iConference 2012 | Workshop 9
Workshop#9: Hack Your Books: Conservation and Library Science in Hackerspace (half-day, afternoon)
Time: 2 pm-5:30 pm, Tuesday, February 7.
PLEASE NOTE: This workshop will be held offsite at Site3 at 718R Ossington Avenue (just south of Ossington Subway). The alley, behind the church, in the building with the red door.
Organizers:
Tarquin Peter Steiner, MLIS Student: Archival Studies, School of Information Studies, McGill University, Conservator, The BookRook, Au Deuxieme Studio Collective, FouLab Membe, Bookbinder, CBBAG;
Halley Silversides, MLIS Student: Archival Studies, School of Information Studies, McGill University;
Alex Leitch, Site3, Co-Optimism Coordinator,B.Eng Graduate, University of Toronto
Description: Hackerspaces are relatively new developments in the DIY, "Maker," and hacker communities. The hackerspace ideals of open-source collaboration, DIY approach to intractable problems, and commitment to documentation of process has many reflections in the world of library science. It is in this space that Tarquin's work resides - by adding the advice, experience, and technical expertise of hackerspace members, the expensive supplies for physical conservation of books and paper can be reconsidered and re-sourced, becoming less costly and more widely available. Collaboration with members at Montreal's Foulab have produced chemical treatments for paper that can be conducted with those available at a local drugstore, and traditionally expensive bookbinding tools from cheap Home Depot components. The digital medium associated with hackerspace culture allows the easy dissemination of these "HOWTOs" to conservation professionals the world over, from Toronto to smalltown Alaska.
Participants should be those interested in open collaboration over a wide degree of technical topics, concentrating on book and paper conservation from digitization to chemical preparation. The workshop will outline outline the basic tenets of working a hackerspace and the opportunities it can provide, over an open and free crafting environment.
The ramp-up: the workshop will take place off-site at Toronto's Site3, a hackerspace that concentrates on fabrication and design. The organizers will bring materials, as well as several HOWTO documents for the construction of an open-source vacuum table. The participants will be allowed to build one of these tools quickly from pre-fab parts and work with the coordinators on using it to re-size damaged and brittle paper. They will be introduced to members of Site3, and encouraged to point out and re-engineer problems with design with help from these members.
Participants will also be allowed to work with the second piece of material. They will be presented with a reel-to-reel tape reader, damaged polyurethane and acetate tape, and given an overview of the conservation issues that face this medium. There will a short discussion regarding this medium's place in archives, format migration, and storage. They will then be presented with (non-toxic, cheap, and widely-available) chemical techniques and materials - such as catalysts for rehardening the tape's binding resin, or reverse-hydrolysis - and encouraged to work with each other combining methods and treatment procedures to produce the best result.
Alex will act as facilitator, as well as giving a brief introduction to the space and what it's like to work there. As a member of Site3, she is experienced in building dialogue around fabrication. The participant's impressions and techniques will be developed into a wikispace, freely (but briefly) available online. Participants will be encouraged publish their results on the public forums they deem relevant, under a "hacker" pseudonym. The final result will be a document designed to help the group of participants address archival preservation through the new societal developments of the open source and hacker movements, DIY design and engineering, as well as exploring libpunk themes of self-reliance and autodidactism.
