Book Repair for Booksellers

By J. Godsey

A handy guide for booksellers and book collectors offering practical advice on how to improve the quality and look of your books and ephemera. Finally a book on book repair for the rest of us. Clear, easy to follow directions for repairing books at home or in the shop. Includes torn pages, shaken spines, library pockets, bookplates, stickers, crayon, writing, insects, leather care and much more. 80 pages.

Toolbox
Tools 10
Supplies 12
Erasers 14
Book Anatomy 17
Exterior
Dirty Book 19
Leather Treatment 20
Dry Leather 21
Leather Red Rot 22
Dirty Vellum 22
Dirty Text Block Edges 23
Dirty Dust Jacket 24
Wrinkled Dust Jacket 25
Augmentation
Stickers and Tape 26
Library Pockets 27
Bookplates 28
Writing 29
Call Numbers 31
Correction Fluid 32
Leaves
Loose Leaf 34
Torn Leaf 35
Folded Leaf 36
Loose Signature 36
Embossed Page 37
Missing/Damaged Endpapers 38
Missing Free Endpaper 39
Damaged Pastedown 39
Spines
Cocked Spine 42
Shaken Hinge 42
Weak Hinge 43
Cracked Hinge 44
Cracked Internal Gutter 45
Missing Headband 46
Missing Ribbon Marker 47
Split Spine (Perfect Bound Paperback) 48
Separated Spine & Cover/Torn Hinge (Cloth) 49
Boards
Bumped Corner 52
Bubbled Cloth 53
Discolored Cloth or Leather 53
Wet Book 54
Warped Boards 55
Hazards
Mold and Mildew 56
Visible Mold 56
Mold Odor 57
Unpleasant Odors 57
Acidic Materials 58
Testing 59
Deacidification 60
Insects 61
Protection
Dust Jacket Cover 63
Clear Book Cover 65
Text Block Wrap 66
Ephemera 68
Surface Cleaning 68
Removing Residue 69
Storing Ephemera 69
Self-Adhesive Albums 72
Storage
Shelving 73
Temperature, Humidity and Light 74
Shipping 74
Inner Layers 75
Outer Layers 75

• Language: English
• Publisher: J. Godsey
• Release date: Aug 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301297016

J. Godsey

J. Godsey, is a publisher, editor and ghost writer with Sicpress.com. She has been doing pet and wildlife rescue for over 12 years; as well as working with Animal Rescue Merrimack Valley in Massachusetts and Animal Rescue Veterinary Services of Londonderry, NH, and Wolf Adventure wildlife rescue and rehabilitation of Goffstown, NH. She has brought her experience with animal handling to her community's Community Emergency Response Team.

Book preview

Book Repair for Booksellers

A handy guide for booksellers and book collectors offering practical advice on how to improve the quality and look of your books and ephemera

by J. Godsey

©2009, 2013 J Godsey & SicPress.com

14 Pleasant St.

Methuen, Massachusetts.

[e-mail]

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author or publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, article, book, or academic paper

Table of Contents

Preface

Toolbox

Tools.

Supplies

Erasers

Book Anatomy

Exterior

Dirty Book

Leather Treatment

Dry Leather

Leather Red Rot

Dirty Vellum

Dirty Text Block Edges

Dirty Dust Jacket

Wrinkled Dust Jacket

Augmentation

Stickers and Tape

Library Pockets

Bookplates

Writing

Call Numbers

Correction Fluid

Leaves

Loose Leaf

Torn Leaf

Folded Leaf

Loose Signature

Embossed Page

Missing/Damaged Endpapers

Missing Free Endpaper

Damaged Pastedown

Spines

Cocked Spine

Shaken Hinge

Weak Hinge

Cracked Hinge

Cracked Internal Gutter

Missing Headband

Missing Ribbon Marker

Split Spine (Perfect Bound Paperback)

Separated Spine & Cover/Torn Hinge (Cloth)

Boards

Bumped Corner

Bubbled Cloth

Discolored Cloth or Leather

Wet Book

Warped Boards

Hazards

Mold and Mildew

Visible Mold

Mold Odor

Unpleasant Odors

Acidic Materials

Testing

Deacidification

Insects

Protection

Dust Jacket Cover

Clear Book Cover

Text Block Wrap

Ephemera

Surface Cleaning

Removing Residue

Storing Ephemera

Self-Adhesive Albums

Storage

Shelving

Temperature, Humidity and Light

Shipping

Inner Layers

Outer Layers

Vendors

Preface

Book repair for booksellers. Traditionally there are two types of book repair books: those where the end goal is to prepare the book for further intense circulation, and thus aesthetics take a backseat to durability; and those that focus on archival preservation and restoration of books of historical or monetary value. This leaves booksellers wandering in the desert, with a stack of books that aren’t valuable enough to send out for professional restoration, yet are too good to discard.

I have seen books repaired with book tape, duct tape, electric tape, and masking tape. I have seen rubber cement, white glue, airplane glue, superglue, and hot glue. I have seen them priced with stickers, ink, crayon, marker, and lipstick. And I have been asked to remove every bit of it. Some of these mutilations were done by people I know and respect in the field. I have even done a few myself: I did library-type repairs on books in high school and have been paying penance ever since.

I know a bookbinder who sells bottles of furniture polish and neatsfoot oil and calls it book crème. I know another who buys saddle polish and relabels it as a leather book treatment. And I know a bookstore that uses electrical tape to reback reading copies. There are better and less dangerous methods of repair however that are just as easy.

I will admit that not every book deserves archival quality treatment. That inexpensive copy of a book club bestseller without a dust jacket deserves a spiffy new outlook on life, but not to the extent of spending an hour of my life dry cleaning and redyeing it.

If you have 30 dollars into a 100 dollar book, you don’t want to spend another 75 on a full-boat restoration when a 25 buck reback will do. Take the time to learn which books not to harm and you won’t have to worry about what happens to a book you sold 40 years down the road.

When should a book be sent out for repairs and when should you work on it yourself?

• If you don’t know the book’s true value, STOP.

• If you think you may harm it, STOP.

• If you aren’t sure what it’s going to look like later, STOP.

• If you can’t afford to throw it away after you have ruined it, STOP.

Use your head before you use your hands. One can easily turn a good book into scrap paper. It is assumed that you have researched the damaged book and found it not valuable enough to demand repair by a professional. It is more work for the conservator to correct a bad repair than to just start from scratch. If the book has great monetary or sentimental value, it is probably best left as is or restored by a professional.

When in doubt: DO NOTHING. Give it a once over for 10 minutes then sell it as is. Doing nothing is the safest course of action. Doing repairs that keep small injuries from becoming big ones is even better.

Respect the book. Don’t use products that aren’t meant to be used on books, such as superglue, hot glue, epoxy, or duct tape. If you don’t respect the integrity of the book, you are in the wrong business. For example, I saw a nice first edition at a book show where the endpapers had been so badly replaced that the book was now practically worthless – since reversing the bad repair would have caused even more damage.

Do what you feel comfortable doing. You can do fixes that can’t be reversed on books that are never going to increase in value. But if it may increase in value, don’t mess with it unless you know what you are doing. Start small: facelifts, erasing, lifting stickers, tipping