PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 23, No. 8, Oct. 16, 2003

UI’s first 50-year employee not ready to retire

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
(217) 244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

Photo by Bill Wiegand Half-century of service Carolyn “Jane” Gammon is the university’s first employee with 50 years’ service. Gammon, who is conservation assistant in the conservation and preservation laboratory at the UI Library, has no plans to retire yet because she enjoys preserving the library’s collection and passing on her skills to students and other people in the community.

Carolyn “Jane” Gammon, conservation assistant in the conservation and preservation laboratory at the UI Library, is being honored this year as the university’s first 50-year employee.

After graduating from high school in Mount Vernon, Ill., in 1953, Gammon joined the staff as a library clerk in the binding and preparations department, where she rebound books and periodicals. Several years later Gammon transferred to the mending department, as conservation was known then, and through on-the-job experience and workshops with industry professionals began learning how to restore and protect printed materials against common “enemies” like light, heat, water and insects.

Over the years, Gammon has helped repair and preserve thousands of books, maps and other documents. When minor disasters like broken water pipes and the flooding of Boneyard Creek saturated materials in libraries around campus, Gammon spent many long nights and weekends gently washing materials and drying them out to prevent further damage from mold and warping.

Gammon introduced new technologies like deacidification, a process of chemically neutralizing acids in paper, and encapsulating pages between sheets of Mylar to extend the lives of fragile materials and prolong their availability to library patrons.

Gammon has passed on her skills and knowledge through speaking engagements with community organizations and by mentoring Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts as they pursued their merit badges in bookbinding. Through her private work, Gammon has preserved materials for local historical societies, museums and individuals, including one client’s cache of letters that her grandmother had exchanged with a lover during World War I.

After half a century on the job, one might think that Gammon would be ready to retire, but she intends to keep working.

“It’s been suggested that I could retire and then come back and volunteer,” Gammon said. “But I still like the work itself and like to be busy. So many people who retire then try to find volunteer and other work to keep themselves busy. I figure, why not just continue with the same thing that I know how to do? I feel that I am valuable to the library and that I’m making a difference by still being here.”

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