As part of the UGA Law Library’s celebration of Preservation Week, we finalized our Process of Preservation project.
Initial announcement of The Process of Preservation, Nov. 30, 2015 post on A Library With a View (UGA Law Library blog),
The project was also referred to as the Edenfield materials because of the connection to the late Judge Edenfield of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. The collection of severely damaged leather bound books were originally in the Savannah courthouse and then they somehow made their way to Statesboro, Georgia. No one knows how they were damaged but clearly they suffered extreme heat damage. The photograph shows their condition when I arrived to pick-up the collection.
To “do something with the collection” was important to Dean Bo Rutledge. I viewed that as a challenge and the library is nothing if not able to rise to a challenge. So we created the Process of Preservation program. We had two workshops with our leather conservator. They were opened to any interested parties and filmed. She also provided training to student workers.
The results were spectacular. Please visit the Georgia Law website for more information and photos of the repaired volumes. I will send a follow-up message when the workshop videos are posted. You can contact me at bradleys@uga.edu.