Library Preservation

Preservation Policy

The Harvey Library Preservation Department provides a range of conservation treatments to ensure the future usability of library materials.  The Preservation Department also consults with outside contractors as needed for bindery services and other services as needed.

 

1. All pamphlets receive auxiliary support to prevent structural damage.  Security tapes are added during this procedure.

1. Sewn Pamphlet Binding: Single-fold, circulating pamphlets are sewn into acid-free, lignin-free binders.  Sturdy pamphlets in Peabody and Reference are also sewn through the fold. Staples are removed to prevent tears and rust stains.  Japanese paper guards and “free guards” (non adhesive) are used as needed to reduce the stress of sewing.

Pamphlets are never glued into binders, because the edge of the glued strip creates a sharp edge that perforates the cover and title page (breaking edge).

2. Four-flap enclosures: Fragile pamphlets in the Peabody collection may be enclosed in custom-made or standard-sized four-flap wrappers.  Vulnerable pamphlets in Reference and circulating collections may be housed in four-flap enclosures as well.

3. Shelf files:  Standard-sized pamphlets in the Government Document depository are housed in acid-free, lignin-free shelf files, rather than individual binders.

4. Comic books:  Comic books that are in a pamphlet format may be left in their original formats and housed in polyethylene, polypropylene, or polyester L-envelopes, using an acid-free backing board to prevent creases and dents due to handling.  Staples may be removed and replaced with stainless steel or monel staples, if necessary.  Usually, such items are housed in Peabody to provide security and to reduce the risk of improper handling.
5. Old pamphlet housings: All materials in old, acidic pamphlet binders (usually brown, having a Gaylord label inside the back cover). These will be re-housed. If the old housing has old bookplates, the cover or bookplate can be saved and housed with the pamphlet, but in an additional envelope that is attached to the new housing. The old housing should in no way be placed in such a way as to have direct contact with the pamphlet.

 

2. As per the Collection Development policy, paperbacks are not routinely bound. 

1. Acceptable Uses of Tape: Repair solutions are based upon the original book structure, and all efforts are made to avoid “breaking edges” from pressure-sensitive tapes.  Polypropylene book tape with a non-yellowing acrylic adhesive is only used as a “last resort” for plastic-coated paperbacks or plastic-coated hardcover books (usually textbooks).  Interior repairs to the textblock and hinges do not include tape.

2. Commercial Rebinding of Paperbacks: Buckram is preferred for bindery cases, because Vinabind and other such plastic coatings cannot be repaired by any conventional means.

As resources permit, purchased paperbacks are routinely sent to the binder in “shelf-ready” processing, but “gift” books are only rebound after circulating. See the Bindery Policy for specific binding standards and selection criteria.

3. Rehousing of Paperbacks: Fragile or valuable paperback or softcover books are rehoused in custom boxes and four-flap enclosures. Polyester dust jackets may be needed for some of these items (particularly for French imprints).

 

3. Detached pages and errata are tipped in using a thin line of PVA alone, PVA/paste, PVA/ methylcellulose, or cooked starch paste alone, depending on the fragility or importance of the volume.

1. Selection of Repair Adhesives: Circulating materials are tipped with PVA or PVA mix.  Flexibility may be required for thicker papers, so a hinge-in may be selected over a tip-in.

Peabody collection materials are usually hinged with kozo paper and wheat starch paste.  Very weak older papers may be hinged with a paste/methylcellulose mix for greater flexibility.

Cellulose ethers are used alone or in combination with other adhesives. Klucel G (hydroxypropyl cellulose) and Ethulose (ethyl hydroxyethyl cellulose) are used with ethanol; Klucel G may also be dispersed in propan-2-ol.  High molecular weight methyl cellulose (Dow A4M) is used as an adhesive, yet lower molecular weights may be more useful as sizing agents. Dow A4M is typically employed as a poultice in removal and reduction of other aqueous adhesives.

Rhoplex and Lascaux acrylic adhesive dispersions may be reactivated with heat or organic solvents when non-aqueous adhesives are needed.  Acrylic dispersions may also be used to replace PVA dispersions.  Archival heat set tissue (Crompton’s or Neschen) may be used with heat or ethanol for some items.

2. Tipping-in Multiple Pages: Multiple cut pages and photocopied pages may be double-fan glued with PVA. Replacement pages requested through interlibrary loan are copied, double-sided, onto the appropriate weight of acid-free, lignin-free paper with the correct registration before use.

3. Replacing pages: Replacement pages are oriented to the correct grain direction in printing or photocopying to reduce planar distortions upon adhesion. In practice, this may require copying or printing to a larger sheet with the correct grain, followed by trimming to the correct dimensions.  Handmade paper may be required to replace pages in some volumes

 

4. Sewing through the fold is the preferred leaf attachment.  Conservation procedures are designed to retain this attachment. 

1. Textblock Consolidation: Loose signatures are resewn using linen thread.  Cords, headbands, and cloth tapes are replaced or reinforced as needed to provide a sound structure.

2. Rounding and Backing:  A job-backer and hammer are not available to reshape rounded spines.  Bone and Teflon (PTFE) folders are used for gentle shaping. A layer of kozo paper and paste or photographic grade gelatin may be applied as a release layer to facilitate reversal of some repairs using synthetic adhesives.

 

5. Tear Repair: Page mending is performed with the same adhesives listed under section III.3 (tip-ins). 

1. Use of Paste: Wheat starch paste (cooked, precipitated wheat starch) is the preferred adhesive for all tear repairs.  Some overlap tears may be mended using semi-dry paste, without additional paper reinforcement.

2. Use of Tapes for Tear Repair: Some ephemeral circulating paperbacks may be mended with Neschen filmoplast, which is not fully reversible and may create a breaking edge.  This material is not appropriate for use collections of enduring value. Generally, softcover textbooks in subjects with high turnover (e.g. nursing or computer science) might be suitable candidates for taped repairs.

3. Use of Non-aqueous adhesives: Glossy papers may require non-aqueous adhesives.  See section III.3.A above.

4. Shaping of Repair Papers: Mending materials always have feathered or chamfered edges to prevent breakage at the perimeter of the repair.  Kozo, Gampi, and Mitsumata papers are water-torn to feather their edges.  Some repair paper edges may be scored with an awl or the dull edge on the back of a scalpel, in order to create a feathered edge.  Very thin Tengujo repairs may be dry-torn to reduce distortions.

Western rag papers should be chamfered with a #15 scalpel or similar instruments to bevel their edges.

5. Criteria for tear repair: Tears smaller than ¼” may be left without repair, depending on the location and risk to text or structure.

 

6. Torn endsheets are repaired, if the tear does not affect the super layer.  A security tape may be added during this treatment and adhered to the surface of one of the boards (usually the rear board).

1. Criteria for endsheet repair: Endsheets are replaced when they are torn severely (more than 20% of the length of the hinge) and the book is more than one inch thick (approx. 2.5 cm). Endsheets are glued for small books and sewn for oversized books of any thickness.  Sewing is optional for smaller books and is done at the conservator’s discretion.  If the super, cords, or binding tapes are damaged, then the structural repair must be performed first, sometimes resulting in removal and replacement of the endsheets.

It is essential to open the front and back covers of books during physical processing to detect any problems with endsheets before they require total replacement or recasing.

2. Preservation of Original Endsheets: Decorated endsheets, maps, and charts are saved whenever possible.  Some informational endsheets may be scanned or photocopied onto acid-free, lignin-free paper as replacement endsheets.

Old bookplates, barcodes, and other attachments are peeled from the old paste-downs and attached to the new ones.  Blank bookplates may be discarded.

 

7. Spine repairs are normally performed by lifting the covering near the spine and sliding the repair under the original cloth or paper. 

1. Criteria for Spine Repair: Suitable candidates for a spine repair are hardcover books with a cased binding, where the outer hinges are torn, but the inner hinges and sewing are intact.  Any loss or damage that is larger than ¼” on the spine should be reviewed for repair. 

Any damage to the structure attaching the case to the textblock is another category of repair, such as recasing or rebinding, not spine repair.

High value bindings may be minimally stabilized and boxed in lieu of spine repair.

2. Standard Spine Repair: Buckram spine replacement includes a new paper spine liner, a new spine stiffener, and a new strip of buckram.  The old spine title and labels are retained, if possible. Headbands are retained and reattached, if necessary. Security tapes may be added during this treatment.

3. Repair to Leather Bindings: Leather spine repairs are evaluated on a case-by-case basis (major leather repairs may be contracted out).  The Harvey Library is only equipped to perform minor repairs using toned kozo and airplane linen.  A large inventory of colors and types of skin (goat and calf), along with an assortment of leather paring knives and a finishing press are required for significant leather rebinding operations.

4. Special Collections Spine Repair: Spine repairs on special collections will be performed so as to retain as much as possible of the original covering material.  Toned kozo paper and airplane linen are used to reinforce damaged spines.  The goal in repairing Special Collections is to use a minimalist approach, neither adding nor removing significant amount of material.

 

8. Recasing or rebinding may be required when there is extensive structural failure, resulting the partial or total detachment of the textblock from the cover.

1. Criteria for Recasing: If the sewing or other leaf attachment is intact, but the connection between the cover boards and the textblock is broken (torn super, broken cords, etc.), then the item can be recased.  Minor areas of broken sewing can be reinforced to avoid rebinding.

2. Criteria for Rebinding:  Any book with broken sewing or broken sewing supports may be a candidate for rebinding.  Adhesive bound books with multiple (30 pages or more) “tip-ins” also require rebinding.  The bindery policy addresses specific criteria for commercial binding.  In-house binding is preferred for any “rushed” items, in order to better meet patron needs.  Otherwise, commercial rebinding may be more cost effective for circulating books. 

 

9. Tape removal is frequently needed to permit new repairs. 

1. Tools for tape removal: A heated spatula with the rheostat in the “low” position will release most pressure-sensitive tapes.  The heat must be controlled with a rheostat to prevent burning.  Heat should be minimized or avoided with modern plastic-coated book covers.

Teflon splitters, carbon steel Casselli spatulas and stainless steel microspatulas may be used to remove some tape carriers from temperature-sensitive items.

2. Adhesive Reduction: Adhesive residues are reduced with white vinyl erasers, such as Magic Rub and Mars Plastic.  Care is taken to limit the amount of surface area in contact with these moderately-abrasive materials.  While both types of eraser are bulked with calcium carbonate, the Mars Plastic is the more abrasive of the two.

Crepe erasers (rubber cement pickup) may be used, if the white erasers prove ineffective. Care must be taken to avoid removing printing inks or roughening the paper’s surface.

Some residues may be further reduced with solvents.  Books are not returned to circulation with exposed tacky adhesives.

 

10. Aqueous adhesives are reduced with controlled applications of moisture.

1. Poultice Materials: A poultice of paste, methylcellulose, or enzymes may be employed in adhesive reduction, if plain deionized water is insufficient.

2. Steam: Spines may be cleaned using steam, if cold moisture cannot swell the adhesive. 

 

11. Washing is not routinely performed, because bound materials must be disbound for washing.

1. Wash Water: Individual sheets may be washed in deionized water conditioned to an alkaline pH with Calcium Hydroxide (or Ammonium Hydroxide or Magnesium Bicarbonate).    Tap water is not used for washing, because it contains iron, copper, and chlorine.

2. Selection Criteria for Washing: Only Peabody materials are washed, unless special request is made by Collection Development Librarian. 

3. Precautions for Washing: Colored inks are tested for stability before washing.  Coated papers usually cannot be washed without loss of surface gloss and possible loss of media.

 

12. Bleaching is not routinely performed, because it requires that the items be suitable candidates for washing.

1. Chemicals Employed: Bleaching is restricted to filtered light (oxidizing), hydrogen peroxide (oxidizing), and sodium borohydride (reducing).  Other reducing agents may be used, as they become available.  Oxidizing bleaches are only used with proper precautions to prevent cellulose damage or color reversion.  Sodium borohydride is the preferred bleach, based upon its reducing reaction mechanism.  Chlorine dioxide, hypochlorites, and other halogen-containing bleaches are avoided in the Harvey Library.

2. Selection Criteria for Bleaching: High quality rag paper responds best to bleaching treatments on foxing stains, tide lines, etc.  Colored inks, watercolors, and glossy coatings may be altered during bleaching.  Darkened, brittle wood pulp papers tend to respond poorly to both washing and bleaching treatments.

 

13. Whenever practical, items will be rehoused without treatment.