Top of page
Posted by: Samantha Schireson
Conservator Betsy Haude describes the complex treatment carried out on eight tightly rolled 19th-century Chinese scroll maps. The project was to treat the maps so that they could be easily handled and consulted by Geography and Map (G&M) staff and researchers.
Posted in: Conservation, Pigments, Preservation
Posted by: Tana Villafana
It’s Fall! Time to break out those comfy sweaters. Time to hold a mug of warm cocoa in two hands and watch yellow tinted leaves slowly topple to the ground. Perhaps some of us are looking at the rich textures and thinking “I wonder if I could get a great color out of that leaf?” …
Posted in: Conservation, Heritage Science, Pigments, Preservation
Posted by: Aaron D. Chaletzky
This is a guest post by Amanda Felicijan, a Digital Library Technician in the Reformatting Projects Section of the Preservation Services Division. She writes about pinning and linking, a small, but vital, part of the process by which books in the collections are tracked.
Posted in: Collections Management, Preservation, Reformatting
Posted by: Samantha Schireson
This is a guest post authored by Conservation Technician, Anna Zastrow. The Bwana Devil movie poster is part of the Archibald Oboler Collection in the Motion, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. The poster was severely damaged, but due to the presence of early fluorescent colorant and the significance of the Bwana Devil, it was decided the …
Posted in: Conservation, Preservation, Rare Books and Special Collections
Posted by: Tana Villafana
Nothing says Halloween quite like Apocalypses and giant Hellmouths. The Preservation Research and Testing Division (PRTD) wanted to know what this Hellmouth was made of. So, we dove right in. This blog was written jointly by Tana Villafana, Meghan Wilson, Amanda Satorius, and Stephanie Stillo. Meghan Wilson and Amanda Satorius are Preservation Science Specialists in …
Posted in: Conservation, Halloween, Heritage Science, Preservation, Rare Books and Special Collections
Posted by: Beatriz Haspo
In this blog, I present the Collections Management Division or CMD, one of the largest divisions in the Library of Congress and part of the Preservation Directorate. Here are some highlights of what we do, starting with the mission. CMD is responsible for the safekeeping of the Library’s collections through inventory control, storage, and delivery …
Posted in: Collections Management, Conservation, Preservation
Posted by: Aaron D. Chaletzky
The Preservation Services Division uses a wide array of specialized software in order to preserve born-digital collections, most of which originally arrived at the Library of Congress on external media such as floppy disks, optical disks, and hard drives. By using this software, staff are able to find and preserve millions of files that are otherwise trapped on older media.
Posted in: Born Digital, Collections Management, Preservation, Reformatting, Tangible Media
Posted by: Tana Villafana
This is a guest post by Lynn Brostoff, a chemist in the Preservation Research and Testing Division. Her research interests include the characterization of iron gall ink, verdigris pigment, and glass deterioration. Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford (left), Curator, and Lynn Brostoff (right), Chemist, examining a Laurent flute in the Music Division’s Flute Vault. Photo Credit: Larry …
Posted in: Conservation, Heritage Science, Music, Preservation
Posted by: Samantha Schireson
This is a guest post authored by Gwenanne Edwards, Senior Paper Conservator in the Conservation Division. Drawings personifying genres of literature, Fancy, Romance, and Tragedy, were recently treated in the Conservation Division. The drawings were made in 1896 as preparatory sketches for mural paintings in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress and …
Posted in: Conservation, Preservation