In March earlier this year, I was honoured to visit the University Collections reading room at the University of St Andrews Library to explore some volumes in the collection which had been previously conserved. To give…
Rachel Nordstrom follows up here on her earlier post where she featured several of the daguerreotypes in the Library’s collections. Daguerreotypes are relatively rare in Scotland, and specifically so within the…
Within the Burgh of Cupar charters collection (B13) is a document dated 5 April 1487 recording the marking of the boundaries of land belonging to the Burgh of Cupar and that of George Claphaine of Kerslogy [Carslogie].…
Part of the Library’s Special Collections role in caring for its irreplaceable historic collections of rare books, photographs and archives is to develop and maintain an Emergency Response Plan. Our Emergency Response…
A tour around the rare books in the Library’s Special Collections reveals many volumes with bands of cotton tape tied around them. The white tying tape serves to warn staff that the ‘tied’ volume is physically damaged…
The University of St Andrews Library Special Collections Division routinely commissions practical conservation of damaged material from Icon-accredited conservators. As part of the division’s policy on conservation,…
In this week’s blog, Fatima Al Dhaif, a student studying for an MA in Conservation at Camberwell College of Arts, London, shares her experience of working on the conservation and analysis of one of the manuscripts from…
The Special Collections Division of the University Library has an ongoing programme of boxing and housing collection items in custom-made enclosures of acid and lignin-free papers and boards. These enclosures protect…
In part I of this post, we saw the pre-treatment condition of ‘Le Bosphore’ and ‘Sketches in Turkey, Syria and Egypt’. In part II, the Library’s Preventive Conservator explains the treatment process and results of the…
To start the New Year, we take a look at the conservation work carried out on two of our rare books, in this two-part blog. Two treasures from the Library’s Special Collections rare book holdings have recently been…