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THE JOHNS HOPKINS
UNIVERSITY OFFICE OF NEWS AND
INFORMATION 901 S. Bond Street/Suite
540 Baltimore, Maryland
21231 February 18, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JOHNS HOPKINS MEDIA
CONTACT: Pamela Higgins 410-516-8337
CONSERVING
THE NATION’S CULTURAL HERITAGE MATERIALS The
Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries have been awarded $792,000 from the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation to launch a pilot program for post-doctoral fellows in
heritage conservation science. Two heritage conservation fellows will be
selected each year in an international competition to address a vetted
scientific research agenda during the two and a half-year initiative, based in
the Libraries’ conservation and preservation department. The
program will provide opportunities for the research fellows to collaborate with
faculty and students in the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering’s
department of materials science, the Johns Hopkins Museums, and area
institutions such as historical societies. Their investigations will
emphasize research relevant to materials in libraries, archives, and other
cultural heritage organizations. For
twenty years, libraries, archives and granting agencies have focused attention
and resources on collection care and mass preventive action, such as
environmental controls. While this approach has proven effective, it has not
afforded the opportunity for studies in materials science that would inform
specific conservation treatments and techniques. “The
Sheridan Libraries’ conservation program was the first in the country to
offer apprenticeships and internships to train conservators at the
bench,” said Winston Tabb, Sheridan Dean of University Libraries and
Museums at Johns Hopkins. “It is particularly fitting that at a research
intensive university like Hopkins we will now have the opportunity to
collaborate with our colleagues at the Whiting School—not only to
generate a new body of research, but also to invigorate and sustain the
profession.” The
creation of the post-doctoral fellows program was one of the recommendations of
a group of 23 internationally recognized conservators and applied research scientists,
convened in April 2008, to develop a detailed set of specific proposals to
address the research/development activities needed to conserve the
nation’s book and paper materials. An
integral part of the conservation fellows’ research
agenda will be engaging industry partners. “Conservators are dependent
upon the products industry provides to conduct conservation treatment,”
said Sophia Jordan-Mowery, the Joseph Ruzicka and Marie Ruzicka Feldmann
Director of Library Conservation and Preservation, and principal investigator
for the project. “Yet industrial products, their formulations, and their
applications are judged by how well they serve the conservator’s
needs. Engaging industry in the entire chain of production and application
will serve both the market and the cultural heritage organizations,”
Jordan-Mowery said. William
Minter, principal of Bookbinding and Conservation, Inc., will serve as the
senior project conservator. An internationally recognized conservator of
heritage collections for many U.S. libraries, museums, and archives, he has
successfully merged the roles of conservator, inventor, and scientist. More
than thirty years ago, Minter pioneered and developed the ultrasonic welder for
the encapsulation of brittle and otherwise endangered documents and art
materials. Now considered standard equipment in conservation labs, nearly 200
encapsulation machines are used for preservation at institutions around the
world. Minter has also conducted independent testing and review of conservation
treatments, evaluated long-term performance of industry products used by
conservators, and re-examined earlier research to determine the validity of
testing and research models. An
advisory board chaired by Jordan-Mowery and comprising experts from academic,
conservation, scientific, and industry sectors, will set the strategic agenda
for research and solicit calls for proposals from the scientific
community. Board members include William Minter, Jonah Erlebacher,
associate professor in materials science engineering at Johns Hopkins, Nels
Olson, an analytical chemist and former chief of the Preservation Research and
Testing Division at the Library of Congress, and David Grattan, manager of
conservation research services at the Canadian Conservation Institute.
The
board will review fellowship applications and recommend awards beginning this
spring for project initiation in the fall of 2009.
### Johns Hopkins University news releases can be found on
the World Wide Web at http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news Information on automatic E-mail delivery of science and
medical news releases is available at the same address. Sonja K.
Jordan-Mowery Joseph
Ruzicka & Marie Ruzicka Feldman Director
of Library Conservation and Preservation Johns
Hopkins University The
Sheridan Libraries 3400 N.
Charles Street Baltimore,
MD 21218-2683 Voice:
410-516-4383 |