Preservation Blog
Internship Report: Jennifer Martinez
Looking back on my experience with the UCLA Library Conservation Center is extremely rewarding. My first day, Kristen St. John and I sat down and discussed the different projects I’d be able to work on this summer and what I was most interested in. I’m glad to have been able to accomplish such a wide range of activities in the eight weeks I’ve been here with a focus on hand skills and condition survey.
My primary goal was to get a great sense of the mechanics of the book through book repair. I wanted to really approach all different repair techniques and learn hand skills that would teach me problem solving and patience. I was fortunate enough to work on the circulating collection at UCLA and completed eight books with each having different repairs needed. Reback, recase, heat set tissue repair, hollow tube spine lining, broken sewing repair, end sheet replacement, and even a complete rebinding. Cooking paste with a Cook & Stir has got to be my new favorite method of preparing paste as well.
While learning about the different book repair skills I was able to document my progress throughout the summer by filling out condition reports and photo documentation. I carefully had to identify the physical and condition features of each book in my forms and then take the necessary before/after photos. The greatest exercise I did with Kristen is typing my condition report in a narrative form and then reading it aloud to her. It really made me step back and think about how I use descriptive language and how I need to properly explain it to someone.
Another project I worked with Preservation Intern Emilia Mahaffey, was a condition survey. I spent many hours in the Charles Young Research Library’s (YRL) among the journal collection, which I found to be a wonderful way to get your hands on materials and see what a collection is comprised of. We were comparing the condition of the in-house copies at the YRL to copies deposited in the SRLF. It was great experience working with spreadsheets and communicating with another person on a big project
My third project was to create a condition report form, straightforward and consistent, for UCLA Libraries to use when loaning their items for exhibitions. I was able to reach out to Victoria Binder at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, who helped me greatly in sharing her observations of how she has filled out reports in the past. It was great to research what other institutions around the country do for their condition reports, specifically libraries, and I was able to compile a form that will help UCLA have the all the correct information for items to be sent out on loan.
My week at the Huntington Library Conservation Lab included re-housing architectural drawings of the Huntington Estate from the 1920s using the ultrasonic welder. When taking these drawings out of their previous encapsulation I had to remove tape residue due to the drawings slipping into the double-sided tape. I was able to learn an extremely efficient way of creating a clamshell box, which is part of another rehousing project. I was able to assist in preparing some of LA county maps for digitalization by disassembling their binding and trimming the sides of wear and tear. Holly Moore even showed me a fabulous method of how to make your own cabled cords with a power drill.
Along with all those great experiences I wanted to find some valuable reading resources for learning about the history of bookbinding. Kristen has a wonderful collection of books about books, conservation and library archival studies. I made it through two books, A History of English Craft Bookbinding Technique by B. Middleton and Bookbinding and the Care of Books by D. Cockerell, which I believe really helped my understanding in the history of bookbinding and the development of adhesives.
Other experiences included, assisting in assembling corrugated clam shell boxes for part of the Performing Arts Special Collections in the Music Library and packaging part of the oversized architectural collections in the Arts Library to be transported to the Conservation Lab for rehousing. I was able to visit the Getty Research Institute and going on a fabulous tour with Mark Sackett of their facilities. Their photo documentation set up was quite impressive!
I am extremely grateful to all the conservators I have gotten to speak with about the education of conservation and the future of the Library and Archival programs that are beginning in the art conservation programs in the US. My time at UCLA was a tremendous growing experience in the knowledge of conservation field and I cannot wait to apply what I’ve learned to future experiences.