Behind the Scenes at NYPL's Conservation Lab

Drenching a piece of paper in water and alcohol to help save it? It's all in a day's work at The New York Public Library's Barbara Goldsmith Conservation Lab. Watch this full-length video, which is part of an exhibition currently on view at the library called "Mapping New York's Shoreline."

[@KrisRyanStallard]

Thank you librarians for all you do!

[@rarejer]

Very interesting! Thank you for the tour.

[@kyumaghma388]

quite interesting and thanks for sharing - and thanks for using your skills, krafts and arts to preserve these precious documents

[@migranthawker2952]

Fascinating!

[@aichaeicha8763]

Thank you 💞

[@g-r-a-e-m-e-]

Very interesting, and inspiring too!

[@surjitsinghbookpaperconser6523]

great work

[@brushstrokesfineartllc1208]

Not sure why the rinsing of the paper after treatment does not take effect in this video. Do you rinse the amoniated, ethanol solution? Only the broken down materials show on the blotter but you don't expand on the rinsing of the paper. I would appreciate a response from The New York Public LIbrary

[@Retroscoop]

Are all these things first tried out on less important old documents, to see how spraying liquids etc. will actually react with the paper ?

[@kaylam6474]

Conservators perform a technique called "spot testing" which is using a solvent (water, acetone, ethanol, etc.) on an inconspicous area of an original document to see how the media/paper will interact with it. They usually start from the weakest to strongest solvents. However, it doesn't ensure the paper won't react differently when it is treated with larger amounts of the solvent. Testing on other documents would help to see how the solvents could react, but it wouldn't help as far as testing for a specific document because more than likely, the paper type and media of the original is completely different from the others. There's so many layers to it!

[@guillermoj.dhiriart2422]

Muy bueno. Gracias.

[@carlotta4th]

Very fascinating! I have procedural questions though, should you remove the surface dirt before any sort of water treatment (so as not to pull it further in the fibers)? Also, it looks like she is gluing the japanese paper on top of the document, wouldn't the back be preferable so it isn't as obvious? I'm curious if those things don't matter or if this specific document had restrictions requiring them.

[@brushstrokesfineartllc1208]

Japanese paper or Kozo paper is see through, and either way the mat will be covering it when back for display and conservation is complete.

[@HouseholdDog]

Late reply. Generally they lightly brush it with a goat hair brush to remove any loose surface dirt. Compressed air is also used.

[@bobwhelk2118]

That was cool

[@aichaeicha8763]

😍✨✨✨

[@robertobonillamoreno2839]

Y porque no usan protección para agarrar los documentos?

[@Kitkatbar9721]

Cuando trabjas en este campo siempre te limpias la anos antes, durante y despues de tocar un documento. Algunos docuemntos como los que se han presentado en el video no estaban en un estado de deterioro extremo y podían manipularse con facilidad, por eso seguramente no utilicen protección para moverlos o tocarlos. (Te lo digo por experiencia)

[@sabaumair717]

I am from Pakistan archive deperment plse sher me some experience

[@DailyJobsClasses]

I am conservatior