A large bookshelf in the Preservation Office holds books of all descriptions that are being repaired before they are returned to circulation. The reasons behind their state of disrepair are many -- from being licked by a dog to simply being used repeatedly. Spines are broken or torn, end pages need replacing and sometimes the bindings need to be completely replaced. Many of these books can be repaired in the Preservation Office by trained staff members.
"The cost to replace damaged volumes is high," said Watt, "if they are available. But often they are not even available. We do repairs that range from 50 cents to $7; beyond that we send them to the bindery." According to Watt, most research libraries have somewhere between 50 percent to 87 percent of their collections printed on acidic paper, which deteriorates over time. "Emory is lucky in that it has a newer collection, compared to other research libraries," Watt said. "Most 19th-century books are printed on acidic paper."
Last year, the Emory Libraries Preservation Office received a National Endow-ment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to provide training in such repairs for staff members from seven southeastern institutions. Emory is the site of one of five coordinated regional training projects. The training sessions, which are for preserving and repairing circulating collections, as opposed to rare materials, are designed so that there are only three or four people per session. The small sessions offer participants the opportunity to interact and learn from each other as well as develop a network of colleagues in similar positions at other institutions. Participants also will be able to serve as resource persons in their local regions.
In April, staff from the University of the South, Bob Jones Univer-sity, Tulane University and the Birmingham Public Library spent two weeks at Emory in hands-on training with Emory's conservator, Ann Frellsen, and her assistant, Nova Ibe. In January, Frellsen concluded the four-week training program for technicians from James Madison University, Georgia State and the University of Georgia. Participants worked with Frellsen and Ibe to learn how to replace end sheets and repair bindings, determine which materials are most effective for lasting use, and decide when a book needs to go to the bindery for rebinding. They learned such practical tips as always using acid-free materials and not to use adhesive tapes of any kind. Eventually, according to Watt, those tapes "ooze." They visited a bindery and the American Museum of Papermaking at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology.
Approximately two months after the final training session at Emory, Frellsen visits each participant at their home institution to assess the work being performed and answer any questions participants may have. Other institutions serving as collection conservation training sites are the Amigos/Book Lab/UT Austin coalition, and the universities of California (Berkeley), Utah and Washington. In all, 52 conservation technicians will be trained.
-- Nancy M. Spitler