Sorry it has taken so long. Here is a link to my Powerpoint on In-
house Book Repair saved as an html file and with notes visible.
http://home.comcast.net/~rfoust150/BookRepair/BookRepair.ppt.htm
Below are my original "target" and the responses. Thanks again to
all who replied.
My original "target":
> I've been given the opportunity to do an inservice of basic book
> repair techniques that can be done in-house. I'm going to be
> covering techniques that you can do in-house with a minimum of tools/
> equipment/supplies, but that can help lengthen the life expectancy of
> the books. (I was fortunate to have some training in this in my
> university's preservation/conservation department.) What I'm curious
> about is the following:
>
> What in-house repairs, if any, do you do?
> Do you ever send books out to be re-bound or do you prefer to replace
> the damaged/worn copies with new?
> What kinds of equipment/supplies do you have on hand for repair
> (i.e., do you have a book press, special archival tapes/adhesives...)?
> Have you found special tricks/repairs that work great for you in the
> school media setting? (i.e., I know some of the techniques we did at
> the university level aren't necessarily effective or needed, either
> cost-wise or time wise, in the school library setting)
The responses:
> I have brushes, a flexible but strong glue from Demco, Book repair
> tape, clear and colored cloth type. I also obtained some
> hypodermic needles which I fill with glue and shoot down into
> spines that are not totally shot.
>
> While I do try and mend, so many of my books are loved to death and
> not much is going to resurrect them. I tend to replace really worn
> out books with PTA funding.
>
> I have never sent a book out for rebinding and to be honest I am
> not sure who I would send it to or how much it would cost. I
> thought you did that only if the book was out of print, used often
> and obviously not replaceable.
> I have been doing book repairs for many years as a Para and TA in
> the library and am looking forward to your HIT and PowerPoint. I
> just want to do it the RIGHT way.Bottom line, we want these books
> to last the test of time and abuse.
> Generally, I do prefer to replace damaged books with
> new but if possible I try to save money by repairing
> first.
>> What kinds of equipment/supplies do you have on hand
>> for repair
>> (i.e., do you have a book press, special archival
>> tapes/adhesives...)?
>>
> I have a book press, but otherwise nothing special. Just various
> tapes, a lot
> of glue, and elbow grease.
>
>> Have you found special tricks/repairs that work
>> great for you in the school media setting?
>
> Nothing special, no. Just common horse sense and being a bibliophile.
>
> Right now, I have some VERY BASIC repair supplies. . . several
> different sizes of clear book tape, one size of skinny filament
> tape, book glue, and rubber bands. I'll either glue or tape pages
> back in with the filament tape, or glue a spine back on and put
> rubber bands around it, or tape rips in pages. If it can't be
> fixed somewhat with the supplies I have, I don't fix it.
> Basically, I just try to get the book repaired enough so that it
> won't fall apart for the next kid that checks it out, and I only
> have repaired items I've noticed during circulation this year.
> >I tape torn pages, glue spines and apply book tape to strengthen
> them.
> I usually send about a dozen books out for rebinding each year.
> These are usually very popular titles, mostly nonfiction books, and
> they are not easily replaced. Rule of thumb is that if I can get
> it new for just a few dollars more, I'll buy new instead.
> Rebinding is not cheap! I have a basic Kapco kit that I won in a
> workshop drawing a couple of years ago. I use the Kapco glue and
> 3M book tape for minor repairs. I also use the Kapco rubber bands
> for holding books that have been glued. I don't attempt major
> overhauls.
> I find that the best practice is to repair small problems when they
> first cross my desk and that prevents or delays more major
> repairs. I keep good book tape at my circ desk and set needy books
> aside until I have a minute to repair them. I usually do one or
> two a day. I often have to reinforce paperbacks that are showing
> excessive wear. I never do more than tape spines on those. When
> they get too ratty, I toss them and buy new if usage warrants.
> I cover paperback books with wide, clear tape (AFTER putting spine
> labels, barcode labels, etc. on). Some white glue on the spine to
> take care of a textbook that has been damaged, or to glue a page
> back in, is the limit of my repair work.
> Generally I replace books when they are that badly damaged. My
> thinking is that if the book is old and damaged it probably is
> outdated. New books that are severely damaged are paid for by the
> student (or teacher) who damaged the book, and then the book is
> replaced because we just bought it. NO special supplies or
> equipment here. I did have those at my old school, but that was
> left from when they were both a high school AND a junior college,
> with appropriate college staff. The college division closed
> several years before I came, and I was a one-man show.
> We repair torn pages, loose signatures, endsheets loosening, torn
> spines etc.
> We do send books to a bindery occasionally. If we can replace it
> at a reasonable cost we do that. Primarily we send things to the
> bindery only if it heavily used for some part of the curriculum and
> is no longer available (OP). No book press. 845 tape, Norbond
> glue, single and double stitched binder tape. We are a school
> library so do not usually bother with archival supplies---not cost
> effective. Quite frankly we don't intend for books in a school
> library to last for 100 years.
> 3m booktape and a bottle of bindart are the extent of my book
> repair. If those don't fix it, I toss and get a replacement. I
> only send books to the bindery if they are OP. Sometimes if only a
> paperback replacement is available I send the new paperback to the
> bindery to become a hardcover. That costs around 15 dollars. Some
> books like Eyewitness, Waldo , World Record Books are notorious for
> falling apart and I reinforce the binding with book tape before the
> first circ.
>
Ronda Y. Foust
School Media Specialist in Training, UTK
rstansb2@utk.edu
Oak Ridge, TN
http://thebookdragon.blogspot.com/
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