This last week has been pretty hectic! As might be expected when working with a wide range of people and departments, not everything is complete and I am racing to get as much done as possible before wrapping up my internship. The box order decisions have all been made and one last confirmation means that the order can be submitted and paid for. The last detail is to coordinate getting the department credit card information to process the order.

This whole process has taught me about balancing the needs of conservation with the realities of budgets. Fortunately, money that was initially earmarked for another collection in special collections could legitimately be re-directed to this purpose. As my mentor said, the donor of the original money would no doubt be happy to secure the safety of some of the most fragile items in the collections without sacrificing the stability of the items they donated. It seems an excellent compromise.