of interest:
| Current DD Discussion Series |
| Festivals and Events |
| If you like...
|
| |
Tips
for Preserving and Older books, especially those which are valuable, either financial or in sentiment, need special handling to preserve for years to come. Damage to books creeps up - it is cumulative. Repeated incorrect handling will ruin a book, making it unusable. Here are a few simple, yet effective tips for keeping your precious books in top form: 1. As you have wondered through a museum or an archive, have you noticed the boxes with dials and readouts? These are placed to measure the environment of the surrounding area because temperature and humidity matter. Both will will accelerate deterioration. So be careful where you store or display books. High humidity in an attic or basement can promote mold growth and attract insects, not to mention rippling pages. Low humidity, which is often caused by hot radiators, will dry leather bindings.Walls which lead to the exterior of the building also can be higher/lower in humidity and temperature so placing books along interior walls is better. 2. UV light fades leather and cloth! This includes sunlight and some artificial lights. Keep your books out of direct light, both sunlight and spotlights. If you notice blue leather starting to look green or red leather turning brown, especially at the spine, get it out of the light. 3. Your hands are not a book's friends. Handling books allows the oils from your skin to accumulate. This in turn attracts dust and dirt. For valuable books, wear cotton gloves to handle. 4. To further fight dust and grime, keep your books in closed cases. The best choice is metal shelving but barrister bookcases will work well. These should be sealed with a moisture-borne polyurethane or have the shelves lined with glass, Plexiglas, or an inert metallic laminate material to prevent materials from coming into direct contact with the wood. The glass fronted doors are ideal for books. You can even have UV filtering glass installed! Just air out every few months if they are not opened often to keep gases from building up. 5. Be gentle. Support the covers when books are open. If a book will not flat, don't force it. Get out of the habit of pulling the books off the shelf with a finger in the top of the spine (or the head cap). Instead, push the two adjoining books inward and grasp the book by the spine. 6. Placement of books on a shelf can increase their longevity. Place similar sized books next to each other to prevent the warping of the taller books. Books should be shelved vertically or horizontally depending on the type of book they are:
Volumes shelved horizontally should not be placed in stacks higher than 6" or more than three volumes high. (The thickness of the volumes will determine if one, two, or three volumes may be placed in a stack). As with vertical storage, similar sized books should be stacked together. Large volumes should never be stacked on smaller volumes. The books should be fully supported to prevent warping. In all cases, books should not extend beyond the edges of shelves and don't pack them in. They should be loose in the shelves. 7. Some book owners like to make notations, dedications, etc. in their books. While this is not encouraged, there is a way to do it so it is less detrimental to the book. Use a pencil for all marks. Pens will often leak through pages. Do not use paper clips to mark pages as they may rust and will crimp pages. Dog-earing, or folding down the corner of a page to mark it is also not a good idea as this will eventually cause the page corner to break off. To mark pages temporarily, use a white paper strip or white cotton twill tape. 8. If the book is already falling apart, do not bind it with string or rubber bands. This will cause the pages to warp or crimp and will leave marks. Temporarily, you can use white cotton twill tape. The best way is to put the book into an archival box. These can be custom made to the exact size (ideal) or you cn use a retail one which is a close match in size. 9. If a deteriorating, flaking leather cover is a problem, the covers can be wrapped in paper or polyester jackets. This will keep the fragments and dirt from flaking off further and onto hands and other books. DO NOT oil or leather dressing as this can have an adverse effect and is no longer recommended by book conservators. 10. Protect dust jackets. These are an integral part of the book and for valuable and/rare books, they may be what makes a book valuable or rare! There are commercial dust jacket protectors available and using these is a great idea. They will protect the jacket from tearing, folding, and fading. 11. If your books need conservation, you can find one through The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. The preservation procedures described here have been used by the Library of Congress in the care of its collections and are considered suitable by the Library as described. |
