Student employees and interns assist in protective rehousing of collection items, such as encapsulation of posters, maps, or other oversized items, or in constructing custom boxes for fragile items or books. They have the opportunity to perform hands-on treatments, such as humidifying and flattening documents using our suction table, or performing repairs on books with deteriorated or damaged text blocks or bindings. These repairs may involve washing, deacidifying, and/or mending book pages, toning paper or cloth to match original book papers or covers, and resewing text blocks. Our Kensol hot-stamping press provides students with the opportunity to set type and stamp title information on books that required new covers or on labels for rare book boxes. They also work on stacks maintenance projects, such as cleaning books and shelves in our Collections room.
For more information, please visit the Conservation page on the Special Collections website.
As our book collections are increasingly appreciated as historical artifacts that reflect the esthetics and technology of their time, our students participate in providing descriptive information about our rare books that enhance our catalog records. Students are instructed in recognizing and recording historical or unique features of our books and bindings. By adding this information to the catalog record our faculty and other researchers are able to search books more easily for specific, historical or physical attributes.