Top of page

Archive of all 24 Posts

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

Tracing Sound: Adding Functionality to Contactless Audio Recording Digitization

Posted by: Tana Villafana

IRENE, which stands for Image Reconstruct Erase Noise Etc., is a method for extracting sound from mechanical audio recordings, such as phonograph records and cylinder records. What makes IRENE special is that the entire process is contactless, allowing us to extract audio from broken, fragile, and otherwise unplayable objects while reducing the possibility of damage.

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

Climate Correlation: Environmental Monitoring at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Tana Villafana

The following is a post by Anna Katherine Overstreet and Alexandra Ptacek, 2022 Junior Fellows, Preservation Directorate. Anna Katherine recently graduated with her undergraduate degree in mathematics from Mississippi State University, and she will be returning in the fall for a graduate degree in statistics. Alexandra is a graduate student of Anthropology and Museum Studies …

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

Preservation Week 2022: Fragments, Discovery and Creating Knowledge

Posted by: Tana Villafana

Every year the Preservation Directorate of the Library of Congress participates in American Library Association’s Preservation Week. This annual celebration highlights preservation efforts in libraries, archives, museums, historical societies and collecting institutions in communities all across the country. Fenella France, Chief of the Library’s Preservation Research and Testing Division (PRTD), started out Preservation Week with a heritage scientific introduction to the world of fragments.

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

Finding My Desk, 414 Days Later

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.

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

Pandemic-era Testing for a New Exhibit Takes a Highly Trained (and Masked!) Village

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.