Putting It Into Practice

Evaluating Your Collections

Bound Materials

These books are held together by rubber bands (which can themselves cause damage) because their spines and covers are damaged or detached.

Bound materials in your collection may include printed books (general or rare), handwritten record books, and bound pamphlets of various types (e.g., catalogs, directories, guidelines).

Common types of physical damage to printed books and handwritten record books include page damage (e.g., tears, dog-eared corners, missing pages, markings from vandalism, damage from iron gall inks), binding damage (damaged sewing, detached signatures, deteriorating adhesives, broken or loose joints, wholly or partly detached covers, endcap damage), and distortion (caused by climate fluctuations or previous water damage). Older pamphlets are often very deteriorated due to handling and acidity, and may have been placed in acidic pamphlet binders to protect them.

Common types of chemical and biological damage include fading or darkening/discoloration of pages (due to light damage and acidity), acid migration from acidic inserts such as bookmarks, fading of binding materials, red rot of leather bindings, holes from insect damage, and staining caused by mold. Note that darkening of pages due to acidity often shows up first on the edges of the textblock, which are more exposed to pollutants and climate fluctuations.