I’m a research scientist and I’ve worked in a laser, microscopy, or spectroscopy laboratory (and sometimes a lovely combination of the three) for the past seventeen years. The last five of those years I’ve been lucky to call myself a Chemist at the Library of Congress, working in the optical properties lab of the Preservation Research and Testing Division. Now you may be asking yourself (and you certainly aren’t alone in wondering) just what exactly is a chemist doing in a library? You may be surprised to learn that scientists are working away behind the scenes in many museums and institutions that house our cultural heritage, but I want to share my favorite, material research and identification.