‘Understanding and Caring for Bookbindings’

Preserving the life of a good book for others to continue to enjoy!
(Photo: B. Gardiner)

My colleague Audrey has kindly detailed her experience of a training day in the British Library in London called Understanding and Caring for Bookbindings. While searching for details of the day I came across an interesting set of videos which the Preservation Department in the British Library produced. They include the best ways to handle books and other collection items, including a short article on the use of gloves when handling collection items.

A word of caution if you are watching the videos, don’t assume there is a problem with your pc or laptop when you discover there is no sound! It appears the videos were designed to be shown in public areas of the Library and therefore have no associated sound. Yes I realised that only after I had tried to diagnose and fix the problem! Still they are worth checking out and I know we had some queries in our library recently regarding the correct handling of books to help preserve the collection, so for those interested please check the videos out at your leisure. In the meantime enjoy Audrey’s interesting account of her day.

***Posted on behalf of Audrey Kinch, Special Collections – Russell Library & John Paul II Library, NUI Maynooth***

On the 7th of November 2013, I attended a training day in the British Library in London called ‘Understanding and Caring for Bookbindings’. The event was held in the Centre for Conservation in the British Library and it was hosted by John Webster from the conservation centre. There were three guest speakers, David Pearson (Guildhall Library), Jane Pimlott (British Library) and Roswitha Ketzer (British Library). The aim of the training day was to help librarians and archivists understand the types of bindings in their collections and to provide guidance on handling and describing bindings and on appropriate conservation techniques. As part of the session, we were also given an overview of the history of Western book bindings with examples displayed from the British Library collections.

David Pearson delivered the first presentation called Binding types and structures and their significance. David is the Director of Culture, Heritage and Libraries at the City of London Corporation and he has written numerous books about book history and book binding. The first part of David’s talk was entitled ‘why book bindings are interesting’ and the second was ‘what bindings are made of’.

The second presentation was delivered by Jane Pimlott. Jane is the preventative conservator in the British Library and her talk was entitled ‘handling bindings : the use of supports and protective enclosures’. Jane talked about the use of collections, the risks to bindings and the importance of using supports, protective enclosures, book-ends and trollies.

The last speaker on the day was Roswitha Ketzer of the British Library. Roswitha is the Collections Conservation Quality Manager at the British Library. Roswitha’s presentation highlighted some of the causes of deterioration to rare books which include handling, air pollution, insects, pests, UV light, high temperature and low humidity.

After the presentations, we were given a tour of the conservation centre and were introduced to staff there before we finished for the evening. It was my first visit to the British Library, it is a wonderful place and it was a pleasure to meet some of the staff.
After the training day, I visited the Charles Dickens Museum and I went on a Jack-the-Ripper walking tour – both atmospheric on a chilly November evening!