The Processing of Damaged and Deteriorated Books

The relevant staff of Library Technical Services and the Conservation Unit regularly handle books that are found to be damaged and deteriorated. Damaged/deteriorated books are those books which have obvious damage to the binding (torn spine, loose boards, detached leaves, etc) and that also have paper which will not withstand a double corner fold.  Books with intact bindings, irrespective of paper condition, are not addressed in this procedure. The following describes the general procedures for processing books identified at the point of use and on entering the acquisitions workflow.

Circulated Books

For conservation staff, the largest category of damaged/deteriorated books enters the workflow as a consequence of circulation. Damaged books that are returned by readers are sent to Conservation by Access Services staff from all the endowed libraries of the University.  Examination in Conservaton results in the following decisions by the Book Repair supervisor:
(a) if the book is published prior to 1850, it is brought to the attention of Rare Books staff to ascertain whether or not it will be transferred to Kroch.
(b) if the paper is sound, the book is repaired and returned to the shelf within a 48 hour period
(c) if the paper is brittle, it is given to the Brittle Books Coordinator and reformatted via Photocopy Services located in B41 Olin Library, and charged to the Brittle Book Replacement account administered by the Director of Conservation Services
(d) Photocopy Services staff return the original and the copy via a return shelf to the Brittle Books Coordinator, who checks for copy accuracy and passes the photocopy to the Commercial Binding Office for binding
(e) when binding is complete, the book is returned to the Brittle Books Coordinator for a final check, then the original is discarded and the bound photocopy passed on to Library Technical Services, cataloging for record revision with a slip marked PHOTOCOPY REPLACEMENT. TO COPY REPLACEMENT.

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