Book Repair: a How‐to‐do‐it Manual

Citation

Wiercinski, A. (2012), "Book Repair: a How‐to‐do‐it Manual", Library Management, Vol. 33 No. 4/5, pp. 334-335. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435121211242407

Library collections have experienced rapid transformation over recent times with digital content and collections often overshadowing the printed word. However, the reality for many of us remains with printed collections and in‐house maintenance. In Book Repair: a how‐to‐do‐it‐manual the authors, Kenneth Lavender and Artemis BonaDea, present a practical user guide for librarians, archivists and collectors, helping them gain the skills and knowledge to tackle archivally‐sound repairs to books and other printed works.

The authors aim to show readers it is possible to “accomplish an archivally‐sound repair with a little practice and forethought” (p. xiii) with the awareness that books need “the best care we are able to give them” due to “older materials deteriorating from age and use but also because newer materials are often poorly made and costly to replace” (p. xiii).

The book is comprised of descriptive Contents, detailed Introduction, and followed by six chapters, which are then further divided into smaller bites of instruction. Book Repair provides straightforward, concise and highly readable instruction, with many illustrations for clarity.

Topics follow logical progression from the basics – how to set‐up and inexpensively stock a repair station, paper cleaning, treatment of water‐damaged books and papers and removal of mould and mildew, paper mending, hinge and spine repair, protective enclosures and suppliers, resources, and a glossary. This revised edition contains “updates throughout each chapter, an all‐new flowchart for making water‐damaged book treatment decisions, many new information resources, a totally updated directory of suppliers, and an all‐new glossary” (p. xiv).

The Introduction lays the foundation for the rest of the manual, including a decision flow‐chart (to repair or not to repair?) and outlines the principles of conservation (goals which you should strive for when treating a book). Once the reader is familiar with the Introduction, the book is designed to be used as a ready‐reference manual, with each chapter guiding the reader from the start to the finish of an outlined treatment.

The chapters are uniformly set out, outlining the decisions you should consider when attempting a treatment, followed with the necessary supplies and step‐by‐step procedures to complete the task. The addition of many simple illustrations helps consolidate the written word. Unfortunately, the physical locations of many of the illustrations often leave the reader flicking through pages to reach an orphan paragraph. The chapters end with useful further reading, resources, and alternative treatment suggestions.

A limitation of the book would be its American focus, especially the suppliers, with only a couple of Canadian and one Australian resource in the appendix. The book would have benefitted with the inclusion of some international suppliers, disaster recovery specialists and/or local institutions which would lead readers to relevant local information.

Overall, this book offers a solid foundation for those engaged in book repair, with a vast amount of easy‐to‐read technical information. Also, the references located in each chapter and in the appendices, despite their American focus, are useful for providing further specialist knowledge to the reader. Whether readers choose to embrace the text as a whole or just pick‐and‐choose by topic, Book Repair: a how‐to‐do‐it‐manual is a highly recommended addition to any reference bookshelf, catering for a general audience and possibly the seasoned practitioner.