NYU Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department

04/25/2025

We are celebrating Preservation Week at NYU Libraries. We have two events open to the public - follow the link to learn more and RSVP

Join NYU Libraries for events celebrating American Library Association, Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures’ annual Preservation Week.

08/07/2023

We will deactivate this Facebook account at the end of August 2023 and concentrate our social media activity on our Instagram account. See you on Instagram

04/05/2023

Class session on examination and conservation decision-making for Professor Paula McDowell’s Archives, Monuments, and Cultural Memory course

02/13/2023

Today in the lab a nice example of a paste-laminate board from a binding of “Leviathan” by Thomas Hobbes (1651).

The first images shows a single repurposed sheet that has delaminated from the rest of the board. In the second image, a detail of the repurposed sheet exposing a fragment of a printed image.

text: Lou
photo: Lou

01/17/2023

When our colleagues from visited, we went deep on film scanning workflows considering cleaning and prep work, frame lines and overscans, and color correction and “neutralization”. There’s no better way to learn than with colleagues who find themselves down similar 🎞️paths.

12/22/2022

Happy holidays, everyone! 🕎🎄❤️❤️❤️🖤💚💚💚 We just got a big item on our wishlist: new environmental data loggers!

12/01/2022

No food in lab? Jess has made a customized housing for a book made of edible cheese.

“20 Slices of American Cheese” by Ben Denzer ( ) has 20 pages of Kraft cheese slices. Published in 2018 by Catalog Press in New York, the book is in 6 libraries according to the WorldCat.

After consulting the artist, Jess replaced the old slices that had perished and blackened. To preserve the cheese and discourage mold growth, Jess put the “fresh” book in a sealed box with an inner micro environment of low humidity, maintained by silica gels packed on the bottom of the box. Spare cheese slices are purchased and frozen for future replacements.

11/29/2022

Student appreciation post. 3rd year student Peiyuan showed Pre-program student Elsie how to make wheat starch paste.

11/28/2022

Lindsey inspecting painted leaves with student Alexa.

11/14/2022

Alexa rehousing Kevin Kennedy’ scrapbook Kevin Kennedy Papers AIA.063 Alexa found Kevin’s photocopied hand from 1964 behind some clipping

11/11/2022

A very special welcome to the newest member of our Preservation & Conservation team, Lindsey Tyne! Lindsey, our new Conservation Librarian, will supervise the book and paper conservation program.

Our entire department, featured here 👋🏼, is excited to have her on board.

Happy Friday!

11/04/2022

Do you have questions about how to best preserve audiovisual materials, books, photographs, art on paper, or other kinds of objects? ! Post your questions in the comments below. We’ll be answering questions all day today on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter so follow the hashtag to participate.