by Audrey Sage

When the university expanded the library in 1974, building the iconic tower in the what was the center of campus at the time, they included a wonderful conservation and bindery lab. There it has remained in its basement location for these last fifty years. The conservation staff has provided the care, maintenance, preservation, and restoration for thousands and thousands of items in the university library collections throughout the decades. Ron Duer was the first manager of the division in the 1970s, followed by Jimmy Thompson and Jack Stratton during the 1980s. When Jack Stratton became the preparator for the Weatherspoon Art Gallery in 1991, Audrey Sage was hired, and has remained these last thirty-three years, becoming the senior conservator when Jimmy Thompson retired in 2008.

These walls have witnessed many changes, have welcomed hundreds of students as apprentices in the craft of bookbinding and rare book restoration, evolved with the use of technology and the introduction of the world wide web in the late 1990’s, heard hours upon hours of laughter, music, and technical conversations. Audrey and Jim spent the years from 1993- 2000, counting down each day until Y2K, on an eight foot long wall chart, and throughout the years from 1980 to the present day, it has been the home of the famous bindery doughnut.

For decades, the conservation division letterpress printed all the signage for the library, custom setting special signs for events and announcements as well as for directional information. With the increase of technology and computer printing in the 2000’s, this was no longer needed. The lab continued to provide preservation for the general circulating collections, reference materials, music library binding and maintenance for the many collections. The division began to increase its work for the Special Collections, rare book restoration, manuscript preservation and archival enclosure construction, among other things, providing secure and complex treatments for specialty items in house.

With the Jackson Library renovation beginning in January 2025, the Conservation Lab must now close its doors in the tower and relocate temporarily to a suite of rooms in the North Spencer dorm for the duration of the renovation. As things have been packed, shelves emptied, furniture sent to the surplus warehouse or moved to the new location, many memories have been revisited of the many students who have long since left this campus and embarked on their own life journeys as educators, bread bakers, handmade paper makers, bookbinders, musicians, visual artists, and countless other exciting careers.

The Conservation Lab continues to mentor students as they pursue their learning in a wide variety of fields. Audrey Sage supervises students as they work to preserve library materials, complete their practicum, capstone and graduate masters projects. She teaches them the fine skills of bookbinding, book structure and variations, specialty enclosures and restoration of all sorts of materials. It is exciting to welcome individuals who have a passion for learning and want to develop the skills of the craft of bookbinding, carrying their talent forward and preserving the knowledge for future generations.

Although it is bittersweet to close the doors on Room 61 after half a century of good work, good times, and so many good people, we look forward to the new changes and the updated library for the future learners and creators.