Fixing the books at the Library…
Posted October 11, 2010 at 1:36 am by Ian Byington
Library volunteer Donna Riley demonstrates how to make a book as good as new....
The other day I was visiting the Library, and Carrie at the front desk told me that folks were upstairs, repairing books. That sounded interesting, so I went up to see what was going on.
The spine of the book, starting to come apart....
There’s a little corner set aside for book repair, which can include all kinds of things, but seems to usually involve spine restoration, so that the pages will stay in.
There were stacks of books – novels, kids’ books, manuals, and more – that had been either overused, or torn, or were starting to go.
This year’ Friends of the Library president Birgit Kriete showed me around in the shop, and Donna Riley showed me how she glued a book back together.
Both of them said they were volunteers, trained by Edie deChadenedes, who has been helping out at the library for over two decades.
Glued back together, and ready to re-shelve....
Donna mentioned that one of the things that people can do to help this program is…don’t help. When patrons try to repair a book that’s falling apart (especially with Scotch tape repairs!) or with the wrong kind of glue, it often makes it harder to fix the book.
So, if you have a library book that fell apart on you, it’s best to just bring it in, for the experts to fix.
And it’s cool that we have these dedicated folks as experts – thanks!
You can support the San Juan Update by doing business with our loyal advertisers, and by making a one-time contribution or a recurring donation.
Categories: Around Here
One comment:
One comment...
I’d never try to repair a library book. But I used to have to put up with the horror of tape-holding-the-pages-in situation with my own books but then my sister got a binding machine. And now she has the horror of not-another-stack-of-paperbacks-for-repair, with a healthy does of why-can’t-you-go-to-Waterstones.
Call me sentimental but if a paperback can be repaired, I’ll have it repaired. New books just aren’t the same and old books are like old friends.
Well, I think so. I’m not sure my sister agrees. 🙂
By submitting a comment you grant the San Juan Update a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate, irrelevant and contentious comments may not be published at an admin's discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.