Week 10

1) What I have accomplished throughout the week:

Preservation
This week I continued and finished my work on the divorce hearing pamphlets. Again, I was cleaning, stripping, and sewing the papers. As well, using Japanese Tissue Paper, I mended pages of a book that had been torn, and learned how to use glue to fix a book whose spine was coming off. This involved gluing down the pieces coming away from the text block, wrapping in grease proof paper, and then bandaging the book together to ensure the glue dried in the correct place.

Librarianship
This week I was given a tour of the Conservation department and a talk on the department's processes and activities. It was especially interesting to be exposed to the library materials from this new angle. Many of the items I have been working on at the Natural History Museum have either been through conservation, or need to be evaluated. To see where these materials go was very useful. I also received a tour of the entire museum, and was able to go into many of the science departments for the first time. Through this tour I gained a better understanding of the audience to which the library is directed, and the work that is being achieved using the resources we hold. I also got to see a giant squid, which didn't have much to do with my work but was really impressive. Finally, I continued my work on the New Perspectives project- researching British universities who received high marks in social sciences, art, and history in order to contact the heads of department in each area.

Archiving
This week in my archiving internship I cataloged two folders of posters held within the Miss Great Britain archive. Cataloging this material was really similar to cataloging photographs, one major exception being the focus on color. When cataloging the posters it was necessary to note all the colors used in the printing, and to describe the contents using its colors (ex. poster contains a blue door and a woman in a red dress). This is to make it easy for posters to be identified by the archivists. This week I also finished cataloging another section of the Miss Great Britain photographs.

2) What intersections I have seen between my job duties:

Many of the things discussed in my conservation talk at the Natural History Museum overlapped with my work at my preservation internship. Many of the same preventative techniques are used, such as moderation of temperature and humidity, boxing of fragile items, and proper storage of library materials. Also, many of the mending done in the conservation department is similar to the mending I do in preservation. The two areas are very similar, though the more advanced problems (such as larger paper mendings and chemical cleaning) are held within the realm of conservation and are not dealt with at my preservation job. These things are done in-house at the Natural History Museum.