A Book A Week 2014: Made, Altered, or Repaired. Week 2

Week of 13 Jan 2014

This is a book I repaired for Rochester (MN) Public Library. Book repair has different functions at different kinds of libraries. Generally, at a public library, you repair books that are out of print, but still circulating. If a book is still in print, the public library will usually just discard a nasty (dirty, ripped, stained, unreadable) and order a new copy. Also, the type of repair you would do on a public library book is different than the type of repair you would do in an archives (if you repair it at all, or you might just create a box to place it in). 

In a public library, you want to get as many circs out of the book as you can, so you want it to be durable.

You can see the before and after on the spine of this book. Above, you see a red spine with a handwritten label. Once I took the book apart, I found the original spine under the red one. I liked the look of the red accents on the black book, so I created a new spine with red repair tape, but glued on the original spine label. I think it looks smart, don't you?                                             

 I gave it new corners for a half-bound book.

The book is now ready for many more circulations.