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Archive: 2021 (43 Posts)

Close-up view of two hands carefully at work on an aged, yellowing manuscript with handwriting

Conservation at the Library: What We Do!

Posted by: Samantha Schireson

The Library of Congress stewards hundreds of thousands of paper-based and special format materials, and the Conservation Division at the Library employs a diverse staff of conservators, preservation specialists and technicians to treat and care for the incredible range of collections. Special collections materials, as well as the expansive general collection, are cared for according …

Close-up view of two hands carefully at work on an aged, yellowing manuscript with handwriting

But, What Is It? How Research Science Informs Preservation

Posted by: Tana Villafana

I’m a research scientist and I’ve worked in a laser, microscopy, or spectroscopy laboratory (and sometimes a lovely combination of the three) for the past seventeen years. The last five of those years I’ve been lucky to call myself a Chemist at the Library of Congress, working in the optical properties lab of the Preservation …

Close-up view of two hands carefully at work on an aged, yellowing manuscript with handwriting

Hello World!

Posted by: Amelia Parks

Preservation gives us a special way of looking through the library. The questions we ask while maintaining these works reward us with distinctive answers about the intentions, knowledge, and creativity that they embody. This blog is intended to help you see the collections through our eyes by giving you the literary equivalent of a look over the shoulder of the Library’s preservation staff as they do their work.