My summer at the Library was spent capturing data from colored pigments in order to build a reference database. Using a high-tech portable FTIR instrument, I prepared samples and collected infrared readings from 50 pigments in the Library’s collection using three of the portable instrument’s attachments. I compiled 150 measurements in order to create the database’s foundation.
How exactly does the coolest stuff in the world make its way from hundreds of countries all over the world into the hands of patrons of the largest library in the world? 2023 Junior Fellow Kathleen Senn describes her experience working in the Preservation Services Division on Inventory Review Protocols for International Collection Materials.
Senior Rare Book Conservator John Bertonaschi will write about the efforts made to repair some of the wear and tear suffered by the Decretum Gratiani manuscript over the past 700 years.
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 …
Smudges on pages aren't always a bad thing. Cultural Historian Bénédicte Miyamoto and preservation scientists at The Library of Congress analyze dirty books to learn more about their prior owners.
Preservation Research and Testing Division hosted colleagues from Nottingham Trent University’s ISAAC Research Lab (Imaging & Sensing for Archaeology, Art History, and Conservation) as they explored the Library of Congress’ collection of pith paintings. Their international research project “From Lima to Canton and Beyond: an AI-aided Heritage Materials Research Platform for Studying Globalisation through Art” exemplifies collaboration on a multitude of different levels: between the cultures who produced the art, between institutions researching them in present day, between collections in multiple divisions within the Library, and even between different instruments for analysis.
Library of Congress Fellows share their role conducting comparative analysis on copies of the “same” book and carrying out chemical testing for the Assessing the National Collection (ANC) project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Read along to find out about the atlas binding workshop held in the Preservation Directorate, where participants learned how to conserve, fold, and bind various types of atlases and book foldouts.
