Book Repair for Beginners - October 20, 2008 at Greenville, SC. 
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INTERMEDIATE BOOK REPAIR: RECASING

Sometimes it is more practical to replace the cover of a book than to repair one that is damaged. This book repair session goes one step beyond spine replacements taught in "Beginning Book Repair" and teaches how to re-cover a book, using the old boards. The session will last all day, and participants will receive hand tools they need to do the work. Additional covering materials will be on hand for purchase, if your institution wants to begin work immediately.

Audience: This workshop is designed primarily for personnel who perform in-house repairs.

Fees: Fees include the cost of some tools you will take back with you, but you will have to bring some supplies to the workshop. A list of required items will be sent to each registrant, along with instructions on reaching the site. Please register early.

Your collection represents a valuable, even irreplaceable resource. The useful life of any collection can be substantially prolonged if staff and patrons just handle the items in it with care. Expensive art books won’t have to be replaced or rebound if they are shelved correctly. Reference works will last far longer if patrons do not crush them on standard copying machines. Manuscripts and maps housed properly in storage and supported carefully while they are being used in research will not have to undergo expensive conservation treatments. Proper storage and handling practices cost nothing, but they can save enormous sums of money.

Topics Covered:

• Guidelines for staff and patrons;

• Choosing archival quality storage materials;

• Shelving techniques for various media;

• How to mitigate the damage done by book drops and file cabinets.

Commercial binding is a routine expenditure in libraries and archives. A wise choice of commercial binding options can prolong the useful life of bound journals and any replacement bindings. Making the wrong binding choices can actually lead to the destruction of bound materials. This workshop is intended to give you the basic skills you need to make the best use of your binding dollars.

Audience: Directors, Technical Services staff, and all personnel involved in dealing with binderies.

Topics Covered:

• Choosing a binder;

• Binding Specifications/Standards;

• Choosing the correct binding process;

• Writing the bindery contract;

• Inspection of volumes after they are returned from the bindery.

Administrators often have no other choice but to microfilm bulky records and brittle books. It is an expensive process, and by law, many legal records must be retained in a permanent format. Manuscripts present special reformatting problems that can only be handled by highly specialized filming operations. How does one go about choosing a microfilming service wisely? How can one be sure that the microfilm is the right type for the collection’s needs? What are the warning signals that a film service vendor is not really qualified to do the job required?

Audience: This workshop is designed for any staff who order, process, or house microforms.

Topics Covered:

• Preservation microfilming standards--filming, processing, and storage;

• Selecting items for filming;

• Selecting the best service vendor;

• Assuring the quality of the filming service.

This short workshop will provide guidelines for using your conservation dollars wisely. Too often a manuscript, photograph, rare book, or irreplaceable document is the victim of inept, inappropriate, or unethical treatment by "conservators." This session will help you to make appropriate choices for conservation treatment and will help you find a competent, reliable conservator.

Audience: This workshop is designed for directors, preservation administrators, and personnel performing in-house repairs.

Topics Covered:

• Identification of items for which professional conservation is necessary;

• Selection of a conservator;

• Assuring quality and appropriate treatment.

Books that are fading, worn, or breaking apart may be beyond simple repairs, and you may not have money to send them to a conservator or bindery. But you can stop the damage from progressing too rapidly by constructing simple, sturdy wrappers called "phase" boxes. These devices keep loose pages from getting lost. They hold torn covers on. They protect very valuable books from light damage, dust, and mishandling. You will need to bring a few books from you collection and a few simple hand tools.

Audience: This workshop is designed for all personnel who perform in-house repairs.

Topics Covered:

• How to use protective enclosures;

• Designs for phase boxes;

• Simple wrappers.

The one conservation treatment administered to every item in your collection is the environment. Poor air conditioning, bad lighting, and slack housekeeping can destroy a collection. Good practices can protect it from unnecessary loss. This seminar will discuss the elements of a good preservation environment.

Audience: This workshop is designed for all personnel in the organization, building maintenance staff, contractors, and architects.

Topics Covered:

• Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning Systems;

• Security;

• Lighting;

• Pest Management;

• Housekeeping;

• Fire Protection;

• Building Inspections.

To maintain the good environment so essential to preserving a collection, you have to establish a good monitoring program. It can be simple, but it requires some special knowledge and equipment. It also requires a staff commitment over the long term. A well thought out monitoring program can help raise funding for better air conditioning systems and can create administrative support for care of the collections.

Audience: This workshop is designed for all personnel in the organization, building maintenance staff, contractors, and architects.

Topics Covered:

• Importance of a sound structure and constant controls;

• How to select monitoring equipment;

• Cost and sources of monitoring equipment;

• How to use and calibrate this equipment;

• How to use the information to raise awareness of environmental problems and suggest solutions.

Disaster Response and Recovery

Beginning Book Repair

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