Caption from the Reuters photo: "Paul Alexander Hatyay (C), the headmaster, and teachers of Central School lay out books to dry in the sun after the roof of the school's library was blown away by Cyclone Pam in Port Vila, the capital city of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu March 18, 2015. International aid agencies ramped up appeals for cyclone-hit Vanuatu on Wednesday, warning that the powerful storm that affected more than two-thirds of the South Pacific island nation had wiped out crops and destroyed fishing fleets, raising the risk of hunger and disease. The headmaster is appealing for a donation of books after the cyclone damaged their school."
Working on a UCLA manuscript for the upcoming Getty show "Touching the Past : The Hand and the Medieval Book". http://www.getty.edu/visit/exhibitions/future.html
An ad from the November 1960 issue of Ebony. It's strange seeing the man who embarrassed Hitler at the 1936 Olympics in a tobacco ad. We live in different times, for sure.
The author signed this on Dec.1, 1847…. 167 years ago! The title is Collections of the American Statistical Association Vol.1, and the only copy in the UC’s. Hoping to see if we can get this digitized.
-Brianda Felix, Collections Care student assistant
We’re taking a ProScope tour of some insect holes in one of the aforementioned books with a recycled parchment cover. The top photo shows an insect hole in the outer board, looking creepy and cavernous at 50x. The lower photo is a group of holes on the inside of the board, also at 50x, where what appears to be lots of frass (…yep, bug poo…) shows up as dark flecks on the white paper fibers. Eeeeew. But also, cool!
Visit to the Huntington: Report 2 of 2 (or maybe 3!)
Felice Robles, our very skilled pre-program Conservation Assistant (who also has some of the neatest handwriting I've ever seen!), reports below on a few of her favorite highlights from our trip to the Huntington in September 2014. - Dawn.
Flattening foldout image for digitization and exhibition.
Demonstrating unfolding the maps. Damage at fold visible at top.
Another book featuring a foldout image was being treated in anticipation of an exhibition; A history of the Amistad captives, 1840, by John W. Barber, recounts and depicts the rebellion aboard the slave ship Amistad, as well as their subsequent voyage and trials. The main image will be digitized and featured with the exhibition and ephemera.. As such, the primary goal of treatment would not necessarily be for extensive use and handling, but to prepare for digitization, both visually and physically. Japanese 5g tengucho tissue, a very light and flexible paper, provided reinforcement as needed. Careful humidification and subsequent applied weights effect flattening of the creases that run across the image.
Image of offset manuscript text showing through pastedown verso.
Preparing the books allows for discovery as well. The pastedown of an early book being repaired exhibited the offset image of light text, the color of the unaffected page, against slightly darkened paper. In fact, the text is the offset transfer of the text’s ink to the inside of the cover; were the pastedown to be detached, all indications are that the black ink of the text would remain on the board. This in effect protects the paper from discoloration as the rest of the interface of the board, leather, glue and pastedown discolor over time, producing a reversed image of the text. This particular book is having the cover treated and stabilized. It remains in fairly good condition, perhaps due at least in part to the unfinished state of the printed textblock, which lacks the intended decorative capitals.
Visit to the Huntington: Report 1 of 2 (or maybe 3!)
I'm pleased to present the first of (at least) two reports following our delightful visit way back in September to the Huntington Library Conservation Lab. Our own Wil Lin organized our visit in coordination with Jessamyn Gloor of the Huntington. We were very warmly welcomed to the Lab and shown around their amazing facility, including their new paintings conservation studio. Conservators took time out of their precious bench time to discuss in detail many of their current projects, and patiently answered all our questions. We got a good look at every corner of their state-of-the-art facility! Intrepid Conservation Center assistants Hannah Moshier and Felice Robles each have put together a report of highlights from the visit. Hannah's report is below.
I would like to thank the esteemed crew at the Huntington, especially Jessamyn and Holly, for making us feel so welcome!
-Dawn Aveline, Preservation Officer, UCLA Library
A note transferred to archival paper and included with the sample
The conservators then made boxes to house the samples which came from the Hollyhock House and the Long Beach Museum of Art, among others. The collection also includes large plaster tiles from the El Capitan Theater which were given custom-made boxes. This is just one example of the unique challenges that conservation labs like the Huntington regularly face. And I was personally interested in the project as a life-long admirer of old houses and architecture, having grown up in a 1911 house restored by my parents over 25 plus years. The collection itself also gives a glimpse into the meticulous process Weil went through to faithfully restore some of the most architecturally significant buildings in Southern California.
Custom housing for samples from the Long Beach Museum of Art
Plaster tile from the El Capitan Theater
- Hannah Moshier, MLIS student, UCLA. Photos by Wil Lin.
AMIA 2014 - Savannah. A guest report by MIAS student John Kostka
(Ed. note: Stalwart AV grad assistant John Kostka has crafted the following report of highlights from his trip to the AMIA Conference in Savannah last week. John is starting his second year of the UCLA Moving Image Archive Studies program)
(Ed. note 2: This post also appears on the blogs.library.ucla.edu/preservation blog).
Over the past week (Oct. 7-11), archivists from across the nation (and indeed the globe!) turned out for the year’s annual Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) conference in Savannah, GA, with the UCLA Library preservation staff providing several members among their ranks. Over the course of a fun and enlightening five days, Library staff had the opportunity to make a number of new friends, sample the local cuisine and nightlife, and take in some truly exciting presentations!
Conference attendees didn’t have to wait long for exceptional food for thought, as an early talk by George Eastman House archivists Nancy Kauffman, Jared Case, Ken Fox and Stacey Doyle, “Return to the Fold: Reuniting Filmmaker Manuscripts with Their Films,” provided right from the start fascinating insights into issues of cataloging. Long held as semi-separate fields, moving image archiving and more traditional forms of paper-based archiving each tend to be equally confounding to practitioners of the other, with moving image archivists frequently viewing paper-based elements of collections as supplemental, and vice versa. In discussing Eastman House’s approach to conserving several film and paper donations from a group of notable documentary and experimental filmmakers, the archive staff attempted to bridge this divide, underlining the importance of each type of item as a complement to the other. In developing a more unified cataloging system to better encompass and make accessible the entirety of these collections, Kauffman et al pointed the way toward an important and exciting shift in thinking about the ways archivists process and provide access to diverse types of archival documentation, as well as providing a greater sense of unity for the archival field as a whole. Despite its location in the very first timeslot of Thursday morning (the first day of presentations), it was nevertheless immediately clear that this panel was one of the highlights of the conference.
While UCLA may have been represented in abundance, it was nevertheless well outstripped by the numerous other archive representatives at the conference, many of whom provided their own fascinating glimpses of current archival trends from around the globe. Irene Lim, Sanchai Chotirosseranee, Karen Chan and Mick Newham each contributed to a fascinating Saturday morning progress report on the current state of their home archives, which include the National Archives of Singapore, Film Archive Thailand, the Asian Film Archive, and the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, respectively. Similarly, a follow-up presentation by Juana Suarez, Julio Cabrio, Paula Felix-Didier and Julieta Keldjian provided the Latin American counterpart, presenting a status report on institutions as varied as Proimagenes Colombia, Universidad de la Republica, Museo del Cine de Buenos Aires, and the Archivo Audiovisual Universidad Catolica del Uruguay.
As fun as presentations may be, however, AMIA 2014 nevertheless afforded numerous opportunities for attendees to let their hair down as well. Opening and closing cocktail receptions afforded many attendees – and particularly speakers – to get to better get to know each other, while Wednesday night’s annual AMIA Trivia Throwdown made for exciting and good-spirited fun, as usual (with this attendee even walking away with a brand-new Blu-ray of Louis Malle’s Au Revoir les Enfants!). Outside the hotel walls, the historic city of Savannah proved a charming backdrop for the conference, with dangling Spanish moss and the town’s numerous historic squares contributing to a distinctly homey charm. In terms of food and drink, conference attendees gravitated to the nearby Coffee Fox, which served up a horchata latte to die for, as well as Leopold’s Ice Cream, which made for a particularly sweet treat after the conference’s annual Archival Screening Night. Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room, a traditional southern family-style restaurant which served up in excess of twenty (20!) all-you-can-eat delights, proved hands-down the highlight of this attendee’s dining experience in Savannah, though the dark horse Pie Society, purveyor of traditional English sweet and savory pastries, came in an improbable close second.
With so much to do, it’s unsurprising that the five days and nights of AMIA 2014 passed by in almost a blur, though it remains hard to believe that there are now twelve months to go before we all meet again. Nevertheless, if 2015’s conference proves anything like Savannah, I think we can all agree we have a lot to look forward to! See you in Portland!
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