Preservation Week at the State Library

Happy Preservation Week! This week is a time to raise awareness about the importance of preservation both in our professional library and archives settings, and your personal collections at home. Each year, the State Library marks the week with daily preservation content on our social media platforms.

We’re starting the week off by following up on a post from last year. In February 2020, a staff member was looking through a bound volume of 1822-1824 Old Colony Memorial (OCM) newspapers and came across four fern fronds pressed between the pages. We shared the find during Preservation Week and explained the preservation measures that we would take after the ferns’ discovery. Since the OCM is still an active publication, when they saw this post they reached out, asked some follow-up questions, and then wrote about the find. You can read that article here. 

When the ferns were shared last year, State Library staff was still working remotely so we were unable to take any further preservation actions at the time, and the ferns remained in place. Now that staff has returned to the library, we’ve been able to focus on completing this task. We began by going through the entire bound volume to make sure that there was no additional material hidden within the pages, and it’s a good thing that we did! In addition to the ferns that we knew about, we also found another set of fronds, seeds, and a selection of leaves. Someone clearly used this volume to press a variety of items that they found in nature! 

Each find was photographed to document the original placement, with a notation of the page number. We then carefully removed each item using a microspatula and tweezers. The items were placed on a piece of permalife paper cut to size, with the page number written on it in pencil. Each item was then encapsulated in a polyester sleeve. Finally, all the items were placed in a box, along with a folder of the photographs, and a folder containing a copy of the OCM newspaper article and factsheet that we had provided to the reporter. The box was labeled and stored with the bound volume. 

Some might question why we go to lengths to preserve these materials. Admittedly, they don’t add research value to the volume of newspapers, and we don’t even know who placed them or when (though if you clicked through to read the OCM article you’ll see that we have some guesses, and that this find did lead us to do some further research into the volume’s provenance). But we save them for the hidden history that they represent, and for the personal connection that they add to an item in our collection. We know that at some point in the newspaper’s history, whether it was during the binding process in the 1940s or by a librarian working with the volumes at a later date, someone removed this flora from its natural environment, carefully transported them to where the bound volume was held and placed them within the pages so that they would be pressed and preserved. Many of us can relate to this and recall at least one time when we’ve come across an item in nature that struck us and we wanted to preserve it in this manner. Since we’ve disturbed these items from their original resting spot, the least we can do is document that location and keep the items in archivally sound storage along with the volume.  

We use Preservation Week as a time not just to talk about the preservation measures that we undertake in our library, but to draw attention to the more personal ways that we all preserve the items that make up our own history. We hope that some of the tips that we share for our library collection are useful and applicable when working with your own collection. Follow along on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as we celebrate Preservation Week 2022, and if you have any preservation questions, reach out to us by email (special.collections@mass.gov) or comment on any of our posts! 

Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian

Preservation Albums on Flickr!

Have you been to our Flickr page recently? Two albums made their debut there earlier this year: Collection Repair & Preservation and Preservation Tips. 

In Collection Repair & Preservation, we invite you to take a peek into the State Library’s preservation lab to see a compilation of past collection repairs and preservation measures taken to ensure the longevity of our collection. And in Preservation Tips, we share tips that can be easily applied to your own collection at home to make sure that books stay in tip-top shape! 

Additions will be made to both of these albums as new content is produced, so be sure to bookmark them and check back! And if you have any questions about our preservation practices, reach out to us by email to special.collections@mass.gov.

Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian

In Honor of Preservation Week: Preserving a Historic Album

In 1904, students of the Classical and English High School in Salem, Massachusetts created a historical photograph album depicting “Salem and Vicinity.” The unpublished manuscript is a compilation of write-ups, images, and photographs - all constructed and organized by the pupils. The outcome was a visually interesting and in-depth look at all of the historical landmarks and significant people of Salem and its surrounding areas. The album contained a preface written by then principal A.L. Goodrich, who described the book as a “collection of photographs of public buildings and places of historic interest.” Four students from Classical and English High School prepared the photographs used in the album: Harry Batchelder, Harry Bates, Edward Harlow, and Nathaniel Simonds. Harry Bates passed away before the album was completed, and his father stepped in and finished his son’s part of the project. Thirty-two upper classmen put an obvious amount of time and effort into this project, and it was part of our collection that deservedly needed some attention.

The damage on the album included a spine in poor condition, loose cover-boards, a detached signature (group of pages), and leather binding that has since decayed and flaked away. I began the conservation/preservation treatments by gently taking apart the cover-boards, spine, and text block with a scalpel. The spine, and what was left of the cover, was coated in Cellugel – a strong consolidant used for the prevention of leather deterioration. It’s important to salvage as much as you can from an original piece. As they dried, I moved on to cleaning the spine and covers. This included removing all of the material that will not be used in the construction of the new book – old tape, deteriorating book cloth, old batting, and spine mesh. I was left with a clean text block and book covers that were ready to be assembled.

 
Re-assembling the photo album began with applying fresh batting to the covers with archival quality adhesive. Batting was used as part of the construction of the original album, and we try to keep things as close to the original as possible. As they were setting, I cut some book cloth to size; this entailed measuring the spine of the book and cover-boards to ensure ample coverage. Once the batting was affixed to the cover-boards and the book cloth was properly measured and cut, I adhered the cover-boards to the cloth, leaving a space in-between them for the text block. The text block received a fresh strip of spine mesh – a reinforcement material for sewn spines. The text block was then placed in between the cover-boards, flanked with wax paper, and allowed to dry.

With the cover-boards, text block, and book cloth set-up, it was time to tip-in the loose pages. Tipping-In is a phrase used to describe the process of affixing an item to the text of a book. This process was completed by using a mix of Japanese tissue paper and adhesive, to paste the pages into the book. Once it was dry, I was able to move on to one of the final steps – reinforcing the cover boards with strips of archival paper.

Once all parts of the album were dry, it was time to focus on re-applying the original pieces of leather. The front was glued down with adhesive. The spine, given its fragile nature, would have been further damaged if I attempted to re-attach it. Instead, I constructed a four-flap enclosure – a protective container for permanently storing fragile items. This way, the album and the spine can be housed together safely.

Voila!

Kelly Turner
Preservation Librarian

The Weird World of Atlases

 Ken Jennings, author of works including Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks, recently said, “I would read the atlas for pleasure. I knew it was weird…it was weird.” Mr. Jennings may be pleasantly surprised to discover just how many people share in this interest. In 2012, the State Library of Massachusetts received funding for the Massachusetts Real Estate Atlas Digitization Project – an endeavor that would entail the cleaning, basic repair, shipping, and digitization of its extensive atlas collection. Since this project began, the increase in online access and use of this information has been astounding. As the State Library’s new Preservation Librarian, I entered the role in the midst of this ongoing venture, and have greatly enjoyed being part of improving user experience. Once the final batch of atlases returns from the digitization facility, we will work hard to make the images available through our website. My hope is that you take some time to explore your home town atlas…even if you think that’s weird...

Kelly Turner

Preservation Librarian

Of Pertinacious Pirates and Pusillanimous Patriots...

The job of a preservation intern is replete with tasks that don't necessarily sound very compelling. When asked what I did at my internship on a particular day, however, I don't pipe up with "I removed staples and plastic covers and cleaned and scanned legislative documents!" While technically true, I can always find a way to make it interesting and satisfying.

If nothing else, even setting out the tools of the trade for cleaning those legislative documents is somehow soothing – the crisp archival paper, a gentle eraser that nevertheless looks like a blue Scotch-Brite you'd use to scrub your kitchen sink, and a bamboo-handled sheep's-hair brush to sweep away the loosened soot particles and erasures.

Take these legislative documents I've been cleaning and scanning. You might not think that an 1811 report on the contested election of Belchertown would prove all that fascinating, but if nothing else, the names of the Belchertown voters – that is, men over the age of 16 and "not a pauper" – are not ones I come across every day. Titus and Archelaus evoke Classical images, and Gamaliel, Jephtha, Zebede, and Jedediah are but a few examples of the dozens of Old Testament names that appear.

Occasionally, a document really is interesting for its own sake. The thought, "how would these legislators or politicians have dealt with Twitter?" came to me the other day, as it often does when I am dealing with speeches or legislation from the early 1800s. These people were positively eager to use a 25-cent word, or several dozen of them, when five-cent ones would do, and I'm often silently urging them to get to the point. As I reached for a new document, I was fully prepared to do the same when the declaration of the War of 1812 leapt off the page. Sure, President James Madison's declaration didn't get his point across in 140 characters or less. To him, the British were predatory, plundering, polluting oppressors. The United States had been helpless victims of the "transcendent injustice" of British blockading along the coasts of America, as well as the boarding of American ships for the avowed purpose of looking for British deserters, in the process of which over 6,000 Americans were "forced or inveigled" from these ships and impressed to serve in British armies.

Great Britain had "arrogated the complete dominion of the oceans" due to a "mad ambition, lust of power, and commercial avarice." Meanwhile, the United States had sent multiple remonstrances, expressing displeasure that the British had done this, as the US and Great Britain were not enemies. But finally, in 1812, "forbearance became pusillanimity," and rather than allowing the British to force Americans into "an ignominious and slavish bondage," war was declared. Samuel Dana, in informing the Massachusetts Senate of this turn of events, said "He that is not for his country, is against it." I think I've heard that somewhere before.

Of course, the British had other views. The United States was populated by immoral, cunningly greedy, corrupt, irreligious, and sordid people – why, Congress actually included "one Sailor and one Weaver..., six or seven Tavern Keepers, four notorious Swindlers, one Butcher,...one Glazier, one Curer of Hams, several School Masters, and several Baptist Preachers," reported British diplomat George H. Rose.

The War of 1812 is often called a "forgotten war," although we owe "The Star-Spangled Banner " to it. A new leader in England, Lord Perceval, had issued a repeal of the British blockade of the United States on May 11, 1812, but as it took this proclamation several weeks to cross the Atlantic, it arrived well after James Madison's June 18, 1812 declaration of war. Ironically, the end of the war also arrived weeks late. News of the December 14, 1814 Treaty of Ghent came before Major General Andrew Jackson led troops in the most significant battle, at least for American morale, the January 8, 1815 Battle of New Orleans.

Although actually reading these papers while cleaning and digitizing them could be considered procrastinating, I would be prevaricating in a most calamitous fashion if I said that my vocabulary, and my knowledge of the "forgotten war" of 1812 hadn't improved. To perjure myself would be downright perfidious of me.


Colleen McGhee-French
Preservation Intern

Love that Dirty Water? Not Quite

Earlier this year a library staff member brought me a badly water-damaged item. What follows is a photo essay of the preservation process. Here's how the item looked when it first arrived in the preservation lab:
It kind of looked like a topographic map had been added to the cover. The item was dry when I received it, and my best guess is it had been in the path of a periodic leak. The drying and subsequent wetting of the item could cause rings of varying sizes. A close up of the title and images:Sediment from the water was left at the edges of the puddles as the water dried, creating dark rings of hardened sediment. The rings from a slightly different angle:

The cover of the book has a glossy finish which both saved this item from being destroyed and allowed for cleaning. Using a cotton swab dipped in distilled water, I carefully tested one small area of the cover to see if it would come clean. This test showed positive results and I began slowly cleaning the entire cover. After a bit of cleaning, this was the result:

The top layer of dirt was removed from the majority of the cover and many cotton swabs were used in the process. Blotter paper was put on both sides of the front cover and the item was placed under weights overnight. This process helped to draw out any remaining dampness from the cover and help prevent further warping from water absorption.

After the remaining area of dirt had been cleaned, I was left with only the toughest areas of residue to clean.
The first layer of dirt had been easy to lift with just a damp cotton swab. However, for this next phase of cleaning, I swabbed on a bit of distilled water and let it sit for about one minute before I began lifting the dirt with a damp cotton swab. This technique proved quite effective, though I was careful to keep the water used on the item to a minimum. If I had to leave the item for any substantial amount of time, I would sandwich it between blotter paper and put it under weights.

The result of this detailed work is an item that looks remarkably beautiful when compared to its pre-preservation state:
There is still a bit of staining along the top edge where the water was able to migrate between the glossy top layer and the backing paper. Removal of a section of the glossy layer might aid in further cleaning, however I am reluctant to remove it as it includes the grid design seen throughout the cover. A custom phase box will be the last step in preserving this item. I leave you with one final shot of the title and images:

- Lacy Stoneburner, Preservation Librarian

Brown Bag on Preserving Family Papers

Join us for a Brown Bag lunch
Thursday, April 28, 2011
State Library of Massachusetts
Room 442 State House
12 until 1:30 PM

Bring your lunch and visit the State Library to learn how to apply preservation techniques used in the library to preserve your family papers. This program, presented by Lacy Crews Stoneburner, Preservation Librarian, is offered in celebration of the American Library Association's National Preservation Week, April 24-30, 2011.

To register, please go to:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QR9JZYK

You may also sign up by calling Reference at 617.727.2590 or emailing reference.department@state.ma.us.

Sponsored by the Friends of the State Library

When Paper Clips Go Bad

As part of the Massachusetts Room Preservation Project I have been re-housing and boxing collections to protect from light, dust and other calamities. Recently I came across several items from the 1920s that had paper clips inside that had rusted.

The images at left show the extent to which rust can damage and discolor paper. All of the paper clips were carefully removed, along with the remaining specks of rust.

Aside from rust, paper clips can cause paper to warp and tear, so before you add one to your personal or professional archives, take a second and think of these photos.

- Lacy Crews Stoneburner, Preservation Librarian

Favorite Book Cover of 2010

In the first year of the Mass. Room Preservation Project the preservation interns and I have preserved nearly 2,000 items. While the majority of these items have simple covers that include title and author details, every now and then an interesting title or cover art slips in. Some of my favorite titles have included:

The Cool Facts on Recycling Metalworking Coolants

Tire Piles in Massachusetts

Grow Your own Lobsters Commercially

By far my favorite cover seen this year is that of Measures of Water Pollution by the Water Resources Commission, pictured above. I love the cranky-looking octopus and all the little pictures of various types of pollution. Decorated bindings have their place, but I think there’s plenty of room to enjoy the more pedestrian of bindings too.

I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled in 2011 for a cover that tops this, but for 2010, the cranky octopus wins my award of favorite cover.

- Lacy Crews Stoneburner, Preservation Librarian

Major Accomplishment Reached by Preservation Intern

As part of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, preservation intern Angela White has been working on surveying the library's 20th & 21st centuries map collection. This project aims to catch any existing damage to materials and to highlight materials where preservation efforts can be focused to avoid damage and deterioration into the future.

Angela has experience surveying several other library collections, and in June she began her survey work with the State Library's preservation lab. After four months of meticulous observation, she has recorded repairs and preservation actions needed on over 1,775 maps. Now Angela will begin the task of addressing the issues she found in the collection, starting with surface cleaning the most stable items. Keep an eye on the blog for more from Angela on her findings as she works through this rich and valuable library collection.

Lacy Crews Stoneburner, Preservation Librarian

Image: Map of the Street Railways of Massachusetts, 1913. Part of the 20th & 21st centuries map collection.

Preservation Milestones

The past month has been a busy and exciting one for the preservation lab!

At the end of July preservation work was completed on the items being digitized under the Mapping Massachusetts grant. In total 368 items were preserved, with a total of 2,223 repairs performed. Work began in October of 2009 and was performed by the Preservation Librarian with help from lab interns Sarah Pickard, Jay Moschella and Chessie Monks.

This week the 1,000th item from the Massachusetts Room Preservation Project(MRPP) was repaired and preserved. Work on this NEH grant funded project began in January of 2010 and will continue through the end of the grant period in 2011 and beyond. The MRPP is designed to be a multi-year project that aims to assess and preserve when needed an estimated 40,000 items in the Massachusetts Room. Work is being completed by the Preservation Librarian and many dedicated interns. These wonderful interns include Sarah Pickard, Hilary Vaught, Bianca Hezekiah, Lori Satter and Shawna Smith.

- Lacy Crews Stoneburner, Preservation Librarian

image: Harbor at Cotuit and Osterville in the town of Barnstable

Dirty Map? Clean it up!

As mentioned previously on the blog, the library is in the process of digitizing roughly 400 maps in the collection as part of a grant awarded by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. One collection of profile maps that correspond to the railroad maps are being digitized in-house and a description of the process is detailed here.

The image above shows one piece of a profile map that corresponds to the railroad map, Proposed Connections to the Massachusetts Central Railroad. All told, this particular profile map is made up of six pieces and is 191.5 inches long. There are about 70 profile maps in total, all equally long and all equally dirty! I have been working over the past couple of months to clean the dust and grime that has accumulated on these maps during years of storage in order to prepare them to be scanned and posted in the library's digital repository, DSpace.

Although the condition of the maps may look daunting, cleaning them is actually a relatively simple process. I am using non-abrasive vinyl erasers and eraser "pencils" created to erase ink from drafting film. I use a brush to sweep away the eraser crumbs, so that I do not damage or dirty the maps further by using my hands to brush the crumbs away.

I clean the maps in small sections, usually using the graphing lines printed on the maps to isolate small areas. This way, I can check my work as I go and easily see the progress I am making. Using two different erasers allows me to clean carefully around a note written in pencil or clean larger areas quickly.

In the image below, I cleaned only the section of the map below the graphed area. The difference is obvious, especially when compared to the original image of the map before cleaning (pictured above). Although the map may still look somewhat dirty, this is due to staining from the dirt and cannot be removed even if I cleaned the area over and over again.

I then move onto cleaning small rectangular areas of the graph. This ensures that I do not miss any areas and also keeps me from re-cleaning sections that are permanently stained. Too much or too vigorous cleaning can also damage the surface of the map and make the paper fragile. Most of these maps are relatively sturdy to begin with and hold up well when cleaned. Only a few have brittle edges or tears, and these may eventually be repaired with Japanese tissue to keep them from being damaged further.

I also make sure to examine the map carefully before cleaning it. In the image on the left, what may look like a smudge above the blue line is actually a number written in pencil in extremely small handwriting (click on the image to zoom in and see for yourself). The maps also often have elaborate handwritten town names and titles in ink, but it is also possible to see the original pencil draftwork done before inking the final product. We want to keep these original pencil markings intact for study even if they were mostly erased by the original creators of the maps.

The map piece at the top of the photograph at left is the final, cleaned product. Compared to another uncleaned piece of the same map, the change is easy to see. While these maps may never be perfectly spotless, if I looked this good at 140 years old, I would be pretty pleased!

The next step in the project is to scan and stitch together the pieces of the map, so that users may view them up-close and personal online. I'll share the process of scanning sometime later.

-Chessie Monks, Preservation Intern

Putting the "P" in Preservation

When I encountered this document on the shelf of the Massachusetts Room in the State Library, the true value of this preservation project become clear. The Mass. Labor Relations Commission Report from the 1940s documents decisions made regarding the treatment of union workers in Massachusetts during the Great Depression.

As you can see in the photograph, the document was held together with a cloth ribbon. The document itself resided in a thick stock file folder that had definitely seen better days.


As soon as I untied the cloth ribbon, the front cover of the folder fell off, as it had become increasingly brittle over the past 70 years! Needless to say this document was crying out for some attention and a new enclosure.


Before I could create a new folder, I had to unfold the tissue paper thin document that had been placed on top of a second document.













After both documents were laid flat, I then created a new folder from archival quality acid free paper stock to better support the items. These materials were both over-sized, that is larger than 8 1/2 by 11 inches. I placed the documents on top of an over-sized folder and then marked where I would cut the folder to better line up with the margins of the documents. You can see the markings on the bottom right corner of the image on the left.


After using the paper cutter to ensure even and level cuts, the items were ready to be placed in their new folder. The new folder housing the items then goes into a large envelope, also made from archival quality acid free paper.


This item was not yet entered into the library's online catalog and so, I cut out the original folder (remember the one that had fallen apart) that contained the author and call number information and paper clipped it to the new envelope and set the entire package aside to be sent to the cataloging department.

From the moment I take the item off the shelf and begin to plan how best to preserve it, I spend at least five minutes with each item. It's far too easy to rush the treatment process, but having encountered this tricky item I certainly appreciate how important it is to be careful and thorough.

And as you can see from the image of the final product- the effort is well worth it!

- Lori Satter, Preservation Intern

Salvaging Wet Books

In celebration of National Preservation Week last week, the library posted a display on the salvage of wet books. A poster outlining the process of wetting books and then air drying them was created by preservation intern Sarah Pickard and can be viewed above. (Click on the image to enlarge it). Sarah, a library science student at Simmons College, said the experiment was a great way to put into practice concepts she had been discussing this semester in her preservation classes.

- Lacy Crews Stoneburner, Preservation Librarian

The Library Celebrates National Preservation Week

The State Library is celebrating National Preservation Week with a week-long display and a Brown Bag session.

Please visit the library this week to see a display on the ways water can impact books and what library staff can do to salvage the materials. The display will be available in the main reading room throughout the week. The library is open to the public from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday.

On Thursday the 13th, please join us for a Brown Bag on Preserving Family Papers from noon to 1:30 pm. Bring your lunch and visit the State Library to learn how to apply preservation techniques used in the library to preserve your family papers. You may sign up by calling the Reference Department at (617) 727-2590 or by emailing reference.department@state.ma.us.

We hope to see you this week!

- Lacy Crews Stoneburner, Preservation Librarian

Back to the Future

Since working on the Massachusetts Room Project, I have been able to see so many interesting pieces of Massachusetts’ past. Ranging from economic growth pamphlets to energy conservation efforts of the 1980s, I have learned so much about the importance of preserving the information from the past.

This past week I came across two very different, yet wildly interesting pamphlets. The first, entitled Business Opportunities in Space by The Center for Space Policy, outlined the goals of a conference held in 1984 to promote and expand space exploration. More specifically it was “aimed at developing a pragmatic understanding of the issues involved in the commercial exploitation of space.” Within the packet there is a letter from Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis encouraging people to attend said conference. Most interestingly, he notes that the conference will discuss the United States’ commitment to build a civilized space station for $8.5 billion. This space station was projected to create more than 5 million jobs by the year 2000 and was expected to build new industries related to gravity-free living. Since I was born in 1986, I found this pamphlet to be extremely interesting as I never had the opportunity to live through the Reagan Administration and its ideas on space exploration. Thinking back to my childhood, it is quite humorous to think that a civilized space station was more understandable and believable than current technology such as the Internet.

The next pamphlet I found that piqued my curiosity has the longest title: In the 1950s Something Happened in a Few Small Laboratories in Massachusetts that has Transformed the World Forever. It is About to Happen Again. It contained information on what was then called photovoltaics, a term from the 1970s that means solar panels. This pamphlet outlines some goals set by Governor Dukakis which include applying these panels to all state highways, marine and railroad facilities. He also wanted to build a village demonstration project, where an entire community could be shown to run economically and efficiently on photovoltaics. Although this is not where we are in the United States today, this idea is definitely more likely to happen in the near future than a civilized space station. For now, any further information on these two topics can be found in the Massachusetts Room of the State Library. Hopefully I will have some more interesting finds for you soon!

- Sarah Pickard, Preservation Intern

Preserving for Digitization

As mentioned in a previous post, the library was awarded a grant to digitize collections relating to transport- ation systems in the Commonwealth. The first batch of materials are being scanned and the digital images created thus far are wonderful. The second batch of materials is being preserved prior to digitization.

One step that happens before items are sent to be digitized is making sure that the original materials look as good as they possibly can prior to going in front of the camera. Recently I have focused on preserving and preparing a batch of letters written in the 1800s that correspond to the railroad maps also being digitized. Above is a before-and-after shot of such a letter (click image to enlarge). While some staining remains, the original is greatly improved and as a result the digital image will be much easier for users to read. Stay tuned to the blog for more updates as this grant project progresses.

- Lacy Crews Stoneburner, Preservation Librarian

Preservation Intern Update

One of the best things about the Massachusetts Room project that I am working on is that I never know what kinds of materials to expect. The documents are housed in a variety of different types of folders and envelopes. Some of the documents are in standard plastic folders while others have had individual folders fashioned to fit their size. Many of the documents have been stapled together but others have been tied with ribbon or string. Some documents have hand-written call numbers while others have printed labels. The original housings are all very unique.

The documents themselves also come in a mixture of different shapes and sizes. The documents may be small pamphlets, oversize newsletters, or standard size reports. Some documents are tall and thin while others are short and wide. Most of the documents are black and white but some are in color. It makes the project interesting because every document I handle is a bit different from the previous one.

The content of the documents that I have been working with is also a source of variety. Many different subjects are covered. To name just a few, I have encountered documents on the Commission Against Discrimination, the Massachusetts State Library, and the Department of Veterans’ Services.


One of the most interesting things that I found recently is a newsletter called The Update. It is the newsletter of the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women. This particular document is from Spring 2002. Please note the logo for the commission in the upper right-hand corner. It clearly communicates the mission of the organization it represents and it is very easy to remember. I also think it’s one of the best logos that I’ve seen.

The second page of the newsletter mentions the public hearings on women in Massachusetts. The hearings cover everything from domestic violence, housing, childcare, and health care. A number of those hearings, including the Fitchburg Hearing that is mentioned, are also found in the Massachusetts Room of the State Library.

The third page explains National Women’s History Month, which is celebrated every March. It gives a little background and talks about the celebration in 2002. It also reminds us that International Women’s Day is March 8. That’s something to add to the calendar for when spring finally comes!

- Corinne Philips, Preservation Intern

Blast from the Past: Library Rules

Over the summer, I completed a course on preservation management as part of the archives management concentration at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science. The class took a field trip to the State Library, its Special Collections, and the preservation lab. It was fascinating to see behind the scenes and how a number of preservation techniques that we were learning about were applied in a real situation. After finishing the class, I am fortunate enough to intern here at the State Library’s preservation lab and gain some hands on experience.

The project I am working on is rehousing documents from the Massachusetts Room that are fragile and thin. The items that I have worked on so far have a wide range in dates and cover a number of different topics. One of the best things about this project is that each document is unique. Many are different sizes or different formats and every day I find something new and interesting.

The first thing I do is remove any deteriorating paper or plastic folders. I then take out any staples or ribbons that have been holding multiple sheets together. These steps are taken to prevent further damage to the documents caused by unstable enclosures or fasteners. Next, I measure and cut a new acid-free folder so that it will give a close fit for the document with just a little extra room on the sides. The last thing I do is place the folder inside an envelope that is labeled with its call number, title, and author. This allows patrons to identify the contents of each envelope without having to pull out the item. Now the documents have a little more support and protection from light damage and shelf wear.

One of my favorite things that I have found so far is a document called Massachusetts State Library Rules. They went into effect on December 1, 1926.

A few of my favorite rules are:

#11: It is requested that users of the library shall refrain from removing their coats and appearing in shirt-sleeves in the main reading room

#13: Telephone calls will be delivered only in cases of emergency.

The rules are fascinating because they highlight changes in social conventions, technology advances, and differences in library procedures. Stay tuned for more interesting finds!

- Corinne Philips, Preservation Intern

Preservation Update

It has been a busy couple of weeks in Special Collections and Preservation! Two major initiatives are underway and in the midst of these projects, I traveled to New Jersey to finish up my term at the Preservation Management Institute.

The Massachusetts Room Preservation Project
This is a multi-year project focused on rehousing unique documents produced by state agencies and concerning the Commonwealth. Many of these items were produced during the era of brittle paper (approximately the 1850s to 1950s) and are very fragile as a result. The preservation intern for the fall is working on rehousing fragile and thin items into acid-free folders and envelopes to provide support on the shelf and protection from light damage that can further degrade brittle paper. So far this season over 150 items have been preserved as part of this project. Stay tuned to the blog for updates on the project and posts about interesting items discovered in the process.

Mapping Massachusetts: the History of Transportation in the Commonwealth
This year the State Library received a grant as part of the Library Services and Technology Act to digitize collections relating to transportation systems in the Commonwealth. These materials include manuscript maps of railroads (built and proposed), materials from the Land and Harbor Commissioners, and materials relating to canals and tunnels in the state. Preparation for digitization has begun and that includes making sure that items look their best before they go under the cameras. Over the next few weeks I'll be cleaning up and making any minor repairs necessary to our first batch of items to be scanned, approximately 300 railroad maps. It is a great experience to see and work on these hand-drawn maps. With some stretching to over six feet long, they are really a testament to the care and diligence of state mapmakers of years past.

Preservation Management Institute
As mentioned in previous posts, the Library was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Assistance Grant last year to support my year of study at the Preservation Management Institute, a program of the Rutgers University School of Communication and Information. This October I traveled to Rutgers to complete my third and final week of the program. The class had some very interesting discussions about mission statements and current trends, the future of libraries in light of growing digital collections, managing change during times of restructuring and budget shifts, and a very enlightening presentation on digital imaging and what saving as a jpeg means for data/image loss. This week of discussions and presentations brought together ideas discussed in the previous two weeks of class and the hands-on experiences I've gained at the State Library over the past year.

The highlight of week three for me was our "backstage" tour of the New York Public Library (Mid-Manhattan Library). We spent a rainy afternoon there touring the preservation and conservation labs, the microfilming lab, the Office of the Registrar which handles exhibits, the main reading room, and the map room.
There were so many amazing things it is hard to express all we saw, but I guess I can sum it up by saying, we walked right by a Gutenberg Bible and only noticed it on a second pass through. What could be the crown of some collections is just sitting quietly in its own exhibit case with no fanfare. A slightly dark picture of the Bible is included at left. (No flash photography was allowed.)

We ended the day by visiting the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division. I know their collections are amazing, but I was most taken by the compact map shelving and beautiful decor of the reading room. Below at left is a picture of the ceiling of the reading room. While I appreciate that new technologies can provide library services in remote locations, there's something to be said for providing library services in amazing reading rooms.

For those of you looking for a beautiful space to access library resources and wi-fi here in Boston, the State Library has huge windows for natural light, a beautifully renovated reading room, and a flat screen television on the balcony for viewing House and Senate sessions.

- Lacy Crews Stoneburner, Preservation Librarian