Caring For Your Books

15 Tips for Caring for Your Books:  Mary Baker Eddy Library 

Do's and Don'ts for Taking Care of Your Personal Books at Home, by New York Public Library:     www.nypl.org/press/dos-and-donts-taking-care-your-personal-books-home 

Let's Talk About Tape:  www.gaylord.com/resources/lets-talk-about-tape 

Family Bible and Book Preservation (video):  www.gaylord.com/resources/family-bible-book-preservation 

Guide to Collections Care (pdf):  drive.google.com/file/d/1aldP5wxQy4xVB0mFkFpjY0IhoEyznYfP/view?usp=sharing 

Text by: Gaylord Library Supplies         Demco PO Box 7488 Madison, WI 53707  www.demco.com

The Library of Congress also has information on the care of library books and family documents:  www.loc.gov/preservation/care/books.html 

Hollenger Metal Edge is a quality source for archival storage materials:  www.hollingermetaledge.com/ 

~ CLEANING BOOKS ~

Books are durable and last a long time, but over the years they can pick up dirt and benefit from a cleaning.

• The first step in cleaning a book is to determine what materials you are trying to clean. Many of the materials that go into books don't respond well to liquids and you want to be careful with old or rare books.

• Glossy modern jackets are the easiest part of a modern book to clean. We recommend rubbing alcohol (70 percent) to take off any marks and give them a general refreshing.  Note that some jackets are laminated on both sides, others only on one side. Be careful not to get liquids on unlaminated paper.

• Paper and cloth bindings may not be able to tolerate liquid cleaning. Use only a damp cleaning cloth. Or use alternative methods:

• A Staedtler white eraser (available from amazon.com) is an indispensable tool. Use it to clean up marks on jackets or in the books (pencil notes, used book prices, etc.), you can also use it to rub away adhesive residue from stickers.

• Use the eraser to rub away smudge marks on the page edges of the book.

• Also, use the eraser to rub away marks and stains on cloth and paper bindings.

• The top edge of books gets dusty over the years. Use either a microfiber cloth or a Swiffer dusting cloth to brush the dust off and away from the spine.

FOR MORE ADVANCED CLEANING OF BOOKS:

Removing old bookplates or other troublesome adhesives

• Try to use a palette knife with a smooth edge to get under one of the corners of the plate or sticker and delicately peel the sticker off. Depending on the age of the bookplate and the type of adhesive used, it may come off easily.

• If not, you might need to decide whether the book looks better keeping the bookplate of sticker looks better in place, possibly putting a bigger plate over it.

• If you proceed with the removal, there is a risk that the book will show permanent damage.

• However, you might try using rubber cement as a tool for one adhesive to attract and remove another adhesive.

• Or, a hair dryer sometimes works to "fry and dry" the adhesive; then remove the bookplate or sticker little by little.

MOISTURE DAMAGE IS A TRICKIER ISSUE:

Taken from: For the Love of Books: designing and Curating a Home Library  By: Thatcher Wine & Elizabeth Lane; Gibbs Smith, c2019