Recently, acquisitions of the library of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) seem to include more and more ''perfect'' bindings (adhesive bindings). CCA would prefer to buy more durable books, but if the content of a book is good, we need to add it to our collection even if the binding quality is poor. As a result, Conservation receives more and more broken adhesive bindings. Sometimes the text block has split away, fully or in part, from the spine. Sometimes the strip of spine adhesive has broken along the centre of the spine and the book flops open along this break. Sometimes individual pages simply begin to fall out, although the spine and text block have not broken apart.
We try to reduce the chances of damage by providing the library with a few consultation cradles which lightly squeeze the spine together while the pages fall in open in an arc over the curved ''wings'' of the book cradle; however, these cradles only fit bindings of a certain spine width. And we haven't made enough of them for all the book consultations that are taking place. Our books are valued as real CCA collection materials, to be preserved as objects. They are not acquired only for their information value. But I don't know what to do about the deterioration of these poor quality bindings. How do other book collections deal with this problem? Do some libraries still try not to buy poor quality adhesive bindings? Do any libraries send poor quality bindings out to be commercially rebound when they are purchased? (We haven't done that here for 20 years and I don't even know if a service still exists for it.) Do some of you have staff trained in book conservation and repair. (We no longer do.). Do you send damaged books out to a book conservator? Does your paper conservation staff just do its best to repair these books? Is there a workshop somewhere for paper conservators to learn basic book treatment techniques? Do the books simply remain broken? And - is there a library conservation discussion list that I should know about, where I could submit my questions? Thanks. Karen Potje Chef, Conservation/Restauration Head, Conservation/Preservation Centre Canadien d'Architecture 1920, rue Baile, Montréal, Québec Canada H3H 2S6 514 939 7001 x 1236 www.cca.qc.ca<http://www.cca.qc.ca/> ****** Unsubscribe by sending a message to consdistlist-le...@cool.conservation-us.org Searchable archives: http://cool.conservation-us.org/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/
