In this long overdue blog entry, I’ll recount the work I’ve been doing and the experiences I’ve had as a student assistant at Special Collections over the past month. I’ve been assigned with the conservation and digitization of the Friendly Association Papers, a collection of documents from the mid-eighteenth century that chronicle the efforts of a bunch of Philadelphia Quakers as they sought to arrest the escalating violence between Native Americans and settlers in Pennsylvania . The Papers contain a fascinating mix of journals, letters, minutes of conferences, receipts of trade between merchants and Native Americans, land deeds etc. The details of this effort to resolve conflict by  fiercely  advocating pacifism are worthy of several separate blog posts. For now, I’ll focus on my role in preserving this collection for posterity.

Within a few days of starting my job, I was left wondering about the extent to which the alkalinity of a solution of ammonium hydroxide decreases after a container of it is left open overnight. Let me backtrack and elaborate on my duties to shed some light on how I managed to land myself in such a quandary. I alternate between working in the main Special Collections section located towards the back of Magill and the bindery on the library’s 1st tier.

In Special Collections, I operate the camera-stand shown on the left to photograph the documents after they’ve been treated in the bindery and catalog the images before they are uploaded online to Triptych, the tri-college digital library. All of the above tasks take place under the watchful eyes of Anne Moore, the Digital Collections Librarian, and Bruce Bumbarger, the Library Conservator responsible for the bindery. The bindery is a pretty neat place, containing books and manuscripts in varying stages of disrepair as well as housing the hardware and chemicals needed to treat these books and bring them back into a satisfactory condition. The ammonium hydroxide I previously mentioned is one such chemical used in the conservation of the Papers to insure the documents are thoroughly de-acidified before they are re-housed. Besides being treated with ammonium hydroxide, the documents are also put through a series of baths (pictured above) to make them less brittle and remove the iron in the ink responsible for the corrosion endangering the documents. Recently, Magill hired two summer interns (one of whom is the possessor of the appendage in the right picture)  specializing in library conservation to speed along the process of conserving the Papers. Hopefully, you’ll be hearing from them soon.

In my time at Haverford, I’ve developed the lucky habit of meeting interesting people in the most random of places. My streak continued when I ran into David Cook, MD, class of ’64 in the bindery where he occasionally volunteers. I remember a conversation with David in which I was really struck by the numerous changes Haverford has undergone since he was a student here. Apart from the obvious dearth of XX chromosomes, there were many open areas of land that are now carrying the weight of buildings which we take for granted, including Gummere. After being forced to live there in the 1st week of summer, I have to say that sounds like a reasonably fair trade-off, even though I’m sure most of my peers would beg to differ. Anyway, I’m veering off-track now. It just seems really cool that an alumnus  has continued to maintain such a close association with the college after the elapse of such a long time. I can only wish that I have the same relationship with Haverford long after I graduate.

Treasured documents and artifacts held by Haverford College Special Collections will be preserved for future generations with help from the IMLS Connecting to Collections Bookshelf, a core set of conservation books, DVDs, and online resources donated by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the primary source of federal funding of the nation’s museums and libraries.

Special Collections has been awarded this essential set of resources based on an application describing the needs and plans for care of our collections.  The IMLS Bookshelf focuses on collections typically found in museums and special collections. It addresses such topics as the philosophy and ethics of collecting, collections management and planning, emergency preparedness, and culturally specific conservation issues.

Haverford’s application emphasized the ongoing care our collections receive under the stewardship of Library Conservator Bruce Bumbarger.  Bruce’s own personal library provides guidance on specific conservation treatments, but the IMLS Bookshelf will provide more depth in terms of general preservation-related information.  Additionally, the Bookshelf will prove to be a worthy resource which we can share with our Tri-College counterparts at Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges.

Our greatest challenge to date is providing adequate housing for our materials. Storage space has reached capacity for some portions of our collection. During the coming year some pressure will be relieved by the reconfiguration of approximately 1600 square feet of general stack space into an annex to our Special Collections.  Still, this newly converted space will require careful monitoring to ensure the longevity of such precious materials.

Haverford College Special Collections is responsible for maintaining the college’s unique and rare materials.  The principle collections include the world-renowned Quaker Collection, college archives, rare books and manuscripts, and fine art.

Special Collections has just completed improving access to a major part of the pamphlet collection – the writings of Quaker authors. Pamphlets, minor works and ephemeral writings from the 18^th century to the present are to be found in this collection. Almost 1,000 records have been added to improve scholarship into this under-utilized resource.

Previous to this time users could only determine our holdings via an in-house card catalog file that had suffered the inconsistencies of time and generations of different librarians. Materials were housed in acidic environments and many items were inappropriately placed, or duplicated cataloged texts.

Every item of each box was evaluated to insure that the material matched the scope of the collection. Duplicates were placed in the duplicate collection, parts of series were cataloged for the stacks and some important, even rare materials were identified and placed appropriately. Thanks to the industry of Joan Powell all the resultant materials were re-housed in acid-free folders and boxes, ordered and accurately labeled.

A Tripod record was created for every Quaker author with a listing of the titles of his/her works under a series title of “Selected Writings of Quaker Authors.” These records will be found via searches on author, title and keyword. Users can now accurately and easily determine what materials may enhance their study.