torn corners. We got to mend the two tears in our papers using two different methods, and then we mended the torn corners. The final part of the day we made book wraps and jackets out of Mylar. We all got our own bone folders to take home with us. So far I'm liking this class as much as I thought I would. I love doing hands-on work, and that's what this stuff is all about.
In an interesting change from the norm, the professor for this class is actually kind of hot. She's married though, so if she asks me out I'll have to say "maybe".
posted by JC at 9:55 PM
8 Comments:
That sounds like a very interesting class! I know you are going to school all the time...but may I ask for what degree? Just curious how that class relates to a degree!!! :-) I'm starting classes again in January! Yippee!!!
That's really cool. Will you be doing restoration/preservation routinely once you are an actual library employee or is it just something you have to be aware of? It's interesting that there is nothing more advanced than Scotch tape for torn pages. I thought y'all would have some sort of high tech approach to mending pages.
Damn - I need that class.. although Faith has always been really good about handling books and not writing on them. Well, except for Nana's antique hymn book - whoops! Except for that, we've done okay. However, the class actually sounds fun.
No - you can not say "maybe." You need someone *NOT* married.
Hey that sounds cool, I would take that class. I love making book covers. Out of mylar must not be easy.
rb - I'm getting a masters in library and information science. Preservation is an elective, but I think it might be cool to work in an archive or somesuch so I thought it might be a good class to take. They have a rare and antique book collection at the school that I go to and the professor of my class is the curator of that collection. What are you going back to school for?
a - As far as whether I would be doing stuff like that in a library job, it kind of depends. Even a regular public library job might require the occasional repair to a damged book. Working in an archive or historic document collection it would probably be more a routine thing.
We didn't use Scotch tape for the mends - we had to remove a piece of Scotch tape without damaging the page underneath! We used heat-sensitive tissue and paper for the corners, and heat-senstive tissue or Japanese paper/paste for the mends. All repairs should ideally be reversible (in case a better repair method comes along later), so they use pretty non-invasive techniques.
h - it was fun! Next time we get to make boxes to put damaged books in! And the "maybe" was a joke, silly!
pg - I think you would like this stuff. It's kind of like doing arts & crafts!
That sounds like an interesting class to me too. I'd love to know more about repairing damage to old photos.
I think we got more info out of you from the comments then your original post! haha We are all intrigued by your class!
I'm not sure what I'm going back to school for yet...I wish someone would just tell me! I have four classes left to get my general Associates degree, then who knows! I actually have an appointment with a counselor at a nearby college next week!
I knew that your moral fortitude would not allow you to say "maybe" but "ok but dont tell Holli"...heehe
You should start a band and call it bone folders.
Just a thought
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