The MIT Libraries’ Wunsch Conservation Lab provides comprehensive care for materials held by the Department of Distinctive Collections. The staff is equipped to carry out a variety of conservation duties in accordance with the code of ethics and guidelines for practice set forth by the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.

Conservation does not make decisions around the state of an artifact or its housing by themselves. It is always 100% a conversation and decision made with the custodial liaison (member of the processing team). 

Common Supplies

TBD.

Workflow

Pre-Custodial

Before transfer of materials, photos of the material in situ and notes describing their condition should be created. Notes created by the curator or collections staff should indicate any concerns about where the materials came from (e.g., basement, garage, leaky attic, specific building on campus). Wunsch staff can be called upon to assess collections before they are moved to DDC or immediately after if there any concern. Appraisal decisions may be influenced by the presence of moldy, odorous, and/or water damaged material.

During Accessioning or Processing

Make note of items that may need conservation treatment (large, fragile, odorous) in a work plan or in ArchivesSpace (use processing notes). Flag the item and box using strips of acid free paper so it can be located later. Paper strips for flagging materials are provided by conservation staff.

Consulting with Conservation

When processing collections, it is better to bring multiple items and/or concerns to conservation for a consult rather than each item as it is found. An appointment can be made by emailing conservation staff. Wunsch Lab also has a drop-in consultation time on Thursday mornings.

Tracking Materials

Chain of custody, as well as a list of actions to be taken are documented in a sign-in book in Wunsch Lab. Additional information forthcoming.

When to Bring Materials to the Conservation Lab

Materials should be brought to conservation staff when they...

• ...cannot be foldered or fit in standard size boxes. Custom housing and interior retrofitting can be done by appointment. Staff will want to know the space in which the materials will be ultimately housed, and any limitations to container dimensions (maximum, height, width, depth).

• ...smell bad. Materials that smell bad may be moldy and should be processed under the fume hood. 

• ...have visible mold or mildew. Conservation will want to view the materials under the fume hood and place carbon pieces with it.

THE BELOW IS STILL IN DISCUSSION - MAY LINK DIRECTLY TO PRESERVATION DOCUMENTATION

Intro to Wunsch Lab

When to flag and bring to conservation

• Flag for conservation

• Mold - they can put it under the hood and put carbon pieces with it

Common supplies

Wunsch - how they label things, common supplies across all of IASC (bigger discussion)

Workflow:

Pre-custodial:

Could consult on acquisitions

Post-custodial:

Tagging records that come out of collections

JUST Archives NON-BOOKS-archival ingesting

!.) Conservation does not make decisions around the state of an artifact or its housing by ourselves. It is always 100% a conversation and decision with the custorial liaison.

We don’t throw original materials away and give those items back to the custodial unit.

Your archival team needs to own your part of the partnership.

1. On campus- selected archival material and

1. List of items that are stored on campus, all these records

2. Corporation

3. Office of the dean

4. Oversized

2. OFF-HD-What is at HD? 27,000 boxes (they could be paige, flat, doc boxes, etc.)

1. HD will have anything that has the lid that goes all the way down

3. OFF-Iron Mountain-1 accession MIT video productions (MVP) formerly AMPs

1. We don’t know how big this is, possibly 400–500 boxes

2. What is in our on campus storage space?

1. On campus

2. Off campus