As Preservation Librarian, my work in the Preservation Lab and as part of Special Collections & Archives, covers a wide variety of work.

Flattening a panoramic photo

I thought I would share my statistics as an annual report, which details my work in ZSR Library for FY 2018-2019.

  • 763 Book Repairs (General Collections)
  • 28 Book Repairs (Special Collections)
  • 593 Pamphlet Binders (Special Collections)
  • 748 Archival Boxes (Special Collections)
  • 986 Colibri dust jackets (Special Collections)
  • 57 encapsulations (Special Collections)
  • 15 clamshell boxes (Special Collections)
  • 75 World War I posters – Mounts for safe classroom use, flattening and paper repair
  • 27 unframing of materials
  • 59 Paper repairs

The "Y" has More than 2000 Such Homes for Our Boys

  • 73% of total work was for Special Collections
  • 27% of total work was for Circulating Collections
  • 28% of Special Collections work was Level 1 [less than 15 minutes to complete]
  • 62% of Special Collections work was Level 2 [15 minutes – 2 hours to complete]
  • 10% of Special Collections work was Level 3 [more than 2 hours to complete]

bayle repair hinges toning

I also did additional work to support Special Collections exhibits and other outreach activities including the creation of exhibit mounts, as well as printing and installation for exhibits, repairing 53 items prior to digitizing, and assisting with 1 Disaster Recovery incident (General Collections).

Chapel Hill workshop participants

As part of my professional outreach, I taught 3 book repair workshops this year: two in Greenville, NC and in Archdale, NC. These workshops are a needed and rewarding service.

SC&A holds the only copies of a 19th century Baptist newspaper, Zion’s Landmark. I flattened, encapsulated and foldered 53 issues of Zion’s Landmark newspapers prior to their traveling to Chapel Hill for digitization.

marbling 2017 c

My additional outreach activities including hosting library tours to the Preservation Lab for 145 visitors. For the 6th year, I also co-taught LIB 260, History of the Book with my colleague, Megan Mulder. In this class, I teach bookbinding, typesetting and printing, paper marbling, paste paper and linoleum cuts. This year Megan and I introduced Joyce Teta, a local calligrapher and Anne Murray, a local bookbinder and marbler, who joined our class to teach calligraphy and marbling. This led to the donation of a collection of artist’s books for Special Collections & Archives and an exhibit.

Sydney Comstock

My student assistants help me with the work in preservation. They contribute to the protection and stabilization of our materials.

Frankenstein - 200th Anniversary of Mary Shelley's book

Finally, I use every opportunity to integrate our printing press into my outreach work. I printed a letterpress broadside for a Special Collections and Archives event, featuring the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I also printed 2 letterpress bookmarks distributed to promote ZSR and printed stationery for 4 outgoing ZSR Library Board of Visitor members.