Preservation Services

Our Conservation Center provides conservation assessment and treatment for books, papers, photographs, and works on paper for both general and special collections.

We repair, bind, and make enclosures for more than 5,000 items in the UW Libraries each year. This care helps to preserve, stabilize, or restore the usability of book, paper, and photograph materials.

We prepare collections for use, digitization, exhibition, and loan to ensure that collections are stable and protected during handling and travel.

We collaborate with the PNW Conservation Science Consortium and help researchers to learn more about our collections by using magnification, ultraviolet light, and portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF).

Learn more about our work:

• How the UW Libraries Bring Damaged, Rare Books Back to Life
• Poison Book Project: Arsenic In Victorian-Era Bookcloth At The University of Washington Libraries
• UW Libraries New Conservation Center
• We love the digital world, but there’s nothing like an old-fashioned book
• Leafcasting and conservation of a 17th century music manuscript
• Shelter and Sanctuary: Customizing Protective Enclosures

We lead the response to collections emergencies and coordinate collections emergency planning. Planning, preparation, and risk management help to minimize or prevent extensive damage to the UW Libraries’ irreplaceable collections.

See also UW Emergency Procedures and UW Emergency Management.

We also participate in the Seattle Heritage Emergency Response Network and National Heritage Responders.

We create digital facsimiles of unique, rare, or fragile UW Libraries collections for preservation, access, and publication. By doing so, we expand access to the UW Libraries’ culturally and historically significant collections so they are more widely available. We work exclusively with the UW Libraries collections.

We work with vendors and use in-house imaging equipment to digitize materials to industry standards. UW Libraries digital collections can be found primarily in the UW Libraries Digital Collections, HathiTrust, and University of Washington Newspaper Archive.

Learn more about our work:

• Seattle alternative music magazine The Rocket makes its return (King5)
• UW Libraries Preservation Department: Rare Music Digitization

We manage a digital preservation repository that ensures long-term accessibility and bit-level preservation of the UW Libraries’ digital content.  The repository currently has more than 100TB of content and 1 million individual digital files.

We use Archivematica and its microservices to prepare files for redundant, geographically dispersed storage in Amazon Web Services.

We also support migration of data from UW Libraries obsolete media (e.g. from 3 ½ and 5 ¼ floppy disks).

See our Digital Preservation Policy and Recommended File Formats for more information.

We use more than 30 dataloggers to capture environmental data from collections storage and exhibition areas.

We use the data collected to document and to optimize these collection environments, and to advocate for improved environmental conditions. We do this to improve the long-term preservation of the UW Libraries’ collections.

We use eClimateNotebook to analyze our environmental data and a mix of PEM2 and HOBO dataloggers.

We support two internships each year:

• James Leland Dirks, Jr. Preservation Intern

• Rare Book and Library Materials Conservation Intern

James Leland Dirks, Jr. Library Preservation Intern

Established by James Leland Dirks, Jr. in July 2012, the James Leland Dirks, Jr. Library Preservation Endowed Fund provides students in the UW Information School with hands-on learning in preservation.  Applicants are expected to have a demonstrated interest in preservation and to be enrolled in the UW iSchool or Museology graduate programs.

Depending on the interests and strengths of the intern, they may contribute to a number of preservation initiatives including collections disaster planning, improving collections care, environmental monitoring, surveying or reformatting vulnerable collections, or preserving digital assets.

This is a part-time (10 hours per week) internship during the academic year (fall through spring quarter).  The position is typically advertised in late summer or early fall on the UW Libraries Library Jobs page.

Read about the 2025 Dirks Preservation Intern, Toni Heilman

Rare Book and Library Materials Conservation Internship

This internship is for an individual with a demonstrated interest in the conservation of books and archival materials.  The intern will have the opportunity to develop their conservation treatment skills and portfolio using diverse special collections from the UW Libraries working mainly under the supervision of the Senior Conservator of Books and Paper.

This is a full-time (40 hours per week) summer program.  The duration is 10 weeks, with exact dates to be arranged between June and September 2025.

We are looking for interns who:

• Have good hand skills and attention to detail.

• Are interested in pursuing a career in the conservation of library materials.

• Have some previous experience with sewn book structures.

• Are actively preparing for or enrolled in a graduate level conservation program.

• Have a portfolio of work to share that includes examples of bookbinding, artwork or other hand crafts, and/or other conservation experiences.

Affiliation with the University of Washington is not required, but please note that we are unable to sponsor a visa for this internship.

The position is typically advertised in late fall or early winter on the UW Libraries’ Library Jobs page and the American Institute for Conservation’s Global Conservation Forum.

Read about the 2025 Conservation Intern, Hadley Nelson

We prepare materials for library binding to extend the life of worn, damaged books and to provide support for materials that are not easily shelved without damage. In addition, binding thin journal issues together makes it easier for library users and staff to locate them, as the title and call number are clearly marked on the spine.

We send about 6,000 volumes a year for library binding.

Library binding uses specific materials and methods to make sure the books last as long as possible and are easily used by readers. We follow the ANSI/NISO/LBC Z39.78-2000 (R2018) Library Binding Standard and Guide to the ANSI/NISO/LBI Library Binding Standard as much as possible although recent changes in cloth production have led to some changes in materials available.

We preserve more than 850 unique sound recordings, video tapes, and moving image films a year. These valuable research materials are often at high risk of loss due to the inherent instability of the recording media and the obsolescence of the playback equipment.

We provide the expertise necessary to safely handle, store, and transfer a wide range of media formats using either in-house equipment or vendor services according to widely accepted standards and best practices.

Marking or Shelf Preparation prepares library materials for shelving and use by:

• applying call number labels
• marking library ownership and providing security tags
• setting aside damaged or vulnerable items for repair or rehousing

We use labels that conform to the Library of Congress Preservation Supply Specifications. This helps to ensure that labels do not fade or become illegible. It also ensures that labels stay adhered to library materials while causing minimal damage.

Preservation staff provide:

• preservation education and tours
• internships and directed fieldwork opportunities
• care and handling training for UW Libraries staff

We also participate in:

• preservation initiatives in the PNW such as the Seattle Heritage Emergency Response Network and PNW Conservation Science Consortium
• National organizations such as AMIA and National Heritage Responders