Digitization & Preservation

The Labconco fume hood is designed to contain and remove toxic and noxious gases, and other harmful airborne substances. The hood is 25" deep, allowing for most library materials to be treated inhouse. Staff may use the hood to apply spray or liquid chemicals (solvents, adhesives, etc.) safely that would otherwise leave residues or noxious odors behind, or to work with materials that are off-gassing (film negatives, moldy materials, etc.). The hood vents the air outside the library and has a glass shutter to protect staff from the possibility of backspray, splattering, etc.

The wooden top Jacques board shear is a heavy duty cutter designed to cut through heavy-weight board and batches of paper up to 1/4" thick. The shears come equipped with a sliding table gauge, a foot clamp, a back guage and a spring gauge.

The spray system is a pressurized spray unit designed to apply Bookkeeper's ™ Deacification spray liquid on acidic (but not brittle) paper collections. This is similar to the mass deacidification service currently being offered through Collections Care, but the spray system allows us to deacidify single volumes or items inhouse.

The ultrasonic welder (or encapsulator) is an archivaly sound process that places materials between sheets of polyester film, saving the materails from wear, tear, and exposure. The encapsulator can secure any document from the size of a postage stamp to an oversized wall map. It is also capable of internal, spot, and free-form wells, allowing several documents or irregular-sized objects to be encapsulated in separate pockets on a large polyester sheet.

The ultrasonic film splicer repairs broken 16mm and 35mm film by fusing the two ends together. The splicer works best with polyester based film, creating a seam no thicker than the original film. Ultrasonic splicing is archivally sound, as it does not use tape, cement, or other adhesives that would harm the film over time.

The laminator is a heated press that bonds lamination plastic to two-dimensional materials. The surface area is 18" x 15", limiting the size of originals that may be laminated at one time. Oversized materials may still be laminated, but only in 18" x 15" patches. Note: While lamination is not considered an acceptable conservation treatment, this process may be used for non-permanent materials such as publishers' book jackets and display signs.