Mending Procedures for the Albany County Public Library

General Instructions:

Be sure to assess all damage to the book while mending. Some books may have more than one area that needs attention, regardless of the mending category it was placed in. Take pride in your work! Leave the book in the best possible condition that you can. Should time allow, clean greasy or dirty covers, erase pencil marks and straighten loose jackets. If you come across a book beyond your mending ability please leave it for someone else who may be able to fix it.

For more about book repair, look here:

http://www.philobiblon.com/bkrepair/BookRepair.html

Also, look at this book, which we have in TS:

Book repair : a how-to-do-it manual

Reattaching a Loose Book Jacket

1. Pull the jacket cover snugly around the book. Make certain it remains flush with the book.

2. Place book jacket tape on the inside top Left jacket and fold over the book’s cover, pulling taunt and being sure the jacket lines up with the top of the book.

3. Turn the book upside down and repeat step 2 to the bottom left hand side.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 on the right side.

General Tape Repair

When taping be sure that everything is lining up the way it should. If you are mending a children’s pop up book, the broken pop up should work again after you tape it. When taping torn pages be sure that the picture or words are lined up in such a way that it is legible. Reinforce on both sides whenever possible. Use book tape instead of scotch tape whenever possible. Use Binder Tape to reinforce the inside covers of books that are losing their cover as well as on the outside on the spine. Barcode covers may come in handy for some small repairs that need clear tape stronger than scotch.

Loose Pages (Easy)

When pages have come out of the book in one piece or when there is only one loose page follow these instructions.

1. Place the pages back in the book. If the pages are going to stick out on the side you may wish to trim them very carefully with a paper cutter. If you don’t feel up to the task, please leave it for someone else. *Be sure to cut the pages before trying to glue them in.

2. Spread glue on the side of the page or pages as well as on the inside of the book, being careful not to use too much or too little. Using too much may result in page warping while using too little will prove ineffective.

3. Carefully place the page(s) back in the book being sure the pages are lining up with the rest of the book.

4. Place wax paper on both sides of the page(s) to insure that they will not stick to other pages once the glue has dried. Place rubber bands on the top, bottom and sides of the book to be sure that everything will dry properly.

5. Place the book in a place where it will remain undisturbed for at least 24 hours after mending.

For more information about dealing with loose pages, look here:

http://www.philobiblon.com/bkrepair/BookRepair3.html

Advanced Gluing and Taping

When gluing be careful not to use too much or too little glue. Be sure to get into all the little nooks and cracks so that the book will hold together as well as possible. Make certain that everything lines up the way it is supposed to. Always lay wax paper in between pages that you are gluing so that as they dry they won’t stick to other pages. Always rubber band the book so that it will dry properly. Always leave the book in an undisturbed area for at least 24 hours after mending.

Loose Pages (Advanced)

Follow these instructions when dealing with books that have multiple loose pages or a *glossy print.

*Glossy Print

Sometimes art books and comic books that have been printed on glossy pages will not be so easy to put back together regardless of how many pages have fallen out. The gloss on the pages will make it very difficult to glue. Binder tape on both sides may work better.

Multiple Pages

Step One

1. Get all the pages that have fallen out or are about to fall out together and put them in their proper order.

2. Make sure that none of the pages are going to need to be trimmed before proceeding to the next step.

3. Paperclip the pages together multiple times on the three sides that will not be glued into the book. 4 Clips on the shorter sides and 8 on the longer side may hold it.

4. Put some glue on your finger and run it along the side without paperclips, making sure that the pages stay very close together.

5. Place the paper clipped and glued pages in between two heavy objects to help flatten the pages together, leaving the glued side hanging out to dry.

6. Allow the glued pages to dry for at least 24 hours before proceeding to step two.

Step Two

6. You are now ready to glue to pages into the book. Follow steps 2-5 of Easy Loose Page mending. (You should have already completed step 1)

Broken Binding

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Broken bindings are among the most common damages books acquire. Brand new books are sometimes sold with damage similar to Picture #1. It is a common problem with no single solution. As you become familiar with mending procedures you may find that there are different methods you would utilize to fix such a problem.

1. If the book looks as it does in Picture 1, take an X-Acto knife or scalpel and carefully slice down the side it would be easiest to cut. (In Picture 1 we would cut through the left side.) In Picture 2 the book has already been split in half and in Picture 3 we would need to cut carefully down the middle where the book is beginning to split and has come away from the spine. Picture 3 will look similar to Picture 2 when we are finished.

2. Now that the book is open to us we can clear away any loose fabric or strings.

3. Spread glue over the entire exposed area including the sides of the pages.

4. Cut an appropriately sized piece of 4 sided binder tape so that it matches the length of the pages in the book. Choose your tape based on the size of your book. If you have a very thin book you will need to use thinner tape. Likewise if your book is large, you will need larger tape.

5. Next, take two sides of 4 sided binder tape and hold them between your fingers so that the other two sides will be flat and exposed.

6. Moisten the two exposed sides with water, glue or a combination of both.

7. Place one wet side on top of the largest portion of pages and fold the other wet side down the side of the same portion.

8. Fold the two dry sides down.

9. Moisten the two remaining dry sides in the same manner.

10. Leave one side sticking down and one side sticking up, both sides facing the side that has yet to be dealt with.

11. Bring the side of the book with no tape up to the moistened tape and push tightly so that the tape sticking down sticks to the inside of the book while folding the side sticking up over the edge of the page that has no tape.

12. Place a piece of wax paper into the crevice where the tape hinges so as to avoid pages sticking together.

13. Push the book together as much as possible and rubber band it in a position that will allow it to remain straight and dry properly. When fixing a broken binding it is very easy to allow the book to become lopsided and dry improperly.

14. Place in an undisturbed place for at least 24 hours.

In addition to this manual, there are other resources available to help you with your mending. There are a few books and videos in the technical services area that you may browse. There is also a good website http://www.dartmouth.edu/~preserve/repair/repairindex.htm that may help you become familiar with different parts of the book and materials available to you.