During the fall semester, Preservation Services had the
pleasure of hosting Ms. Carmen Palacios-Aguirre. Ms. Palacios-Aguirre is a
senior at Eastern Guilford High School. To
meet the requirements of the Senior Project, Carmen asked to spend some time in
Preservation Services. The Senior
Project requires a student to select a topic and explore a work environment
that involves a field for which they have no experience and is outside their
field of study.
Carmen is interested in bookbinding and proposed spending
time with us in our worklab to learn more about the craft. So far in her time with us, she has mended
paper, sewn a textblock and cased it into a new beautiful blue cover. She has removed an older textblock from its
worn cover and created a new binding for it. She has performed a spine repair for a worn
volume from our bookstacks and designed and created a four-flap enclosure for a
scrapbook from Special Collections and University Archives.
Carmen is very enthusiastic about bookbinding and the craft
of book conservation and restoration, and hopes to someday own her own
bookstore that will offer new and used books. In her short time with us she has
demonstrated exceptional skills in precision, design and construction of
bookbinding. She is a very attentive
pupil and it has been wonderful to see the interest grow for a new generation
of bookbinders.
