I’ve been making some pint-sized models of various housing possibilities for our collections. This is one that is basically a book tray with a lid. It has a low lip in the front, to make removing books from the box much safer.
Ummm… …okay, that works I guess.
1936. Book Repairs at the Urbana Free Library Works Progress Administration Photographic File. Pictures from the Urbana Daily Courier, Champaign County Historical Archives, Urbana Free Library. [x]
Sometimes being a book conservator means you have to do a little dental work on Dracula’s fangs. This is a pop-up book that’s going into an upcoming exhibit in our library – unfortunately, one side of Dracula’s teeth had become detached and pushed back into his mouth. Using tweezers, I carefully unfolded his teeth, and […]
This was a book that was damaged by a dog, and “fixed” with packing tape by a patron. And this is also why the staff at the library will often stress that patrons should not attempt their own repairs of library books. The “repair” often does more damage than helps, and won’t actually save you from […]
Back in 1977, one of our library staff literally stapled some replacement pages into this book. It got the job done, but the results are not that ideal, as it makes it hard to read those pages and could tear the original pages they are stapled to. But this was way before my library had […]
(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpp12fPvkHA) This is an excellent video that shows the damage a ‘quick and easy’ amateur repair can cause to a book. I’ve seen multiple examples of both of these types of “quick fixes” on books in my library. Not only do they fail to actually repair the book in an effective and long-lasting way, they cause […]
Today I’m working on a treatment that is basically the rare book equivalent of cleaning under the couch cushions. This 2-volume herbal was used by a previous owner as a plant press, and many leaves, flowers and other assorted plant parts were discovered in-between its pages by our special collections librarian. The plants had already […]
How not to fix a book, example #47.
sonofahurricane: npr: conservethis: Roses are red, Violets are blue, If you put tape on your books, I’ll never EVER love you. As a book-lover I support this valentine. -Mabinty can someone explain to me why we hate tape on books? Like book tape (when my mom could spare it) has saved a couple of my […]