We’ve all heard them: homespun tips and tricks about caring for books, photos, and personal keepsakes. Can you clean a painting with bread? Can you remove highlighter from a textbook with lemon juice? On Friday, 11/4, from noon – 1 PM Central, I’ll join a panel of experts in a free, online webinar, “Old Wives’ Tales and Urban Legends,” hosted by the Connecting to Collections Care online community. C2CCare provides preservation resources, professional development, and support for small and mid-sized cultural institutions.
This webinar is part of #AskaConservator Day, when conservators take to social media and other outlets to raise awareness and engage with the public. Hope to see you there!
Join us for a Connecting to Collections Care webinar: November 4 at noon Central.
This week, students in my Disaster Planning and Response course kicked off our fire unit with a visit to the Austin Fire Department training facility. Arson investigator Nick Ganci and firefighters set up a burn cell modeled after a small apartment, complete with drywall and furniture. Students then placed deaccessioned library books in various locations around the room. The fire began with a candle placed too close to a curtain. As the fire grew, we learned about the ways heat, air flow, construction techniques, and materials impacted its course. Once the fire was extinguished and the site was safe, we collected the books to bring back to the lab.
The Austin Fire Department hosted a burn cell for iSchool students.
During our visit, Ganci introduced us to the fundamentals of firefighter training. He also discussed how his team uses physical evidence to evaluate likely scenarios about a fire’s origin and progression. This was a great opportunity for students to learn about communicating with first-responders and protecting cultural heritage collections.
Before fire: placing books in the burn cell.
After fire: the same corner.
Next week, the students will practice removing soot and ash from burned volumes by using a HEPA vacuum and soot sponges. With the context this hands-on experience provides, we’ll then practice making judgment calls about when to salvage and when to replace materials. This exercise underscores the importance of planning and prevention in managing fire risk.
Salvaged books waiting for cleaning.
Many thanks to Nick Ganci and the Austin Fire Department crew who so generously gave their time and good-naturedly answered our many questions! Also thanks to our book donors: Kate Slaten and Erin Tigelaar (who joined us for the event!) from the Brentwood Elementary School Library and Jeff Newberry from UT’s Collections Deposit Library.
