Report of the 2005 American Institue for Conservation Annual Conference

Minneapolis, MN
June 9-12, 2005

Reported by Eric Alstrom, Collections Conservator

This year I was able to attend the AIC conference, which is the annual gathering for conservation professionals of all types: books, paper, objects, textiles, paintings, electronic media, etc, etc. This is the conference where I can network with colleagues from other institutions, talk with vendors and learn of new trends in conservation. This year's conference theme was "Documentation Dilemma: Managing Conservation Data in the 21st Century" which focused on how conservators document the treatments they perform for future scholars and other conservators. Keeping track of conservation treatments performed is especially important from a historical point-of-view, since almost any treatment is going to alter the object in some way.

During the general session, where conservators from all field present on the theme, I heard talks about restoring a Saturn V rocket, saving an outdoor mural in Los Angeles, and how an historic cemetery in New Jersey was saved using GPS technology. More specific to books and the library, there was a talk about the history of the Newberry Library's conservation program (in Chicago, IL) and a report about the Heritage Health Index, a program to assess the state of cultural collections throughout the United States (and in which the MSU Libraries participated). Two of the more practical talks dealt with how to manipulate and store digital photographs (such as those taken before and after conservation treatments) and using database software to track conservation treatments. Although this was used in a museum setting, the talk demonstrated how this information can be shared across departments, such as the conservation lab and the special collections library to help keep track of the location of books and document their treatments. While some of these talks were about treatment options far removed from books, all dealt with the problems (and successes) of documenting the work which was performed.

Even more specific to books, I am a member of the Book and Paper Group, the largest of the specialty groups in AIC. I attended the two days of presentations for the BPG and heard talks ranging from teaching a training workshop on papyrus conservation in Egypt to learning the secrets of the Vatican Secret Archives to seeing a video presentation on traditional methods of Japanese screen conservation. Other talks were about a scientific study of using gel poultices for removal of stains on paper, the results of a Library of Congress study on how best to preserve documents written in iron gal ink (a highly acidic ink which was popular for many centuries) and using enhanced digital images to piece together fragments of a diary written by a victim of the Holocaust.

The final afternoon I attended two discussion groups: the Library Collections Conservation Discussion Group and the Archives Discussion Group. The LCCDG topic was "Self Preservation," an open panel discussion on how library conservators manage their time to do all the different duties assigned to them. Besides performing conservation treatments, many library conservators also manage the conservation lab, supervise and train technicians and student workers, sit on library and university committees, perform community outreach, as well as a myriad of other activities. There were some interesting ideas and perspectives and this served as a nice little pep rally for us conservators. The Archives group was a panel discussion about hazards found in archival (and library holdings) from the obvious like mold and dust to the not-so-obvious like radio-active substances, bio-hazards (germs and viruses), and dangerous chemicals which might result in the aftermath of a fire or other disaster. This was a real eye-opener even though I consider myself pretty well informed about safety issues.

I also presented a poster during the general session of the conference. It was called "The Mystery of the Wire Loop" and was a inquiry for further investigation into a strange piece of twisted wire found in books throughout the country, including MSU. I talked to many book conservators who have seen this loop and I hope to gather more data about it to find out what its purpose is. For more information about my poster and the wire loop, I have the poster up on the web. If you see this loop here in the library (or anywhere else) please let me know!

Besides the regular conference proceedings, I was able to explore Minneapolis and some of the book related activities. The BPG was at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, a very spacious building devoted to teaching bookbinding, letterpress printing and papermaking. I was also amazed at all the people in the downtown area both during the weekdays and the weekends as well as during the evening. The conference hotel was on Nicollet Mall right next to the convention center. During lunch breaks and evenings I took advantage of the pleasant weather to walk around the beautiful parks and the downtown area. During the four days I was at the conference, there was a bike race Friday afternoon, a music festival all day Saturday and small music concerts every night. And if you find yourself heading to Minneapolis, take advantage of the light-rail system. For just $1.50 I took the train from the airport to the heart of downtown in under a half hour!