Learning the Craft of Bookbinding

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.

Preservation Services on YouTube

The Preservation Services is releasing its first film about procedures in conservation treatments that are performed in our Division of the University Libraries. The film was possible through a joint effort with the Digital Media Commons, especially Cheryl Cross, who patiently recorded hours of  this treatment, to then be reduced to just eight minutes of viewing. What a fast conservation treatment!!!

The book, I Vespri Sicilliani, is part of our Cello Music Collection and was a donation received in 2013 from George Darden Piano and Opera collection.
http://uncgspecial.blogspot.com/2013/10/george-darden-martha-blakeney-hodges.html

NEW COLORED BOOK COVERS IN THE LIBRARY STACKS

As book lovers and conservationists we don’t like to remove original bindings. We work hard in the Preservation Room trying to save as many books as possible from a new binding and restoring them to their original aspect whenever it is possible.

 

 

Many times we don’t have a choice other than to remove the original covers as the extent of the damage, or massive use, has made the book unable to return to our stacks. Thus, we have been carefully rebinding them in a stronger conservation cloth (Linen Buckram), in several different colors, not only giving our books a new life but our patrons an almost new book.