The Vespiary Book Binding & Book Conservation

In preparing for my latest workshop, I wanted to provide a list of helpful resources and essays for my attendees, basic enough for the novice, but engaging enough for those wanting more.  I’ve gathered together here some of my favorite guides that discuss various aspects of book, paper and photo care, with a couple bonus links on book structure.  For you professional conservation folks out there, a lot of this will be well-traveled territory, but perhaps you’ll find a gem or two.

First off, the classic essay, “Your Old Books,” by Peter Van Wingen, previous chair of the Rare Books & Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries.  I like this essay because it is a very sensitive and gentle way of telling folks that merely because a book is old does not mean it is valuable.  He provides a lot of step-by-step advice for evaluation and potential sale of books.  I’ve got 2 links here, both from the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of ACRL, the first being a pdf leaflet, and the second a web link to the HTML version of the guide.

Next up, another PDF from the British Library called “Understanding and Caring for Bookbindings.” There’s a great cutaway diagram of book structure in this one, and more care info and references than you can shake a stick at.

When you wonder why the paper in some of your books is turning yellow, the Graphic Conservation Company will be of great help.  Their article, “Enemies of Paper,” details some of the reasons why paper seems to self-destruct on the shelf.  They use easy to understand section headings, i.e. “Acid is BAD,” and the equally graspable, “UV is BAD.”

How can you not love a resource called “Invasion of the Giant Mold Spore?“  SOLINET (The Southeastern Library Network) treats mold as the horror it truly is.  Preparation for mold defense sometimes sounds like a zombie survival guide (when viewing the zombie guide, replace “zombie” with “mold” and “human” with “book” and you’ll have a good idea for how quickly you need to move when dealing with a potential outbreak):

Don’t plan to wait out an attack without proper rations.  Zombies Mold may move quickly in the early stages of infection.  Don’t underestimate their speed.  Studies have shown that zombies mold react poorly to cold weather, causing them to become brittle and slow.

I had to have a Halloween link in here somewhere, right?

The Northeast Document Conservation Center has loads of preservation and conservation leaflets, and I’m posting the Photo Care one as an example.  You’ll be taking all your photos out of their old acidic scrapbook homes after reading this one.

Pete Jerman of TeMPeR Productions has thought WAY too long about Fangluing and I thank him for it.  His microscopic analysis of glue-binding appeals to my science-geek nature.  Part 3 of “Reflections on Book Structure” is the best of the bunch, IMO.

Lastly, the marvelous Book Model Collection of the University of Iowa.  After viewing the collection, it’s the only time I’ve wished Iowa was a little bit closer…