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Category: Collections Care

A boy wears goggles and gloves standing at a workbench in a laboratory.

Is this going to work at all? My summer exploring the non-invasive analysis of organic colors.

Posted by: Bobbi Hinton

American Chemical Society SEED intern David Kim waded into unknown terrain during his summer internship in the Preservation Research and Testing Division with the research question - would it be possible to identify traditional Meso-American organic yellow colors, using only non-invasive analytical methods?

A girl in a black turtleneck with glasses stands smiling in front of several shelves full of small boxes with different colored labels.

Microfilm—Macro-impact: A Junior Fellow’s Report from the Preservation Services Division

Posted by: Bobbi Hinton

The following is a guest post from Lillian Williams, 2024 Junior Fellow in the Preservation Services Division.   Before I came to the Library of Congress, I excitedly told many people about my upcoming internship and the Unfurling the Reel Deal: A Journey Through Microfilm History project. I got the same two questions each time: …

One person crouching to record information at the base of the stacks.

Reflections of a Librarian-in-Residence in Preservation

Posted by: Bobbi Hinton

The following is a guest post by Lauren Quackenbush, Librarian-in-Residence, Preservation Division. The Librarian-in-Residence (LIR) program was created in 2018 for newly graduated librarian students to gain invaluable experience at the Library of Congress. LIRs are assigned throughout the Library, this year’s 2023 cohort consisted of 5 recent graduates. As the LIR in Preservation, I …

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The Art of Color Analysis: Using Analytical Chemistry in Pigment Research

Posted by: Bobbi Hinton

Preservation Science Intern Jessica McKenzie breaks down some applications of analytical chemistry in the Library of Congress, where she uses Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy to expand the Preservation Research and Testing Division’s database for pigment analysis. She then demonstrates how she has assisted in applying her work to collection items.

Team members stand in a lab space reviewing a piece of parchment skin together.

Of Inks and Skins, and the Stories They Tell

Posted by: Bobbi Hinton

The Inks and Skins collaboration studies material aspects of medieval Gaelic manuscripts, fusing scientific analysis with codicology and linguistic study. These manuscripts contain a wealth of tales and poetry, historical, legal, and scientific writing from medieval Ireland. The manuscripts themselves, their creation, and their survival each have their own tales to tell.

A girl with long dark braids stands at a counter slicing strips of paper.

A Blast to the Past: Testing Decades Old Predictions

Posted by: Bobbi Hinton

Scientific research meets the allure of the past as Tineta Nkoronye, an intern at the PRTD at the LOC, delves into the world of preservation chemistry as she explores predictions made by William J. Barrow. Learn about the analytical methods used to carry out this experiment and discover whether Barrow's predictions were accurate or not.

A rolling cart with three shelves full of books.

Register Now: Assessing the Physical Condition of the National Collection

Posted by: Bobbi Hinton

Join us, at The Library of Congress or virtually, as we discuss “Assessing the Physical Condition of the National Collection (ANC)”. This Andrew W. Mellon funded project has collected data from over 2500 volumes to compare the physical, chemical and optical characteristics of 500 “identical” books from five large research libraries in distinct regions of …