Description: We all have the opportunity to support the Smithsonian—come see how the Libraries and Archives Adopt-a-Book program offers a chance to do so.
Description: When a television channel asks to film our collections, we want to show them at their best. Read how we accommodate media requests while keeping our collections safe.
Description: Though a large part of our collections are flat—that is, they are unbound materials as opposed to bound, three-dimensional objects—a significant group of our holdings do live in bindings and book structures (some of my previous blog contributions have dealt with books, but none with as great a degree of intervention). Treating a field book became more complicated—and more
Description: Our treasures can pose significant—and often unexpected—challenges, like when a map has been attached to a hotel linen. See how our staff tackled a complex intervention in progress!
Description: Handwriting is a personal passion of mine, despite it having become something of a lost art. Today, when most people think of handwriting at all, it is as a greatly individual method of writing recognizable characters, regardless of the writing system, but in the past, when you could make a living as a scribe, there were highly standardized styles.
Description: Being away from the office for over a year has given us a lot of opportunity to think about what workflows will look like once we are able to return to our collections, especially for conservation and digitization.