Transcripts
UI Libraries lend hand to preservation efforts
I had just given a refresher course to the institutions in Cedar Rapids, so we had a longstanding collegial working relationship for many years. It was natural to let them know I was available.
Before we went in to either the Czech-Slovak Museum and Library or the African American museum of Iowa, we sat down and determined what was going to be saved, what not—you always have to have things prioritized. After that step, the paper items all went off to Texas to get freeze-dried. So while those were being freeze-dried, we dealt with a lot of the museum objects: baskets, metal objects, wood objects, gourds, the LPs from the Czech and Slovak. The librarian had spent over 10 years building up that collection; he had over 5,000 recordings of 78s, 45s, and LPs.
The challenge was we had to keep them wet until we could get to them, otherwise if they had dried, all the album covers would have stuck together, and it would have been a brick. So we had to keep them smelly, stewing in their juices…it was really awful work!
With baskets, if you think about how a basket is woven together, every one of those little weaves catches dirt and mold. Every crevice has to be first vacuumed and then—it sounds really silly—what we had to do is to use spit and little in-house-made Q-tips. It breaks down the dirt safely and would clean that off. A few baskets took just a few minutes, but a lot of baskets took at least 20 or more hours, and we had some baskets that took over 40 [hours].
My guess is we’ll have most of it done in two years, then we’re going to have some of the real tough labor-intensive things left.
Audio File
Here is a link to the slideshow audio file.
Photo Gallery
Young woman cleans the handle of a handwoven basket.
Close up of basket handle being cleaned.
Close up of basket handle being cleaned.
Close up of basket handle being cleaned.
Record album cover in foreground with library worker in the background
Woman looking at paper piece at a table in the restoration workshop.
Woman paging through small brochure.
Closeup of woman handsewing a book signature.
Worker uses blunt knife to separate book pages.
Worker uses blunt knife to separate book pages.
Workers uses a blunt knife to carefully separate book pages.
Close up of flood-stained handwritten document.
Worker glues binding to book.
Close up of various repair tool: calipers, awl, knives, needles, eraser, etc.
Worker washes a phonograph record.
Worker cleans flood-damaged museum piece.
Worker uses tweezers and another small tool on the inside of a flood-damaged museum piece.
Worker lifts interior lining from a museum piece for restoration.
Phonograph records in a drying rack.
Worker moves rack of records to the work table.
Worker cleaning phonograph record.
Nancy Kraft takes another book out of the freezer.
Nancy Kraft, wearing a protective mask, prepares frozen book for restoration.
Workers remove something from a refrigerated case.
Closeup of books with a sign that says "5-13 Still wet after 3 weeks."
Links to other slideshow transcript/gallery pages:
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- Chris Coretsopoulos: Researchers scramble out of high-tech home
- Keri Hornbuckle: Engineering students embrace educational opportunity
- Renée Houser: Finding a place for displaced classes
- Julia Howell: Iowa City welcomes myriad musicians
- Rod Lehnertz: Living with the river remains a priority
- Ferman Milster: Power Plant surges back after shutdown
- Kate Tomka: Students choose service over spring break
- Larry Weber: Mitigation group boasts expertise from across campus