>> Jacob Nadal: Hello, everyone.
I'm glad to see so many of you
here for this, our third talk
in our preservation
week series this year.
It gives me great pleasure to
introduce Dr. Fenella France,
who is Chief of our Preservation
Research and Testing Division.
She'll be talking to you today
about our scientific reference
samples, both the real artifacts
and all of the data
we have about them.
This set of materials
and data is something
that we've had internal to the
library to support our Research
and Testing Division and all
of preservation activities
for some time.
And in the past few years,
Fenella has begun to figure
out how we can make
this available
to support collaborations
and engagement
with the broader preservation
and conservation community.
And I'm really excited for her
to talk to you now about some
of the very innovative and
interesting things she's doing,
and get us thinking about
what the future may hold
for conservation science data.
Fenella, over to you.
>> Fenella France:
Thank, thank you so much.
So, why do we need a
reference collection?
Some of the challenges we have
are what actually has happened
to our [inaudible]
digital materials
and why they're degrading.
And there's usually very
little documentation
that allows us to know that.
So, if we have reference samples
that we indicate on the terms,
that can help us
to sort of recreate
and [inaudible] treatments,
think about destructive testing
that we can't do our
collection items,
and use that to advance
our preservation knowledge
and techniques.
So, what we're going to
talk about today is some
of the guidelines we've
developed for housing,
characterizing, and using
and visualizing the data
and the collection
items, as well as some
of the other tools
that we have as well.
One of the things
we really think
about in the RTD is how do we
prioritize risk to collections?
And which of our
materials are most at risk?
And so we're always
balancing those components.
And as part of that, the more we
can know about those materials
and characterize them in
the degradation mechanisms,
and even tracking change over
time, really helps us think
about that risk and move
forward in that way.
And so that is why this
reference collection is really
so important in helping
us aid to that knowledge.
What are some of our challenges?
Well, we have any
number of substrates.
We have any number of media and
inks and pigments used on them
in different treatments and
in different environments.
And all of those combinations,
all of my conservation
possession colleagues know,
really add to the
wonderful challenges
and the opportunities
we have to preserve all
of these different materials,
and how we move forward,
and almost forensically look
back at what's happened,
trying to reveal
the history of those
that we may not know about,
and move forward as we think
about what's happening
with our collections.
So, just a tiny peek into our
two labs [inaudible] Physical
and Chemical Properties Lab.
We do a lot of our web testing
and the structure of testing
and physical [inaudible].
And the downstairs optical
properties lab that has a lot
of portable instrumentation
and non invasive
where we do the hands on
work, a collection of items.
In terms of how, what
I'm going to talk about,
I'm going to give you a little
bit more background to CHARM,
which some of you may
know formerly as CLASS,
the Center for Library
Analytical Scientific Samples.
So, we're expanding this
to cope from heritage
in with these materials.
Some highlights from
the collection
that you know may not know
that we had internally.
Some of the processes
that we've gone
through as we have made
decisions about this, I mean,
how, the digital
data is, Jake alluded
to in how we're using
the collection,
some interesting
components there.
So, in terms of the background,
we really want to think
about how are bouts and
knowledge, and what can we do
to improve and keep
growing in terms
of our preservation activities.
So, when we first
started thinking about,
going back to the 2008, we
had some reference materials.
And I really wanted to
build up what we had
to see how we could use those
more effectively and start
to link destructive testing
with non invasive techniques.
We were really starting
to invest a now portable
instrumentation.
And this was very important for
working with curatorial staff
to gather [inaudible]
that we weren't going
to do anything unusual
to be a collection item.
And, but there were these
techniques that we could use.
So, what materials did we
have that we could start
to test instrumentation
on and think about?
So, firstly, it was the space.
You know, what do we want?
We could restore this and
control the collection and look
after it best so that we
were actually preserving the
reference collection as well.
So, this is walking into
our, the CHARM room,
of some of the materials
they're working
on for national collection.
You can see we collected
cabinets and sizes
and different orientations
there.
And through to how do we
best use this space in terms
of what instrumentation
we might use.
And, of course, one of the book
areas that's used heavily is the
documentation and
the imaging stage.
And we have now two
set ups there
that can be portable as well.
And so what did we have?
And what do we start
to build up?
So, we had a lot of
paper based materials.
And you can see here we
still have our analog record
if someone takes samples out
to use for a research project.
They can note that down there.
And we, of course, note
that to the digital pool.
But sometimes it could be,
analog can be the best
way to move forward.
So, a range of whether it's
rag, paper, or news print,
or you name it, we've got
many, many different papers.
The building of our
parchment collection.
You know, is it [inaudible]
is it cheap or both?
And explaining that,
you'll note,
I think you'll see the bar
codes on each of the pages,
looking into papyrus as well
and different components there.
We have an extensive audio
visual and sound recordings,
close with some other colleagues
and [inaudible] to actually look
at how some of these
materials are degrading
and how we can help them
in terms of their workflow
and why things may be
sticking as they're going
through the heads, as
they're trying to transfer it
to a longer term
material storage form.
And even through to,
which may surprise you,
all of the scanning
electron microscopes dubs
where we take minute samples
of a pigment or a fiber,
they have all been
kept at a toys factory,
something you may
remember thinking about.
We kept all of these so that we
could then go back to the sample
that may have been taken
from pigment box and 10,
20 years later, look to see
how it was changing, and,
or had something happened to it.
Or if we needed to, we
already had that sample,
so we did not want to
get rid of or lose some
of these opportunities
for future studies
that could be shared with
other colleagues as well.
So, in terms of our
inventory, this,
clearly we still
want a lot more.
But you can see how
we're starting
to categorize it
into certain areas.
We have a box, we have
a number of papers,
we have the [inaudible] fiber
collection, papyrus parchment,
very distinctive colorants, and
adding to that, going to be one
of our highlights today,
tech star collections,
reference materials,
artist materials.
One of the interesting
components
as we have been doing this is
also, I don't really have time
to go into it today,
but thinking
about how we describe those
materials as well in terms
of the terminology
that we're using.
So, if I'm using
[inaudible] materials,
it's like the same way
you might use that term.
And that's something we'll come
back to a little bit later on.
But really sort of building
this up to expand what we have
in the collection,
what is useful in terms
of understanding what materials
are at risk in our collections,
and how we can move forward
with those materials.
I wanted to start with one of
our beautiful, clearly, as you,
topics, and in terms
of recreating historic
colorant and pigment recipes.
And this is something
that a number
of our staff have
been involved with.
Cindy Connelly Ryan, who's
been taking the lead on this.
And I will say, over
the past year,
she has created even more
garden space in her backyard
for collecting those
materials that actually have
to be collected from nature,
don't come out of a jar,
from a manufacturer.
And so that's, you know,
significant part of some
of your wonderful work over
the last year to generate
to see what we need
and collect goals
and all sorts of materials.
And what's really interesting
about this is we've really
built up, because when you think
about it, the materials
are used historically,
often the recipe is
not well laid out.
If you've ever captured
a recipe,
actually a cooking recipe
from your grandmother,
which might say and then I added
about this much and half a cup,
and they forget to say exactly
how much a pinch of salt,
and so, because they just
know they always put a quarter
of a teaspoon in.
And so part of this work
has been really looking
at what the formulations
need to be
and what perceived
combination do we put together,
and what are the
difference aspects that go
into making this
colorant and this pigment.
And what proportion.
One of the things, as many
of you will know that's
particularly challenging,
is any artist does not very
often use a pure pigment.
They often mix them together.
And historically that is,
you know, very interesting
and challenging part of what
we do, particularly if a faded
or changed over time or
been impacted by treatments.
So, here are some
beautiful ones.
I was in the lab a
while ago, a while ago,
and Cindy had marigold
and onion skins
and [inaudible] turning
away there.
And just delightful in
terms of the challenges
and the unique opportunities
for,
as we recreate these materials,
and start to see it really grow.
Along with the historic,
within [inaudible] building
up new pigments coming in.
And there's been a
strong focus on how we,
what's the substrate
you put these on.
Is it a starch faced paper, is
it red, you know, gelatin sized,
is it parchment, because that
can have an impact too in terms
of how we use these techniques
with different non invasive
analytical techniques
to understand what
might be happening.
My wonderful staff, instead
of just making up one
of these halves, we make up
five, because one will go
into cold storage, one may be
available for accelerated aging,
and then we have
two or three others
that could potentially be
shared with colleagues who want
to use those for some
of the analyses as well.
And you may also remember
there's a wonderful [inaudible]
article using some
of the materials
from the manuscripts position,
the [inaudible] diaries,
where describe some
of the ink recipes,
and I think there's also some
wonderful reference collections
within collections that have all
of these different sample
sheets in it as well.
So, that's a treasure trove
and a wonderful crossover
between physical reference
collection and what might be
in our collection and how we
can start to use our techniques
to non invasively
analyze things in our,
in the library collection.
So, Amanda Satorius has
done some fantastic work
on rehousing the collections
that has been really important
as we've moved forward with
the best way to actually store
and think about our
reference collection.
So, here you see a
beautifully cataloged
and created housing
for new pigments.
One of the things we've done
and we realized that's quite
important is whenever people
took a sample out
of a pigment bottle,
it created the possibility
for there to be contamination.
And so what we have done now
is any new pigment coming
into our collection,
we take a small sample,
which is our pure reference
pigment, that is set aside.
And that then will be there as
a backup if anything happens
when the larger sample that's
been used for other materials.
And then also with
colleagues from conservation,
and looking at rehousing the
Forbes Pigment Collection.
As many of you know, that
originally was assembled
by Edward Waldo Forbes
from the Fogg Art Museum,
and we have a Partial collection
at the Library of Congress.
And you can see on the
right we rehoused that so
that each color is
in a separate box.
It can be visibly seen and much
easily exist and preserved.
So, these are some of the
decisions and thought processes
that [inaudible]
into very carefully,
making sure that these reference
materials that we are working
with and using to preserve our
physical library collections are
actually thought about
and remain here and able
to be used effectively.
One collection here
I just wanted
to mention are the Kathryn
[inaudible] Kathryn Jakes
Collection, which,
for many years,
she was at the Ohio State, fully
at the Ohio State University.
And a textile scientist
lab background.
And she did one of her nature
collection when she retired,
which we thought was going to
be a couple of boxes and turned
out to be an extensive fantastic
collection of materials
and in turn did a
lot of work in terms
of carefully rehousing
the textiles.
We had all of the
[inaudible] the boxed plants
that these were extracted
from move to all
of the microscope slides and
the spectra from all the data.
So, it's an extensive collection
that was really useful
as we started thinking about
the best way to store access
and bring the digital and the
physical collections together.
Which takes us into an area
that we've been spending a lot
of time with within
the last year.
This would be [inaudible]
but I just wanted to point
out the ways we describe the
reference samples, as I alluded
to before, we standardize
the classification
of the actual item.
Is it a book, is it a
pigment, is it paper, fiber?
We have to think about
the characteristics.
So, for example, a book will
have different characteristics
to a pigment.
A pigment would probably
not have height
and width, but a book would.
So, we go into the digital
data the moment you put the
classification item
and in ordering
up those characteristics
that relate to it.
So, we're looking standard
terminology, like [inaudible]
in terms of the place names,
the classification,
the instrumentation.
And this is an area that over
the past year we've really been
looking at linking data to
to see what's out there,
what's available, and what we
need to expand with colleagues
as we move forward with it.
I wanted to start with
the Barrow Collection,
which many people know
about, and it's always,
I wanted to highlight for
the number of colleagues,
I was talking to some colleagues
not long ago, about a year ago,
University College
London, and something came
up about the Barrow Collection.
And they said, we
wonder where it is.
And I said, oh, well,
it's [inaudible].
So, it's just a beautiful
collection of materials,
1,000 books that date
from 1507 to 1899.
And also has all of
the extensive data
from the William J. Barrow
labs for range of materials,
a range of parameters.
And the testing was
collecting wisdom in the 60s.
So, 50 years on, we'll
come back to that
as a teaser a little
bit later on.
And you can see here that it
was in need of some attention.
And we had a number
of [inaudible] work
on this over the years.
And this is where, you know,
we really have to think
about how do you make the
reference collections useable,
people want to use that,
we can't just have these
all sitting on the shelf
and not being pursued, you
know, preserved effectively.
So, some of the processes
included cleaning, assessing,
rehousing, labeling,
and storage.
And a number of interns
worked on this.
There was kind extensive
work, cleaning off these,
and measuring the books,
creating enclosures
to put those in, and
kept doing some more data
in terms of the size of those.
And then going to looking at the
cataloging, and extracting all
of the data from this
[inaudible] capture
of the original Barrow book
collection and putting them
into a spreadsheet, which
we've now taken another step
through the, to make
it more interactive.
So, you saw the collection
as it was.
And now this is what
it looks like.
It is in individual cabinets.
And as I zoom into
this, you'll see now
where we've really
put a lot of thought
into how we know
where an item is.
Historically, sometimes when
people would use collection,
borrow from the reference
collection,
there will be a little
sticky note that will be put
on a shelf, and it would
say so and so taught this
in 2012 to broad project.
So, it might end up sitting
in one of our lab areas
because it wasn't
really cataloged
and you couldn't quite read
the note, it took a while
until that came back
to its place.
So, what we're doing now
is we have each cabinet
in our space is cataloged.
Its shelf is cataloged.
And the item itself.
So, there's a three level
barcoding categorization.
So, it's a lot easier for
us to actually track back.
And all of those barcodes
link into the database for us
to track those materials and
make sure we know where they are
and can keep track of those.
And then, as you can see
here, some of these materials,
we have got the boxes, and just
some incredible information,
you know, just some
annotations with some,
all sorts of interesting items
within the box themselves.
Interns also went
through and annotated
which books have been taken out
and which tests have been
done from which pages.
So, this allows us to teach
and go back 10 years later,
do the same test to an adjacent
page, or a different part
of the volume, and people
that got it in the information
in the way that can
be made available.
What we also do, which
may surprise you,
is if sparkles have been
cut out and what all used,
we actually retain all
of those samples as well.
And so this is being made
available for further testing,
particularly if colleagues
want to do,
its general colleagues want to
do some destructive testing,
and we already have
the [inaudible] cut,
this makes it much more
easier for us to then share
that with them, and also already
been doing this with a number
of colleagues on various
research projects,
both within the United
States and internationally.
So, it's wonderful seeing this
collection be used and reused,
because that's what a
collection should be there for.
And also as we start to
get new instrumentation,
thinking about what new
data we can actually extract
from somewhat new information
might be there as well.
So, how do we learn from
our reference collections?
And this has been a
very interesting topic
over the past year that people
have been working, teleworking.
Of course, as materials
age, they're exposed
to different environments
and different treatments.
And the reference samples allow
us to recreate those conditions,
to examine the effective
new treatments,
to look at age materials, to
assess things we might be going
to think about during
on the reference samples
before we actually think
about anything happening to
the library collection item.
And as part of that, we
use moldable techniques.
We create and integrate
different data and do a lot
over the past year
with data fusion
and integrating different
types of information and adding
to the values, sort of a
deep learning component,
and using that data to
compare with reference sample
to confirm our results,
particularly
if something can't
be taken and do that.
So, one example that some of
you may have seen [inaudible],
which was looking at why REC
cylinders actually crack.
And we actually had the
digitized mode notebooks.
What we could do, though,
was from some fragment,
period fragment samples that
we already had in a box,
there it could then
go here with interns,
recreate those formulations,
and do clean preparations.
Going back to the lab notebooks,
we could actually recreate
an atom contaminants.
For example, we were
seeing a high level of ion,
then we were seeing in the
clean preparations that turned
out that they were
using cast iron pots.
And this then allowed us
to answer the question
of why REC cylinders were
cracking, which turned
out to be, they were
more at risk to changes
in temperature rather
than humidity,
which is usually the case
with how many glitch items.
And here's the [inaudible] talk.
You can see [inaudible]
here it's explaining
this [inaudible].
So, as I said, we often use
a lot of multiple techniques.
And we've been calling
this the go team.
And this is sort of prioritizing
a structured approach to be able
to analyze collection
items more effectively
and in a more timely manner by
using a combination of staff
and a combination of techniques.
So, this allows us, as I said,
to sort of do that
active learning.
We usually start with
spectral imaging,
which means we can net what's
happening across the surface
of the entire surface
of a collection item,
depending on the spectral
response to different materials.
That then allows us to say what
are the next point analyses
that we might do.
Do we need to do fiber optic
reflectance spectroscopy?
Do we need to do fully transform
infrared, x ray florescence?
What are those techniques
that may add to our knowledge
of the collection item?
And as you can see here, these
instruments that have been taken
over to the Rosenwald Collection
with Stephanie Stillo,
the curator there, and the
second image on the left.
And it means then that once
we've already created a lot
of the reference spectra from
our reference sample collection,
we then have that to compare
with the actual collection item.
And by being able to take
both some of the samples,
as well as the instrumentation
to the collections,
it means that it's a lot easier
on fragile items not having
to come down into the lab
and we can work in a space
and at the time demands
all availability
of the [inaudible] staff.
And so you can see here
just another example.
As we move into thinking
about the data,
one of the interesting
[inaudible] that became part
of this moving forward
was how do we extract all
of the useful information
from the actual instrument.
So, for example,
if we're looking
at a high magnification image
from a scanning electron
microscope, here's the image,
you can see the perimeters
are embedded in that image.
They're not extracted.
So, we have to then
try and extract
from the instrumentation some
of those parameters of how
that image was captured.
We might also, when we look
at the next component in terms
of what the trace
mutuals are there,
we will get that
scanned as well.
But we might want to go back
and relook at this information
for different questions
that may not have been part
of the original research data.
And that's what we
keep wanting to do.
We can scan across it.
We can add the next part.
But how do we, rather than
these five static files,
actually extract it
into a very useful
and more effective
reusable information
and knowledge generating
collection?
Just a quick reference
here to another project
that we've been spending
a lot of time on,
and the Andrew W. Mellon Funded
National Book Collection dot org
where we are actually using the
reference papers and CHARM to,
with the combination of
non invasive techniques,
now be able to look across the
500 books by different partners
and compare those
reference samples we have
with the reference
spectra from each book
and get a better
information idea of what
that specific paper might be.
So, here you see one
here, and [inaudible].
We are looking at the
spectra and comparing it
to the reference paper.
And, again, here, you can see
we have very useful resource,
and this is also extracting
the raw data rather
than it being static.
So, you can easily overlay
multiple spectra on this
and start to zoom in and
look at the specific peaks
where we might be seeing
some things that might relate
to change over time or
items specific components
that might relate to the
deterioration or things
that can impact the
preservation of our collection.
So, the Barrow Collection
50 years later.
So, image on the left,
one of the female chemists
who was working in the
Barrow Lab in the 60s,
Dr. Andrew Davis, who's been
doing an extensive [inaudible]
into looking at what do
we have and what sort
of data can we capture
and compare
with what we've got
from the 1960s.
As I showed you, this is
just three of the cabinets
of the approximately
eight cabinets we have
of the housed Barrow
Collection data.
And we literally have
pages and pages of data
about pages and pages.
And so just a huge
volume of data here.
As you can see here,
another intern worked
with [inaudible] project
was carefully cataloging
and extracting the data
from each of these pages
into an Excel spreadsheet
that could be made available.
And if you think about,
you know, the 1,000,
1,500 books about 16 data points
that there's an awful
lot of information.
How do we start going
about thinking about all
of this information and
how it might be combined
in different ways?
If we look at this historically,
you can see that usually
people would combine just one
or two factors.
And what might this look like
as we start to move forward
with more of the data fusion
approach, and thinking
about multiple variables,
because the challenge
and the joy of preservation
research is
that there's never a
nice simple answer.
It's never 7.2 [inaudible].
And usually there's multiple
things we have to think about.
So, where can we go next
in terms of how we want
to extract information
from this collection,
and add more value
to what we've got?
So, Andrew Davis has
been doing a lot of work
about the colleagues over
the past year using principal
component analysis that
reduces the variance
within a large collection.
And it means you can look at
multiple variables at a time
and start to think about
how we visualize that data.
So, what we're looking
at here is thinking
about is there any cost
[inaudible] in terms
of the country where your
materials were printed,
the [inaudible] content, is
it present or not present,
and what that might relate to
in terms of strong clustering
as we relate back
to preservation.
So, some visual correlations
are apparent.
But not always.
So, but it's useful for
us to start to think
about how can we visually
look at this data,
and then move forward, and which
of the parameters might be
most useful for thinking
about those aspects that
impact our collection,
and what would be most useful
for preserving our collections.
So, one of the things
that Andrew [inaudible]
have been working
on over the past
year is using some
of the historic Barrow
Book sample data to compare
with the collection
information we're collecting
for the [inaudible]
national collection.
But we're still in
progress with this.
But what might we start to see?
And what might be useful data
that we can extract from this?
So, one of the things
that's been very interesting
as we start to think about this
and ponder is how we
can use this data to see
which simple [inaudible]
could actually inform
collection staff.
So, here, for example,
we're using b star,
which is the yellowness
of the paper, and relating
that to pH and strength.
And you can see there that
there's a fairly good indicator
of the quantitative physical
condition correlating
with the more yellowed paper.
And these are tools that
we're starting to think about,
I just want you to know this is
very much a work in progress,
but can we start to
then possibly use
that as a simple visual check or
a small smartphone capable tool
that will allow someone
in the collection space
to very quickly use that as a
replication or a mark up for the
at risk component of
their collections.
So, you can see how we're
sort of coming, circling back
to the original thoughts about
how we preserve, and what parts
of our collection are at
risk, and how we might use
that to link with the reference
collection information as well.
Taking a little bit further,
we're really thinking
about the predictive models.
And if we can use the
paper sample collections
with both the non
invasive spectroscopy
and physical testing can we
start to look at the pulp
and physical/chemical
properties that we might have.
So, some of the work that's
been going on is, again,
looking at what we might have
in terms of, for example,
infrared spectra, and modeling
that from reference papers
and taking unknowns and
comparing that together.
So, what we have here is Andrew
had taken a collection of some
of the national collection of
the [inaudible] project papers,
and initially wondered, put
them into the model with some
of the reference papers,
and initially wondered,
that doesn't look
right, because that looks
like clustering with
the red papers.
And because he had done this
blind, then we can then realize
that they're all creating 45
papers, so it is reasonable
to assume that they would be
rag paper prior to the beginning
of the [inaudible]
paper production.
So, that was a really
fascinating, interesting thought
of how we can start
to then correlate some
of this non invasive and the
information we can capture
from the reference papers and
move forward a little bit more
in predicting what
we might have.
And, again here, you know,
this is sort of looking
at productive strength using the
reflectance IR and how we can,
you know, do we need to use
outliers, are they helpful here.
As you can see, we have tended
to keep all the information
in rather than going
straight to machine learning.
I do want to note that
also there's a lot
of focus these days on machine
learning and artificial what I
like to call augmented
intelligence.
We tend to leave a lot
of the information there,
because we don't want
to make assumptions
until we really know
what we're looking at
and what those nuances are.
So, some of the outliers here
were actually modern facsimiles,
books that we've [inaudible]
for partners turned
out to be facsimiles
that are being reproduced
by digitizing the original item
that became this past
ability to be circulated.
So, there's some really
interesting useful information
as we start to think
and move forward
with how we can use this data.
And this has been a really
strong area of telework.
And what's been really
fascinating, it's allowed us
to spend a lot more
time thinking
about the data we've got.
And before we generate
new data, really looking
to see what we've got there,
and thinking very thoughtfully
about the parameters
that might be very useful
as we move forward.
What I do want to note is
that project is still ongoing.
We were delayed a
little over the past year
by not being able
to be in the lab.
We did a lot more work
with the visualization.
So, you can see we've only
got actually around 1,900.
We're just starting to move in.
Plus we're getting the same
box from each of the partners.
And we will be building up
this model as we get some
of those replicates from the
different partners and find
out whether, in fact, they
are the same replicates
or not as we go ahead.
So, in conclusion,
I wanted to note
that the reference sample
collections really very much
enhance our ability to
understand our collections,
to characterize and preserve
the reference, pardon me,
the actual library
archives, museum collections
that we will work with.
And by using these
reference collections,
these reference samples, we can
start to correlate more sort
of connections between
the physical measures
to non invasive portable
instrumentation,
and really expand our
capabilities and look
at how we can build the
knowledge base and turn the data
and the information
into knowledge.
By cataloging and really paying
attention to the metadata
and precharacterizing the
sample, that's really important
as we want to expand
into future research.
And what's been very
interesting as we've worked
with this cataloging, and
particularly as we've moved
into the database, is how we can
think previous research studies
to future ones, and between
different collections,
and start to see and build up
interactions and information
and connections that
we had not seen
and were not available
to us previously.
And also with these
reference collections,
as we get new instrumentation,
we now can actually pull
out more new and
useful information
that we didn't originally
have and expand our knowledge.
And so that's an
interesting [inaudible] too.
I did want to just note,
we've been very delighted
to be working with some
colleagues on iChrome,
and looking at international
workshop
on heritage sample archives.
And we will be, there will be
a workshop lecture [inaudible]
and we will be starting
to share this information
with other colleagues and move
forward and share guidelines
and best practices and help try
and support reference
collections.
Because I think what's so
interesting is particularly
as people retire, we may lose
those collections or we've lost
that knowledge, that innate
knowledge of the person
who created that collection had
and would need to preserve it
and move that forward.
So, I want to thank
so many people.
I really only just started to
look at trying to call on some
of the previous interns.
But just a wonderful
group of people
that we've been working with.
And thank you so
much for listening.
And I want to now
open up for questions.
>> Amelia Parks:
Thank you so much.
That was really great.
Okay, so, we are open
to all questions.
You can enter them
into the Q&A box.
And remember, there was a
lot of information to unpack
in that presentation, so
if you think of something
at a later point in time, please
feel free to reach out to us
through Ask a Librarian.
And you can find that
link in the chat.
We will take your
questions at any time.
Okay, there's a question
from Brian Draper.
Can this data be referenced by
us, conservators in the field?
>> Fenella France: Yes.
So, short answer, yes.
Right now, we do not have the
digital platform available,
but we are very happy
to share that with you
until we have that,
an online forum.
Yes, you can make that
available, you can share
that information with you.
We can also, particularly
for the Barrow Book,
you can actually request
physical samples if you want
to do testing on those.
And so we're really
happy to share that.
I'm happy, if you want to
contact me directly to talk
with you more about that.
>> Amelia Parks:
Oh, yes, there are.
Okay, so, for materials
collected from nature,
if a plant cannot be
grown in the DC area,
are there partnerships
to acquire those materials
from farther afield?
>> Fenella France: That
is a wonderful question.
And we have not done that
yet, but would be delighted
to if anyone's interested.
The date's collection
was a great example
where we literally
[inaudible] exactly where all
of those plants were collected
from in South Carolina
and [inaudible].
But we very much
are looking at that.
We've even told Jake that
we want to create, you know,
an actual garden at the
Library of Congress,
which would be really fun.
So, yes, if you have, would
like to partner with us,
we would be really excited.
We've talked with
colleagues in the past
about if they have specific
collections of [inaudible]
or different pigments
or different things.
Because we have a storage
area, we've been happy
to store that if it's at risk.
But that's fantastic,
would love to work on that.
>> Amelia Parks: Sounds
like a really good project.
Okay, we have another
question from Catherine.
The tested collections
seem to be mainly
from European or American areas.
Have you begun or are
planning to begin any research
on materials from
elsewhere in the world?
>> Fenella France:
Really good question.
So, we're still building it up.
And the answer is yes, we have
been slowly trying to acquire.
Because a lot of it is
new reference materials,
and I see a question,
we are actively collecting
new samples at this time.
And you raise a very good point.
That is a weakness
of our collection.
And but we would be
delighted to work
if you have specific
sources or resources
that you could point us to, I'd
love to hear more about that,
because you are absolutely
correct.
Apart from recreating some
of the historic recipes,
that's an area that
we're lacking in.
>> Amelia Parks: Thank you.
And I think, I think that
that may have answered Brian's
question as well.
So, yes, we are actively
collecting new samples.
>> Fenella France: That was
also a fun experience for staff
over the last year when we
couldn't really buy things
for the labs that we
could actually access
and source new reference
materials.
>> Amelia Parks: What are some
of the strangest places you
were able to source from?
>> Fenella France: I would
have to ask some of my staff,
because they [inaudible]
to that.
But it's been really
interesting, you know,
sometimes [inaudible] conference
a couple of years ago,
and I found that really
helpful because there were a lot
of European sources that
we didn't normally see.
And sometimes the challenge is
giving those into the country.
But, yeah, really interesting.
And actually [inaudible]
thank you.
This reminded me
that [inaudible] actually
put together a Japanese print
collection from [inaudible].
Didn't quite have time to
highlight in this presentation.
>> Amelia Parks: And Jake
made a great suggestion
about posting links
to the story maps,
but I don't have
those available.
And my internet connection
is a little bit wonky,
so I don't want to open
up too many windows.
But, yeah, the LOC story maps
are really great resources
for looking at some of these
things in a more narrative form.
Well, I do not see any new
questions coming in quite yet.
But Jake is passing
on a link to one
of those story maps right
there if anyone is interested.
Thank you.
And, yeah, so I think that
that concludes our presentation
for today.
Thank you all for joining us.
And I hope you tune in to
the last two preservation
link talks.
Thank you.
>> Fenella France: Thank you.
And please do, wonderful
suggestions, and we would love
to talk with you more
if you're interested.
So, thank you all for coming,
and very much appreciate
you listening.