Book Repair 101

So, I felt inspired by @mistisikes on Twitter today to finally begin my blog that I've pondered writing for longer than I care to admit. I've been tweeting about my experiences at my county's Summer Institute: Library Evolution for the past 2 days & after sharing that I was attending a book repair session, she tweeted that she hoped I'd share my tips I learned. I am horrible at book repair which is probably why my books in my book hospital quietly suffer for months on end. That, and I spend all my many hours of free time just sitting around reading (yeah, right). 

The session was led by Robin Jordan @rejnc, book repair expert extraordinaire & apparently font nerd as well. She brought out all the necessary tools and a pile of broken books and told us we were going to be hands on with this class which I loved because I think that's the best way to learn this stuff. One of the best things I learned was some of the essentials to have on hand to help with repairs. Some of these things are stuff you're probably throwing away. Start hoarding it.

Some Essential Tools

Edge Trimmer

Cardstock in white & colors

Cardboard backing from notebooks, etc.

Scrap laminate

Transparencies (not the thermal kind)

Kapco book jacket strips

Book Saver glue

Bone

Tape dispenser with weight

Book Tape

Kapco covers for pbks

Kapco Easy Trim

Hinge tape

Wallpaper wrapped bricks

Binding tape

Book jacket covers on a roll in a variety of sizes

We started by reattaching spines. Pretty simple: book glue, stick the pages back in (make sure they are not upside down), close it, slap a brick on it to weigh it down. Bricks wrapped with wallpaper samples are much cheaper than book weights you can buy. (Side note: I won a brick as a door prize!) 

Next was tipping in a page. I vaguely remembered hearing this phrase in school or at a meeting or conference and knew it had something to do with putting a page back in a book but I've never really known how to do it. It's pretty easy but the key to it is using some scrap laminate to protect your other pages from the glue. Place a piece of laminate in the book where you want to tip in the page, drag the edge of the page to be put in through the glue, stick it in aligning it with the other pages, put another piece of laminate on the other side, close it, brick it. Once the glue is set, the laminate will peel right off. I was floored. Yes, I have a low thrill threshold but this is exciting stuff for a book repair failure like me. Same process can be used to tip in a replacement page (photocopied from another copy of the same title) when the original page has wandered off.

Repairing covers was our next obstacle. This is where spare cardboard backing comes in. You know, the thin tough brown piece that helps products from getting wrinkled but you have no use for it after unwrapping whatever paper thing you bought? Save that stuff and cut up a piece to replace the edge of that cover that some kid's dog ate but didn't destroy the rest of the book. Cut it to fit the cover or spine that needs repair & slap some book tape on it. You can get fancy & photocopy another copy of the book's cover or spine if you want it to look a bit nicer. Or you could be like our font nerd Robin & search the interwebz until you have the exact font they used to make your own.

The last thing we talked about was book covers for dust jackets. Robin recommended buying them on rolls as you can cut exactly how much you need. This is better than laminating your covers because the cover won't peel off. She also recommended the kind without the paper backing on it so you can do this trick to give extra protection for the corners of your book cover. I would explain it but I have no idea how to type what I saw. Maybe we can beg her to video it so you can watch. The book jacket strips come in really handy for this as they are precut & you can just grab them as needed without having to hassle with a tape dispenser while holding a book jacket on. 

It really was common sense tips but apparently I'm lacking in common sense. My parents were right! Ack! So, there you go. That's pretty much what I remember. I wish I had taken pictures or even video of some of this stuff. Feel free to comment any additional tips or questions. I'm not saying I can answer them but I can ask Robin what the answers are. That's the beauty of being a librarian. We don't know everything but we know how to find it. My next blog post will be about budget proposals and how they help with advocacy which was my other big aha moment I took away from our summer institute.