Interim head of preservation Lisa Muccigrosso works with a brush on a project in the Preservation Lab. Photos by Melea Licht, university library communications.
Lisa Muccigrosso leads a dedicated team that straddles a line between the past and future in the preservation lab on the fourth floor of Parks Library. On the same day, her staff might work on a centuries-old sword in special collections and transfer brittle newspaper pages into the latest digital technology.
Consultations?
Preservation staff offer consultation services to the campus community. Email preserve@iastate.edu.
Students doing a research project, professors assigning readings from a rare text and library visitors viewing Jack Trice's "I Will" letter all benefit from the lab's work.
"At a basic level, we are making the past available to the future," said Muccigrosso, interim head of preservation. "We serve as stewards, not owners."
The lab, which serves the library, covers more than 3,000 square feet, housing workspace and storage areas in addition to tools of the trade. Large shears from the 19th and 20th centuries mix with a variety of book presses. Book preservation requires precise hand-eye coordination and a steady hand to wield scalpels, rulers and other tools. Another area is dedicated to audio visual and digital preservation.
Staff also monitor storage spaces at Parks and other library storage locations across campus for temperature and humidity.
Caring for the collection
Muccigrosso and senior conservation assistant Mindy Moeller are two of four full-time employees in the lab. Gone are the shelves of numerous books needing repair, replaced by a smaller number. Lab staff rely on librarians and curators to flag books and other items in need of repair.
Many preservation projects require special housing for books that are falling apart. Moeller uses a custom-made portfolio or a larger rigid box to encase damaged books. A machine also can put a CoLibrí -- plastic cover -- around a book. Muccigrosso and Moeller also straighten and clean individual pages and secure loose pages back to the binding.
"I do full repairs, page repairs, rebacks when the cover back has been torn by someone grabbing it off the shelf and re-cases when the pages fall completely from the case," said Moller, who estimates most repairs take minutes to hours. "One thing we are seeing less of now that people have gone more digital is repairs needed after someone cuts out a picture or chart directly from a book."
Pamphlets, newspapers, model airplanes and Christian Petersen's sculpting tools are examples of other items repaired in the lab. All repairs are done to be as reversible as possible so future advancements can be implemented without damaging the item, something not always practiced many decades ago.
Preservation services coordinator Mindy McCoy preserves newspapers that will be digitized.
A/V and digitization
The lab's audiovisual (AV) preservation librarian is responsible for the film, video and audio media in special collections.
Next Repair Café
As a companion event to the Live Green initiative's Sustainapalooza, community and campus volunteers will help repair everyday items on Feb. 24 (5-8 p.m., Campanile Room, MU) or assist in finding a local repair shop option. Items accepted for repair are clothing, soft goods, jewelry, accessories and small electronics. The Repair Café aims to reduce waste, share tools and resources, teach basic maintenance, and help build self-reliance skills in the campus community. There is no charge for any repairs.
"I take steps to conserve the original media and also transfer it to a digital file to make it accessible to as many people as possible," Amber Bertin said.
Most video and audio tapes were designed to have a 50-year lifespan, a mark passed decades ago, Bertin said. Digital copies create ease and wider distribution, but there are storage and cost considerations for every project.
"In the field, we call it the magnetic media crisis because these materials are rotting so quickly," she said. "To do the transfer, you are likely only getting one chance, and we have to take increasingly more extreme methods to prep the materials to have the one try."
Preservation services coordinator Mindy McCoy oversees the digitization of paper material and photographs. McCoy said she values the ability to make information available worldwide, but the volume is a constant challenge.
"We have a large list of projects that people want to do, but that requires we develop priorities and determine the impact to the public," she said.
Other projects
Preservation staff often do special projects and help in recovery efforts. Muccigrosso consulted on and wrote a condition report of the state constitution for the Iowa Secretary of State office. A new archivally sound display case was commissioned and will be unveiled on Feb. 12 in the first floor rotunda of the Capitol.
In 2010, campus flooding damaged a building where blueprints were stored. Six hundred blueprints were transferred to the lab.
"They had to be cleaned, dried and repaired, which allowed them to eventually be digitized," Moeller said.
The team also has dealt with items damaged by smoke from fires.
