Introduction:

Rare Books Conservation at Princeton

The bound book materials in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections and other specialized libraries at Princeton are vast and varied. There are more than 200,000 rare and significant printed volumes in the General Rare Book Division and several thousand linear shelf feet of material in the Manuscripts Division. There are also thousands of books in other special collections such as Western Americana, the East Asian Library, Graphic Arts, the Marquand Art Library, and the University Archives. These collections encompass the history of the book as a cultural tool of mankind, ranging from ancient writing materials through medieval manuscripts, from printed incunabula through the twentieth century paperback. The goal as conservator is to preserve all the books in Special Collections at Princeton. Obviously this is an unrealizeable goal but one worth striving for.

Conserving this material is a many-faceted challenge, and meeting it involves striking a balance between collection-scale approaches and single item treatments. The collection-wide concern has primarily been addressed through rehousing projects. During the past five years several thousand simple quickly-made four-flap wrappers have been made for books in poor condition which cannot be given extensive treatment at this time. These wrappers keep all the elements of a book together, protecting it somewhat from further damage, and they improve the storage conditions in Special Collections by helping to minimize the spread of red-rot and by improving shelving and handling.

At the other end of the spectrum of conservation is the single volume which is given “full treatment”. This implies careful, time-consuming, and painstaking work, and may involve disbinding, extensive page repair, resewing, and rebinding (either in the original binding or in a new one).