Greenburgh Public Library Blog

The Care and Keeping of Books

One of my favorite activities as a library clerk is mending books. It combines my love of crafting and puzzles with my desire to recycle and reuse. It feels good to help squeeze a few more borrows out of a book, especially a well loved one. Let’s talk about repairing books.

There are many ways a book can be damaged. Pages fall out, tear or crumple. Someone writes or draws on it. Covers get worn. Spines break. Jackets rip. Worst of all, spills happen.

Some repairs are quick and easy. I love it when all a book needs to look its best is a shiny new cover. For fixing a single loose page or endpapers that are separating from the cover, a thin application of glue goes a long way. Loose pages can also be reattached by putting the book on a special device that softens the glue so the pages can be reset. (Yep, we cook the books. See photo on left) Special fabric and vinyl tapes help secure broken covers to their spines and text blocks. There are also archival tapes that help in repairing small tears on pages.

What we don’t use are tapes like Scotch tape or duct tape. These can damage books because the adhesive isn’t designed to be easily removed and they aren’t always acid-free. Some yellow as they age and can stain the paper.

Children’s books suffer a lot from overenthusiastic readers. If you don’t see a lot of pop-up or lift the flap books on our shelves, it’s because they are hard to keep in one piece. I try to reinforce the hinges on these fun books as best I can, but it’s hard to make a fix that will survive the next energetic toddler! Some kids also like adding their own writing or artwork to picture books. If we can clean it, we do, but most cleaning methods can harm the paper. If nothing can be done, we leave it alone and note the mark in the back of the book.

I find that damage from liquids is the hardest thing to fix. If the damage is from a liquid other than water, all we can do is replace the item. Sometimes we can iron out pages or stick the book under weights to flatten out the warping, but the book will always look a little wavy. We’re not miracle workers.

If you're interested in learning more about book repair, there are videos on YouTube to help you get started, like this webinar from Save Your Books. There is also an e-book available from Hoopla. Need help finding more resources? Give us a call at 914-721-8225.