I made this in response to having to explain to my parents, yet again, what it is that I do for a living.
So, here. This is what I do: I FIX IT.
[I found the illustration on a "Reward of Merit" ephemera thingy that was loose in one of the scrapbooks I'm currently working with.]
Note found in a book during preservation evaluation this morning. It succinctly summarizes my morning: my phone is broken and Climate Notebook is on the fritz again. Ahhhhhhhh!
Scratch at the window, mongoose, scratch! You will do my bidding!
(We went to the Lincoln Park zoo last weekend...)
I've seen several staple-bound, or wire-bound, books while at Northwestern. All of the ones I've seen have been either German or Russian. This particular book was withdrawn, and I wanted to do a reback on it...however, I've done so many rebacks already! Then I decided that I wanted to keep it more as an example of this interesting kind of binding, so I put a little window on the spine while I was repairing it. Now it is functional again AND you can see the staples on the spine!
Audra at The Vespiary has also posted about staple bindings.
The oldest printed map of Evanston -- discovered several years ago on the verge of disintegration -- has been vibrantly restored and made freely available online by Northwestern University Library.
"This map is a very rare and important piece of Evanston's history," says University Archivist Kevin Leonard, "and the conservation staff here did an incredible job bringing it back from the grave."
Published circa 1876 by local surveyor and mapmaker Theodore Reese, the map appears to be the earliest published plat of blocks, streets and alleys in all three of the separate villages -- north, south and central -- that eventually merged into the incorporated City of Evanston. "So it's valuable as a relic of Evanston's past," Leonard says, "but it also continues to be of use to anyone researching the history of their own or other Evanston real estate, because these were some of the earliest legal property boundaries."
Library Restores and Digitizes Oldest Known Map of Evanston from Northwestern News on Vimeo.
As many of you know, the Conservation Certificate of Advanced Study program of the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin is in jeopardy. Since 1992, the program has been successful in obtaining external funding to support a range of program activities, including key full-time and adjunct faculty positions, conservation lab supplies and equipment, student internships, doctoral fellowships, visiting lecturers, and conferences. Unfortunately, the program's support from NEH, which has long funded the two conservation instructor positions (the backbone of the conservation program's curriculum), will end August 31, 2010. Without these positions, the Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record will not be able to offer the Conservation Certificate program.
No conservator students were accepted for this upcoming academic year so that an in-depth program review could take place. That review is in its final stages and has mapped a transformative future for the program. Grant, foundation, and private funding are beckoning but will require the University of Texas at Austin to demonstrate evidence of institutional support. The School of Information has constructed wonderful new conservation labs in its new facility (http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/about/move.php), but they won't have a single conservator student to put in them if they don't have funding in place by October 2009 for the coming years. Funding for the two instructor positions must be stabilized immediately.
Your assistance is requested in the form of letters to Vice President and Provost Stephen W. Leslie that request University support of these two conservation instruction positions and that document the program's importance to the field. University funding for even one of these positions will enhance the Kilgarlin Center's ability to attract external foundation or private funding for the other position. Many of you are alums, many others employ Kilgarlin Center grads, and nearly all of you are familiar with the Center's singular role as a library and archives conservation education program. Thank you for your support.
Hard copy letters can be mailed to:
Steven W. Leslie
Executive Vice President and Provost
University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station, G1000
Austin, Texas 78712
sleslie@mail.utexas.edu
Please email copies of these letters to Dean Dillon and Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa:
Andrew P., Dillon
Dean, School of Information
adillon@ischool.utexas.edu
Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa
Director, Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record
e.cunnk@mail.utexas.edu
- - - - - - -
Holly
CAS, Conservation Studies - 2005
Posts
All Comments
