Preservation Laboratories

The Library’s capacity to preserve its rich collections is greatly expanded in this 6,000-square-foot space, which includes Conservation and Digitization laboratories. Together, they allow the Library to conserve collections for future generations, while providing worldwide access to digitized collections online. Both laboratories serve all campus libraries, handling materials in both the general and special collections.

Conservation Laboratory 

The Conservation Laboratory is used to provide an extensive range of physical treatments that help to preserve materials in their original formats. Treatments range from simple paper mending to complete rebinding of a book. 

A specialized paper washing sink and fume hood for chemical treatments are used alongside traditional book binding equipment to conserve original artifacts. Mansueto’s expanded conservation space and new equipment allow for more sophisticated treatments of items on site than was previously possible at the Library. 

Digitization Laboratory

In the Digitization Laboratory, Library staff members convert many types of paper-based materials to more stable and useable digital formats. The original materials range from printed books and manuscripts to photographs, maps, and archival collections. 

Equipment includes a Zeutschel overhead scanner capable of digitizing both bound and flat material in a face-up position. Flatbed scanners are used to capture photographs, manuscripts and other flat items. A large format digital camera can accommodate oversized and fragile items during scanning.

Learn more about the Preservation Department.