Library Blog

Conservation Corner: Celebrate Preservation Week

Monday, April 25, 2016

Preservation Week is April 24-30Preservation Week was created by the American Library Association (ALA) in 2010 to bring attention to the staggering number of items in collecting institutions that require care. According to a 2004 survey conducted by Heritage Preservation, there are 1.3 billion items that are known to be in need of conservation treatment, while 30 percent of institutions’ collection items are in unknown condition. This week is intended to illuminate the importance of preservation, and encourage the spread of up-to-date information.  

Books awaiting treatment at the New York Society Library. Help is on the way!

Of course, Preservation Week is every week here in the Conservation Department. Modern preservation practice encompasses a wide range of activities, from monitoring environmental conditions, preparing for collection-related disasters, and providing instruction on the proper handling of materials to the hands-on conservation of artifacts. Preservation as a formal field came into its own in the last century; however, people have been caring for their materials (or at least attempting to) for much longer than that. There are quite a few books in our collection that showcase earlier efforts at collections care. 

The notice below was pasted into a 1586 copy of Sylvia Vocabularum, probably around the year 1800, in an attempt to stave off the common threats to library books at the time. (This would include being torn apart by children, soiled by servants, or the completely understandable urge of patrons to insert their perfectly correct thoughts into the margins.)  Can we attribute this book’s current fine condition, unmolested by either children or servants, to this notice? 

 Decimator Sylvia vocabularum

 

Mother Goose in Plaid

Modern conservators attempt to create repairs that are unobtrusive, with materials that are sympathetic to the original object. The repair on this 1849 copy of Mother Goose in Hieroglyphics by George S. Appleton quite boldly does the opposite. This is not a criticism; “historical” repairs can be quite interesting in their own right, and older ones are often only removed if they are causing damage in some way. The blue plaid cloth and haphazard sewing, while not a choice a modern conservator would make, has indeed held the book together, and gives us a glimpse into the past life of this well-thumbed book.   

A sewn parchment repairIt is unclear when the repair of the upper lefthand corner of the cover of this parchment book from 1623 was performed, but it seems to have held up quite well. It is not unheard of to find hand stitched repairs on parchment books; they can be quite intricate, though can sometimes have a somewhat Frankenstein quality. (It is worth checking out Eric Kwakkel’s Tumblr post which highlights some stunning historical repairs on parchment.) Tears in parchment can be caused by use, or are sometimes the result of the original processing of the skin; a contemporary conservator would generally use a reversible adhesive such as gelatin or isinglass rather than stitching.  

 

 

 

Still holding it together

To the left is an example of a limp vellum binding which makes use of a repurposed musical score as a cover. This early seventeenth century Dutch medical book has been stab-sewn at some point in an effort to hold it together. While this repair has succeeded in keeping the book in one piece, it is now impossible to open fully. In addition to being an inappropriate style, the new sewing obscures the original sewing structure. (This photograph is of the back of the book; if you look closely, you can see another sewn repair.)  Unfortunately, this repair can be viewed as a form of damage; luckily, in this case, it is possible to reverse.

The green bookcloth repair on this 1687 copy of Chirurgorum Comes by Alexander Read would be a thornier challenge to remove without damaging the degraded leather below. It is fairly common to see shelves of books repaired this way; this particular type of green cloth was apparently de rigueur in library circles for a period of time. It is a shame to see the spine of this seventeenth century book essentially erased; however, we should also consider the possibility that the cover boards might have been lost entirely without it. 

A common  library repair

There are too many example of different types of book repairs over the centuries in our collection, ranging in sophistication and effectiveness, to include here. Preservation Week is a good time to reflect on how much attitudes towards collection care have changed, and to consider how future generations will perceive our current efforts. (We hope they will look back kindly!)

 

 

 

 

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