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Posted by: Samantha Schireson
This post, A Remarkable Collection of Books: The Yudin Collection at the Library of Congress, details a successful project partnership between the Rare Books and Special Collections Division and the Conservation Division here at the Library.
Posted in: Preservation, Rare Books and Special Collections
Posted by: Amelia Parks
Preservation Week starts April 24th and it’s one of our favorite times of the year! The trees are blooming and it’s time for the Preservation Directorate to fling open our (virtual) doors and welcome you inside. Learn about our line-up of webinars that will be presented next week.
Posted in: Events & Outreach, Preservation
Posted by: Tana Villafana
This is a guest post by Hadley Johnson, a Library Technician with the Preservation Research and Testing Division. She writes about some of the projects she worked on remotely, while starting as a new employee during COVID lockdown.
Posted in: Heritage Science
Posted by: K.F. Shovlin
Read about the controversial book Finding Freedom: How Death Row Broke and Opened My Heart by Jarvis Jay Masters, published in 1997 in limited release, and learn about the program through which the Library acquired his book, re-released in 2020. Masters was arrested in 1981 for armed robbery and sent to San Quentin State Prison, where he remains today, sentenced to death for a different crime he says he did not commit.
Posted in: Collections Management, Preservation
Posted by: Samantha Schireson
Conservation Treatment of a WWI Panoramic Photograph, a guest post by Alisha Chipman, Senior Photograph Conservator in the Conservation Division at the Library of Congress. This panorama is part of the Nelson W. Jordan family papers held by the Manuscripts Division. Nelson W. Jordan (1842-1922) was born enslaved in Albermarle County, Virginia.
Posted in: Conservation, Preservation
Posted by: Amelia Parks
The Preservation Directorate is in the process of a web redesign and content project for the Preservation staff intranet and public internet sites. As the program and communications intern, Alanah Richardson has conducted informational interviews with staff from all four Preservation Divisions to assess priorities for the redesign. After conducting these interviews, a survey for Preservation’s professional societies was created, intended to gage audience reception of the Preservation website.
Posted in: Internships, Preservation
Posted by: Beatriz Haspo
This blog will take you on a journey of a special behind-the-scenes project carried out by the Collections Management Division to map the storage location areas of the largest library in the world to improve collections management, security, access, and emergency preparedness and response.
Posted in: Collections Management
Posted by: Tana Villafana
Staff at the Library of Congress love to showcase the collections with the public. As exhibitions are being planned , the Conservation Division (CD) and Preservation Research and Testing Division (PRTD) have been collaborating to assess the items selected for display. As part of this process, staff in CD typically review every item in an exhibition to determine how to safely display it. This review includes evaluating possible treatments, the kinds of mounts or cradles for display, and various ways that lighting might affect the item.
Posted in: Conservation, Heritage Science, Preservation, Tools of the Trade
Posted by: Samantha Schireson
Prior to the rise of printing, medieval libraries were filled with handwritten, manuscript books and documents. Many of those items no longer exist in their original form; some were thrown away when their contents became outdated or no longer useful, others were discarded and replaced with printed books. But some were taken apart, and their covers and pages were repurposed. Some of these pages, which are called fragments, can be found in the collections of The Library of Congress. This post is about a project to conserve these fragments.
Posted in: Conservation, Preservation, Rare Books and Special Collections