At the beginning of October i started a new job at the Dartmouth College Baker/Berry Library, formerly held by the fantastic and inimitable Beth Hetland. Exactly what I do is a bit confusing, so i'll break it down in two parts.
Part one, Preservation and Conservation:
I've been incredibly lucky here, as this is something I'm quite new at. Basically this is the book hospital at the library; books come through and need various repairs and re-binding. This is some fascinating stuff for me, and I am so incredibly pleased to be doing it five days a week.
To begin with my bosses had me make a sketchbook. The glue is dry now and I must say it's looking pretty darn nice!
The cover is some old figure drawings I had from my time at CCS. Let's see, what else... single folio cloth hinge... it's pretty basic, but so am I.
The other half of my job has to do with the library's "Digital Initiatives," which sounds interesting and actually is, too. Lots of adding to and working on the library's Digital Collections. I'm working pretty closely with the library's Special Collections (and the pres. department, natch) to make digital versions of some particular collections. Most recently I was transcribing and setting up the website for this little correspondence between the college and Dr. Robert Oppenheimer.
Notable quote from the good doctor: "...since I promised to tell you what was up, this is it."
It may lack the hands-on aspect of the preservation/conservation side, but it's still darned interesting and fun to work on!
And that's not even all of it! I'm also assessing a chunk of the library's 16mm film collection; mostly old football matches, but also, quite curiously, a lecture from Pauline Kael.
It's been, in a word, inspiring. There's always something interesting going on and my bosses have all been so incredibly wonderful in teaching me the ropes. As a result my comics work is flowing nicely, and I'm currently working on a project with my good buddy J. Montgomery. Here's some of his concept art:
The idea is an old one I've had kicking around, but talking about it with Monty got me seeing it in all new ways. I'm writing, he's drawing, and we'll be posting more about it in the coming months.
Sorry to brag, but everything's going great around here. Over and OUT!!!
