How to Store and Preserve Rare Books: The Complete Guide

1. Why Preservation Matters: A Story About What Gets Lost

A few years ago I went to look at a collection in a casita off Corrales Road. The owner had inherited it from a great-uncle who’d spent decades in Santa Fe during the arts colony era, and based on what she told me over the phone, it sounded promising. When I got there and she opened the storage room door, I understood immediately what had happened. The room had no HVAC vent. It faced west. The single window was uncurtained. Summer afternoons in that room probably hit ninety-five degrees and winter nights probably dropped into the forties. There had been a roof leak at some point — you could see the tide line on the wall.

The books were catastrophically damaged. Spines were curled off their cases. Leather covers had turned to red dust. Paper had cockled into rigid wavy masses and then dried that way. Several items that had probably been signed limited editions from the twenties and thirties were unidentifiable — the ink on the title pages had foxed and the paper had browned to illegibility. A collection that might have represented significant value and genuine historical importance had been reduced, over thirty or forty years of neglect, to something I could barely carry out to the dumpster.

I tell that story not to be grim but because it illustrates the central fact of book preservation: the damage is cumulative, it is largely invisible until it is severe, and by the time you can see it clearly, much of it is irreversible. Books do not announce that they are being destroyed. They just quietly deteriorate while you go about your life.

The good news is that proper storage is not complicated or expensive. The overwhelming majority of collection damage comes from a handful of controllable causes: temperature fluctuation, humidity instability, ultraviolet light, inappropriate shelving materials, and insects. Address those five factors and you have done most of what can be done. This guide explains how to address all of them, with specific attention to the conditions unique to New Mexico.

I have been handling rare and collectible books in the Southwest for years, and I have seen enough collections — the well-preserved and the ruined — to know what makes the difference. The information here is grounded in conservation science, not folklore. Where there is genuine debate among professionals, I’ll tell you that. Where the evidence is clear, I’ll be direct. My goal is to give you what you need to make intelligent decisions for your specific situation.

If you are building a collection and want to understand what you have before thinking about preservation, start with the first edition identification guide and the book condition grading guide. If you’re looking to protect the value of what you already own, you’re in the right place.

Not sure what you have or whether it’s worth preserving? Text me a photo at 702-496-4214 and I’ll tell you what I see.

2. Temperature and Humidity: The Foundation of Everything

If you remember nothing else from this guide, remember this: stability matters more than perfection. A consistent 72°F and 45% relative humidity is far better for your books than an environment that oscillates between 60°F and 80°F, even if the average happens to fall in the ideal range. Books are composed of materials — paper, cloth, leather, board, adhesive — that each respond differently to temperature and humidity changes. When conditions fluctuate, these materials expand and contract at different rates. Over time, that differential movement is what breaks bindings, cockles pages, loosens joints, and distorts boards.

The Recommended Ranges

The standard archival recommendation for general book collections is 65 to 70°F (18 to 21°C) and 30 to 50% relative humidity. Major research libraries typically aim for the cooler end of that range because lower temperatures slow chemical degradation reactions. The Arrhenius equation, applied to paper chemistry, suggests that every 10°C drop in temperature roughly doubles the preservation lifespan of cellulose-based materials. In practical terms, this means your books will last significantly longer in a cool room than in a warm one, even if humidity is controlled in both.

For private collectors who do not have institutional HVAC systems, the realistic goal is a stable, air-conditioned interior space that stays between 65 and 75°F year-round, with humidity maintained between 30 and 55%. These broader tolerances are appropriate for home environments. The critical requirement is that conditions do not swing widely — not from season to season, not from day to night, and not from room to room within the same storage area.

Why Humidity Fluctuation Is the Primary Threat

Paper is a hygroscopic material, meaning it actively absorbs and releases water vapor from the surrounding air. As humidity rises, paper fibers absorb moisture and expand. As humidity falls, they contract. The problem is that different parts of a book absorb and release moisture at different rates. The text block, the boards, the leather or cloth cover, the adhesives, and any coated or treated papers all have different equilibrium moisture contents at any given humidity level, and they reach equilibrium at different speeds.

When you cycle humidity repeatedly — as happens in homes without climate control, in rooms near exterior walls, or in any space subject to seasonal variation — you are cycling these differential stresses repeatedly. The boards warp because the outer face and inner face dry at different rates. The joints crack because the adhesive and the leather are expanding at different rates. The spine concaves or convexes because the glued layers and the paper text block are responding differently. All of this damage is cumulative: each cycle adds stress that is never fully recovered.

The recommended lower bound of 30% relative humidity is set to prevent paper from becoming so dry that it becomes brittle. Below about 25% RH, paper loses enough of its bound water that the hydrogen bonds between cellulose fibers weaken, reducing flexibility and increasing the risk of tears and cracking during handling. The upper bound of 50% is set to prevent mold growth, which becomes a serious risk above about 65% RH and can begin within 24 to 48 hours on damp paper in warm conditions.

How to Measure: Hygrometers and Data Loggers

A calibrated digital hygrometer is the single most important tool you can own for monitoring your storage environment. Simple round dial hygrometers are notoriously inaccurate — they can be off by 15 to 20 percentage points. What you want is either a calibrated digital hygrometer (Govee, SensorPush, and similar brands offer reasonably accurate units) or, for a serious collection, a temperature and humidity data logger that records readings over time and allows you to identify patterns you would not notice from spot checks.

Data loggers are particularly valuable because they reveal the problems that are invisible in daily monitoring: the humidity spike that happens every morning when you shower in the adjacent bathroom, the temperature drop that occurs when the HVAC shuts off at night, the moisture that enters when you open a window on a humid monsoon afternoon. Once you can see the pattern, you can address it.

To calibrate a hygrometer, seal it in a zip-lock bag with a small amount of salt paste (table salt mixed with just enough water to form a slurry, not dissolved). After several hours in the sealed bag, the humidity inside should read 75.5% — this is the deliquescence point of sodium chloride, a stable reference point. If your hygrometer reads differently, you know its error offset.

Dew Point Considerations

One concept that collectors often overlook is dew point — the temperature at which water vapor in the air begins to condense as liquid water. This matters when you move books from a cold storage area to a warm, humid room, or when cold surfaces in your storage space bring the local temperature below the dew point. Moisture condensation on paper and book surfaces can cause immediate and severe damage, including local swelling, staining, and mold nucleation. In New Mexico, this most commonly occurs when monsoon-humid air encounters the cool surfaces of an air-conditioned room, or when cold winter air meets warm moist surfaces near cooking or bathing areas.

3. New Mexico’s Desert Climate: A Double-Edged Sword

Collectors in humid climates spend a great deal of energy worrying about mold. Here in New Mexico, mold is largely not the problem. My average relative humidity in Albuquerque ranges from about 15% in the drier months to perhaps 50% during peak monsoon — conditions that are genuinely inhospitable to mold and foxing, the two humidity-driven threats that destroy collections in Florida, the Gulf Coast, and the Pacific Northwest. In this respect, my climate is a genuine advantage.

But that advantage comes with its own set of challenges, and ignoring them is how collections get quietly ruined in a different way. New Mexico’s aridity, its temperature extremes, its dust, and its monsoon humidity spikes create a preservation environment that is different in important ways from the conditions that most preservation literature is written for. Let me go through each factor.

Low Humidity and Its Costs

When ambient humidity drops below 30% for extended periods — which happens regularly in Albuquerque during winter and in the spring wind season — leather becomes desiccated. The collagen fibers in leather lose their bound water, the surface oils migrate out, and the leather becomes rigid and prone to cracking. Nineteenth-century leather bindings are especially vulnerable because they were often tanned with processes that left them inherently susceptible to acid degradation; when desiccation compounds this pre-existing vulnerability, the result is red rot.

Adhesives also suffer in extreme dryness. Animal-hide glues, which were the standard bookbinding adhesive through most of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, become brittle and lose adhesion when they dry out. This is why you see spine linings pulling away from text blocks, endpapers releasing from boards, and signatures detaching from cases in books stored in dry Southwest conditions. The damage looks like old age, but it is accelerated desiccation.

Paper at very low humidity — below about 20% RH — becomes measurably more brittle and more likely to tear during handling. For everyday reading copies this is a minor inconvenience. For books with fragile paper — acidic newsprint, early twentieth-century groundwood papers, or paper already compromised by previous damage — very dry conditions are a real risk factor during handling.

Dust: The Underrated Threat

Desert dust is an underappreciated preservation threat. Fine mineral particles are abrasive, and they carry with them trace amounts of salts and reactive compounds that can accelerate chemical degradation on paper surfaces. The particulate matter from construction dust — ubiquitous in a growing city like Albuquerque and in the expanding communities along the I-25 corridor — contains gypsum, silica, and calcium carbonate, among other compounds. Settled dust on book surfaces also creates a microenvironment with different moisture characteristics than the surrounding air, which can cause local staining and accelerate surface degradation.

Desert wind events, particularly during my March and April wind season, can introduce large volumes of particulate matter very quickly. A room that seems well-sealed may admit significant dust through gaps around windows, under doors, and through HVAC systems with insufficient filtration. Books stored in open shelving in frequently dusted rooms accumulate much more particulate over time than books in enclosed cases or boxes.

Monsoon Season: The Annual Humidity Spike

New Mexico’s monsoon season typically runs from early July through mid-September, with afternoon and evening thunderstorms that can raise relative humidity from 15% to 60% or higher within a matter of hours. This is not a steady humid period; it is a rapid cycling between dry morning conditions and humid afternoon and evening conditions. That cycling is precisely the pattern that causes the most mechanical damage to books.

If your storage area is not climate-controlled, the monsoon season is when your collection is at its greatest risk. Even if humidity does not reach the threshold for mold (approximately 65% RH sustained), the repeated cycling from dry to damp and back will gradually warp boards, open joints, and stress spines over multiple seasons. The books look fine in any individual moment, but the cumulative mechanical stress is real.

Evaporative Coolers and Their Effects

A significant portion of older New Mexico homes — and some newer ones — are cooled with evaporative coolers (swamp coolers) rather than refrigerated air conditioning. Evaporative coolers work by passing hot dry air through a wet pad, which cools the air through evaporation. This process adds substantial moisture to the air. On a dry day, a well-functioning swamp cooler can raise indoor humidity from 10% to 40% or higher, which is actually beneficial for very dry-climate conditions. But on a humid monsoon day, running a swamp cooler introduces additional moisture into an already-humid environment, potentially pushing interior humidity to levels where mold becomes a real concern.

If you rely on evaporative cooling, consider using a hygrometer to monitor indoor humidity and shut off the swamp cooler during humid monsoon days. Storing your most valuable books in a room cooled by a refrigerated portable air conditioner during summer months — even if the rest of the house runs on swamp cooling — is a practical and relatively inexpensive protective measure.

Adobe Homes: Thermal Mass and Its Implications

Traditional adobe and thick-walled stucco homes common throughout New Mexico have significant thermal mass, meaning the walls absorb heat during the day and release it slowly at night. This creates a more stable interior temperature than light-frame construction — generally a benefit for book preservation. However, thick adobe walls also mean that exterior walls are significantly cooler on their interior surfaces during summer than the ambient air in the room, creating the potential for condensation on surfaces near those walls. Books stored against or near exterior adobe walls in summer should be monitored for moisture accumulation, particularly during monsoon events.

Adobe’s moisture-absorbing properties are also relevant: old adobe walls can harbor moisture internally that releases slowly into the interior, particularly in older homes with less-effective vapor barriers. A basement or ground-floor storage area in an old adobe building can maintain unexpectedly high humidity even in dry weather, because the wall material itself is a moisture reservoir.

Have books stored in an adobe home or a casita you’re not sure about? I pick up collections across Albuquerque for free — call 702-496-4214 and I’ll tell you whether a house call makes sense.

4. Shelving and Positioning: The Mechanics of Safe Storage

Most shelving-related damage to books comes from two sources: inappropriate materials and inappropriate positioning. Both are preventable.

Upright Storage: The Default for Most Books

Books should be stored upright, perpendicular to the shelf, with the spine facing out. This is the standard for a reason: it puts the least stress on the binding structure. The book’s weight is distributed along the lower edge of the text block, the covers hang in a position that aligns with the direction of the binding, and the spine is visible for identification without handling.

Books should stand without leaning. A leaning book gradually distorts its case and text block under its own weight. The boards begin to warp, the spine curves, and after enough years in the wrong position, the book is permanently distorted. Use proper bookends — ones with a wide base that actually contacts the shelf rather than just the spine — to keep upright books from leaning. Do not pack books so tightly that they cannot be removed without force. Do not leave books with so much lateral space that they lean against each other or against the bookend at sharp angles.

For books that are taller than their neighbors, do not lean them against smaller books. Either store tall books together, where they support each other upright, or lay them flat in a separate flat-storage area.

Oversized Books: Flat Storage

Books that are substantially larger than standard octavo format — folio-sized volumes, art books, atlases, and similar oversize publications — should be stored flat rather than upright. Upright storage puts the full weight of an oversized book on its spine and lower joint, which were not engineered for that load. The result over time is a concave spine and a text block that separates from its case at the lower joint.

Flat storage is not complicated: lay the books horizontally on a shelf with adequate support under the full board surface, not just the corners. Stack no more than three books of similar size directly on top of each other. More than three in a stack risks compression damage to the bottom books and makes individual access difficult without disturbing the entire stack.

Never Store on Exterior Walls

I mentioned this briefly in the climate section, but it deserves emphasis here. Exterior walls in any climate are temperature boundaries — they are warmer in summer and colder in winter than interior walls. In New Mexico, where exterior temperatures can span 50 to 60 degrees between seasons, exterior walls can be significant sources of temperature fluctuation that interior sensors do not detect. Books stored against exterior walls experience microclimate conditions that differ from the rest of the room, and those differences matter.

Keep shelving units at least two to four inches away from all exterior walls. This allows air to circulate behind the bookcase, preventing moisture from accumulating against the back boards of the shelving unit, and reduces the temperature differential that books against the wall would otherwise experience.

Shelving Materials: Wood vs. Metal

The shelving material question is more significant than most collectors realize. Oak, cherry, walnut, and other high-tannin hardwoods off-gas acetic acid as they age — a process called off-gassing or volatile organic compound (VOC) emission. Acetic acid in an enclosed environment accelerates the degradation of paper and leather. This is the same acetic acid that is the active agent in vinegar, and its effect on cellulose is analogous: it catalyzes hydrolysis, breaking down the long polymer chains that give paper its strength and flexibility.

Oak is particularly problematic. A study conducted by the Image Permanence Institute at Rochester Institute of Technology documented that books stored in oak-lined rooms showed accelerated deterioration compared to identical books stored in rooms with neutral-outgassing materials. The difference is measurable and not trivial over decades of storage.

Powder-coated steel shelving is the archival standard. It is dimensionally stable, does not off-gas, resists insects, and is available in configurations suited to any collection size. Library shelving manufacturers such as Montel and Spacesaver produce systems designed for archival use; for smaller collections, standard metal wire shelving or powder-coated steel bookcases serve well. If you have or prefer wood shelving, you can mitigate the off-gassing risk by sealing all wood surfaces with a low-VOC penetrating sealant or by lining the shelves with acid-free barrier board (Marvelseal 360 or similar products).

Particleboard and MDF (medium-density fiberboard) are even worse than solid oak for VOC off-gassing. They are bonded with urea-formaldehyde adhesives that continue off-gassing for years. Never use particleboard or MDF shelving for valuable books.

Glass-Front Bookcases: Pros and Cons

Glass-front cases offer meaningful protection against dust, insects, and incidental light exposure, and they look good. For books that benefit from display, a glass-front bookcase is generally an improvement over open shelving. The considerations against them are primarily practical: they reduce air circulation, which can cause problems in humid conditions (though in New Mexico’s dry climate this is less of a concern), they are heavier and more expensive, and they can create localized temperature differentials if they sit in direct sunlight. Ensure glass-front cases are not positioned such that afternoon sun shines directly through the glass onto the books — glass transmits much of the UV that would otherwise be blocked by a solid panel.

5. Light Protection: UV Damage Is Cumulative and Irreversible

Light damage is permanent. There is no treatment that reverses the photochemical degradation caused by ultraviolet radiation. Once a spine has faded, once colors have shifted, once paper has yellowed and become brittle from light exposure — that damage is done. This makes light management one of the most important and most underappreciated aspects of collection care.

The Chemistry of UV Damage

Ultraviolet radiation — wavelengths below about 380 nanometers — carries enough energy per photon to break chemical bonds in organic materials. In paper, UV breaks the hydrogen bonds between cellulose chains and initiates oxidation reactions that produce yellow and brown chromophores (color-producing molecules), causing the characteristic yellowing of aged paper. In printing inks and dyes, UV causes photochemical bleaching of the chromophores in colorants. Reds are typically most vulnerable; blues and greens follow. This is why faded book spines almost always show the reds and pinks faded first while blues and blacks remain relatively intact.

Leather is also UV-sensitive. The dyes used to color leather bindings, and the leather fibers themselves, degrade under UV exposure. The characteristic bleached appearance of a spine that has sat in a sunny window is the product of both photochemical bleaching of the surface dye and surface oxidation of the leather itself.

Sources of UV: Sunlight, Fluorescent, and LED

Direct sunlight is by far the most intense source of UV radiation, but it is not the only one. Standard fluorescent tubes, particularly older T12 and T8 types, emit significant UV as a byproduct of their fluorescent conversion process. Even modern LED lights, which are much lower in UV than fluorescents, emit small amounts in the blue-violet spectrum that can cause cumulative damage over very long exposures.

The practical hierarchy is: direct sunlight > unshielded fluorescent > shielded fluorescent or older LED > warm-spectrum LED with UV filter. For book storage, warm-spectrum LED fixtures (2700K to 3000K color temperature) provide adequate light for navigation and access while minimizing UV output. Keeping storage areas dark when not in use — turning off lights and drawing curtains — is free and highly effective.

UV-Filtering Glass and Film

Standard window glass transmits most UV below about 300 nanometers but lets through significant UV in the 300 to 380 nanometer range, which is sufficient to cause photodegradation. UV-filtering window film, available from suppliers such as 3M and Llumar, can block 99% or more of UV transmission through existing windows. This is a practical and relatively inexpensive intervention for rooms with book collections and significant window exposure. UV-filtering acrylic or laminated glass, used in glass-front bookcases designed for art and book display, provides similar protection for individual cases.

UV-blocking film on windows does not significantly alter the visible appearance of the light in the room but dramatically reduces the photochemical energy reaching your books. In New Mexico, where sunlight intensity is elevated due to high altitude and low atmospheric water vapor, UV-filtering glass or film is a particularly valuable investment for any book storage room with south, east, or west exposure.

South-Facing Rooms in New Mexico: A Specific Warning

In the northern hemisphere, south-facing rooms receive the most direct sunlight, and at my latitude in central New Mexico, that sunlight is intense. A room with south-facing windows that are unshielded, or with glass-front bookcases in line of the afternoon sun, is a genuinely dangerous environment for a book collection. I have seen cases where books shelved in south-facing Albuquerque rooms showed measurable spine fading within a few years. If your library or study faces south and has significant window exposure, UV-filtering film on the windows is not optional — it is essential.

If you’ve got books sitting in a sunny room and you’re not sure whether the damage matters, call or text me at 702-496-4214 — I’ll give you an honest assessment.

6. Dust Jacket Protection: Mylar, Brodart, and Archival Sleeves

The dust jacket is often worth more than the book itself. For most modern collectible books — first editions published from the 1920s onward — the presence of the original dust jacket in good condition accounts for the majority of the book’s collector value. A copy of a significant mid-century first edition without its dust jacket may be worth a fraction of a copy with a fine jacket. Protecting the jacket is therefore not incidental to collection care; it is central to preserving value.

Mylar: What It Is and Why It Matters

Mylar is the trade name for biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BoPET), a polyester film manufactured in very thin gauges that is chemically inert, dimensionally stable, and optically clear. In archival use, Mylar and equivalent BoPET films (Melinex, Hostaphan) are the standard material for encapsulating documents, lining sleeves for photographs, and wrapping dust jackets. The critical distinction is that these polyester films are chemically stable and do not off-gas compounds that would damage the materials they protect.

The alternative — PVC (polyvinyl chloride) — appears similar but is entirely different in its archival behavior. PVC off-gasses hydrochloric acid as it ages, and this off-gassing is accelerated by heat and light exposure. Library and bookshop dust jacket sleeves made from PVC will, over years, begin to fog, become brittle, and emit acidic compounds that discolor and damage the jackets they were meant to protect. Never use PVC sleeves on valuable dust jackets.

Brodart and Similar Products

Brodart’s “Just-a-Fold III” archival dust jacket covers are the most widely used product in the collecting community and are genuinely archival-grade BoPET. They come in adjustable widths that accommodate different book heights and in different thicknesses (1.5 mil for standard use, 2 mil for heavier books). Applying them is straightforward: open the sleeve, slide the book (with its dust jacket in place) into the sleeve, fold the excess film around the front and rear flaps of the jacket, and tuck the flaps inside the front and rear boards of the book. A properly applied sleeve holds the jacket firmly without adhesive and can be removed and reapplied without damage.

For books of significant value where you want maximum protection with minimum handling, consider removing the dust jacket entirely and storing it flat in a folded sheet of archival-quality glassine or unbuffered acid-free tissue, interleaved with the book in a clamshell box. This removes the mechanical stress that comes with repeated handling of a jacketed book and eliminates the risk of the sleeve catching on neighboring books on the shelf.

Why Dust Jackets Are Financially Critical

To understand what is at stake, consider the value differential across categories. For major twentieth-century literary first editions — titles by Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, O’Connor — the presence of the original dust jacket can represent the difference between a reading copy and a collectible copy of significant interest. For certain post-war titles in genre fiction or mystery, a fine dust jacket is similarly essential. For more recent collectibles, a missing or damaged jacket often reduces value to a fraction of the jacketed copy. Understanding this dynamic should motivate even casual collectors to treat dust jackets with at least as much care as the books themselves.

7. Leather Book Care: The Debate, the Chemistry, and the Limits

Few topics in book preservation generate more disagreement than leather treatment, and for good reason: the science is genuinely complex, the research is ongoing, and the wrong choice can cause irreversible damage. Let me walk you through what is actually known.

The Chemistry of Book Leather

Books have been bound in leather for centuries, but not all leather is the same. The majority of leather-bound books from the nineteenth century and earlier were tanned with vegetable tannins — compounds derived from oak bark, sumac, or similar plant sources. Vegetable-tanned leather is durable and attractive but inherently vulnerable to acid degradation, particularly from atmospheric sulfur dioxide (a byproduct of coal combustion that was ubiquitous in urban environments through the industrial era). The sulfur dioxide reacts with residual sulfuric acid in the leather from the tanning process to produce sulfuric acid, which catalyzes hydrolysis of the collagen fibers.

Twentieth-century bookbinding leather is more often chrome-tanned or combination-tanned, using chromium salts that produce a more chemically stable product. Chrome-tanned leather is less susceptible to the acid degradation cycle that affects vegetable-tanned leather, but it responds differently to treatment products.

The Treatment Debate: Renaissance Wax, Leather Dressing, or Nothing

The traditional approach to leather book care involved applying leather dressing — typically the British Museum Leather Dressing formulation (anhydrous lanolin, cedarwood oil, beeswax, and hexane solvent) — to condition the leather and restore suppleness. This approach was standard practice in libraries and among collectors through the mid-twentieth century. More recent conservation research has complicated this picture considerably.

The current professional consensus, reflected in guidance from the Library of Congress and the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), is skeptical of routine leather dressing for several reasons. First, most leather dressings penetrate into the leather and can change its chemistry in ways that are difficult to predict or reverse, which is a problem when conservation treatments may be needed later. Second, lanolin-based dressings can attract insects over time. Third, and most importantly, if the leather has already progressed to red rot (see below), no surface treatment will arrest the internal structural degradation; the treatment will only cosmetically improve the surface temporarily while providing a false sense of security.

Potassium lactate solution, applied as a conservation treatment by professionals, addresses the acid component of leather degradation more directly than surface dressings and is the treatment with the strongest evidence base for stable (non-red-rot) leather. However, this is a professional-grade treatment, not something to apply at home.

For home use, if you feel you must treat dry leather bindings, Renaissance Wax — a microcrystalline wax available from conservation suppliers — provides a surface barrier that reduces surface abrasion and gives leather a more finished appearance without penetrating significantly into the leather structure. Apply sparingly, polish gently, and do not apply to leather that is already powdering or fragile. For most books in stable condition, doing nothing is preferable to applying the wrong product.

Red Rot: Identification and Management

Red rot is the popular name for sulphated leather deterioration — the advanced stage of acid-catalyzed collagen hydrolysis in vegetable-tanned leather. The name comes from the characteristic appearance: the leather becomes powdery, brick-red or orange-brown, and structurally friable. When you touch a book in active red rot, the leather comes off on your hands as a fine red powder. The grain surface may still appear intact while the sub-surface structure has entirely collapsed, meaning a book can look better than it is until you try to handle it.

Red rot cannot be cured. Once the collagen structure has been hydrolyzed to the point of powdering, there is no way to restore the original molecular structure. What can be done is consolidation: applying a consolidant such as Klucel G (hydroxypropyl cellulose) dissolved in ethanol to the surface, which penetrates and binds the powdering particles together without significantly changing the appearance. This is a stabilization measure, not a restoration. It allows a red-rot-affected book to be handled without losing surface material, but it does not restore structural integrity to the leather.

Klucel G application requires practice and is best learned from a conservator before attempting on valuable books. Concentrations typically used are 1 to 2% in ethanol; higher concentrations create a glossy film that alters the appearance. If a book in your collection shows active red rot and is of significant value, contact a professional conservator before doing anything to it.

What NOT to Do

Avoid neatsfoot oil, saddle soap, mink oil, and petroleum-based leather conditioners on book leather. These products are formulated for high-use leathers — saddles, boots, upholstery — where mechanical flexing and water resistance are the primary concerns. They penetrate too deeply, can darken the leather permanently, attract insects, and may interfere with subsequent conservation. Shoe polish, particularly wax-based shoe polish, can clog the pores of leather and create a film that traps moisture. WD-40 and similar penetrating oils should never come near book leather.

Do not attempt to wash soiled leather book covers with water or water-based cleaners. Leather is extremely sensitive to moisture at the surface; localized wetting can cause tide marks, localized swelling, and color change that is essentially permanent. Surface dust can be very gently brushed away with a soft natural-bristle brush. Embedded soils on leather require professional treatment.

If you have leather-bound books and you’re not sure whether they’re worth the effort, I can take a look. Call or text 702-496-4214 — I see leather books in Albuquerque estates regularly.

8. Acid-Free Materials: Why Regular Cardboard Destroys Books

Paper and board products are manufactured with a range of pH levels depending on their intended use and production process. Standard commercial cardboard, corrugated board, and most newsprint are acidic — they have pH values below 7.0, often in the range of 4 to 6. At these pH levels, the paper is actively deteriorating and, more importantly, it actively deteriorates the materials it contacts.

How Acid Migration Damages Books

When acidic paper or board is in sustained contact with a book, acid migrates from the higher-acid material into the lower-acid book paper through a process called acid migration. This is why the pages adjacent to the endpapers in old books are often significantly more yellowed and brittle than the interior pages: the endpapers, which are in direct contact with the acidic boards of the case, transfer acid into the adjacent pages over time.

The same process operates between stored books and their containers. A book stored in a regular cardboard box is in sustained contact with highly acidic material. Over years of storage, acid from the box migrates into the book’s boards, endpapers, and eventually into the text block. The book looks undisturbed when you pull it out, but its paper is being progressively weakened. The effect compounds with temperature — warmer storage accelerates the migration.

Acid migration is also why the old practice of newspaper-wrapping books for storage is so destructive. Newsprint is among the most acidic papers in common use (pH values of 3.5 to 5.5 are typical), and wrapping a book in newspaper is essentially wrapping it in a slow-acting acid bath.

Archival vs. Acid-Free vs. Buffered

These terms are often used interchangeably but have specific meanings in conservation practice. Acid-free means the material has a pH of 7.0 or higher at the time of manufacture. However, if the material does not contain an alkaline buffer, it can gradually acidify over time through absorption of atmospheric acids. Buffered or alkaline-buffered materials contain an alkaline reserve (typically calcium carbonate) that neutralizes incoming acids for years before the buffer is exhausted. Archival or archival quality is a broader term that encompasses acid-free and buffered materials and may additionally specify low lignin content, physical stability, or other characteristics depending on the context.

For most book storage purposes, acid-free and buffered materials are both appropriate. The exception is certain photographic materials and some dyed textiles, where an alkaline environment can cause its own type of damage — for those materials, acid-free but unbuffered (neutral pH) enclosures are preferred. For books, buffered materials are generally the safer choice because they maintain their alkalinity longer under real-world conditions.

Tissue Interleaving for Prints and Plates

Books containing hand-colored prints, tipped-in plates, or any other illustrated elements that are not fully integrated into the text block deserve additional attention. Illustrated plates — particularly color lithographs, chromolithographs, and hand-colored engravings — can offset onto the adjacent page over time if the printing inks or colorants are fresh or if conditions are slightly warm and humid. Interleaving with acid-free, unbuffered tissue between each plate and the adjacent page prevents offset and reduces the risk of abrasion during use.

Archival tissue (sometimes sold as lens tissue or conservation tissue) is available from suppliers such as Talas, Gaylord Archival, and University Products. Use it in sheets slightly smaller than the page, cut with clean scissors, and insert it gently without forcing it against the gutter. For books of particular value with many plates, this interleaving process is time-consuming but represents a meaningful preservation investment.

9. Boxing and Enclosures: Phase Boxes, Clamshells, and Bulk Storage

Not every book needs to be individually boxed. But for books of significant value or fragility, the right enclosure dramatically reduces the rate of environmental damage, protects against handling, and makes transportation safer. The question is matching the enclosure type to the book’s value and condition.

Phase Boxes: The Practical Solution

A phase box is a simple, single-book enclosure made from acid-free board, typically 4-ply or 6-ply archival board. It is cut and folded to wrap around the book, holding it snugly within the box without adhesive. Phase boxes are called “phase” boxes because they originated as a cost-effective interim measure (a “phase” of treatment) for collections where professional conservation of every volume is not immediately possible. They provide the book with a microenvironment that buffers temperature and humidity fluctuations, keeps light off the binding, prevents dust accumulation, and protects against incidental handling damage.

Phase boxes can be constructed by a trained staff member or advanced collector using a bone folder, a metal ruler, and scored acid-free board. They can also be ordered custom-made from conservation suppliers. For collections of moderate size, having phase boxes made for the most valuable or most fragile volumes is a practical and cost-effective preservation step.

Clamshell Boxes: Museum-Quality Protection

A clamshell box (also called a clamshell enclosure or drop-spine box) is a rigid, hinged enclosure that opens like a clamshell, with the book sitting in a precisely fitted tray. Clamshell boxes are the gold standard for rare and fragile books. They provide superior physical protection because the book is surrounded on all six sides by rigid walls that distribute impact loads rather than transmitting them to the book. They also maintain a stable microenvironment more effectively than phase boxes because the fit is tighter and the walls are thicker.

Custom clamshell boxes are made to the exact dimensions of a specific book and typically lined with archival-quality foam or book cloth. They are significantly more expensive than phase boxes. For books of museum-quality importance — seventeenth- or eighteenth-century volumes, association copies of major works, books with exceptional provenance — the investment in a properly fitted clamshell box is warranted and is standard practice among serious collectors and institutional libraries alike.

Archival Boxes for Bulk Storage

For storage of books in quantity — estate collections, overflow storage, items awaiting cataloging — acid-free corrugated archival boxes are the appropriate choice. These are constructed from alkaline-buffered corrugated board and are available in standard book box sizes from conservation suppliers. They provide substantially better protection than standard moving boxes and represent a modest additional investment over regular cardboard.

When packing books in archival boxes for storage, stand the books upright if box depth permits and spine-to-spine to reduce friction on the jacket and boards. If you must lay books flat, stack them with the largest and heaviest at the bottom. Do not overfill boxes to the point where books must be forced in or out. Label boxes on the spine with contents, date packed, and storage location — this information disappears quickly without it and recovering an unmarked box from storage is unnecessarily difficult.

How to Pack Books for Moving

Moving a collection is one of the highest-risk events in its life. The combination of handling, vibration, temperature changes during transport, and the pressure of ill-fitted boxes causes damage that accumulates. A few principles for safe transport:

• Use boxes no larger than a standard copy paper box for books. Larger boxes packed with books become too heavy to handle safely and flex under their load, which transmits stress to the contents.
• Pack books spine-down in boxes, not spine-up. Spine-up packing puts the weight of the books on the headcap and spine top, which are structurally weaker than the spine itself.
• Fill empty space in boxes with acid-free tissue or clean newsprint (not printed) to prevent books from shifting during transport.
• For books of significant value, wrap each volume individually in acid-free tissue or clean cotton cloth before packing. This prevents boards and spines from abrading each other during vibration.
• If moving in summer heat, keep books in a climate-controlled vehicle or climate-controlled area during loading and unloading. Do not leave book boxes in a parked car in the New Mexico sun, where interior temperatures can reach 140°F or higher within minutes.
• Mark all book boxes “FRAGILE” and “THIS SIDE UP” and communicate to any helpers that these boxes are not to be stacked under heavier items.

Moving and need to get rid of books fast? I pick up books for free anywhere in the metro area. Call 702-496-4214 to schedule.

10. Climate Control Systems: From Micro-Environments to Whole-Room Solutions

The most effective preservation investment you can make, other than proper initial storage, is climate control. The choice of approach depends on the size of your collection, the stability of your existing environment, and the budget you can commit.

Whole-Room Climate Control

A room maintained at stable temperature and humidity by a properly sized and maintained refrigerated air conditioning system is the ideal storage environment for a significant collection. Modern split-system or central HVAC systems, when correctly specified, can maintain temperature within a degree or two year-round and can be combined with whole-room humidification and dehumidification to manage relative humidity. This is the approach used by institutional libraries and museums, and it is achievable in a residential setting for a dedicated book room.

In New Mexico, the primary humidity challenge is not dehumidification (as it would be in a humid climate) but humidification during the dry winter months and spring wind season. Central or room humidifiers maintain humidity above the 30% lower bound during the months when outdoor humidity drops to 10 to 15%. During monsoon season, a dehumidifier or careful use of refrigerated air conditioning (which dehumidifies as a byproduct of cooling) manages the humidity spikes.

Micro-Environments: Silica Gel and Enclosed Cases

For collectors who cannot climate-control an entire room, micro-environments provide targeted protection for the most valuable items. A micro-environment is an enclosed space — a glass-front bookcase, a clamshell box, an archival storage cabinet — within which humidity can be managed independently from the surrounding room.

Silica gel is the standard material for micro-environment humidity control. It is a granular desiccant (silicon dioxide in a porous, granular form) that adsorbs water vapor from the surrounding air. Preconditioned silica gel — gel that has been equilibrated to a specific relative humidity level — will both absorb excess moisture (if ambient humidity rises above its conditioning level) and release moisture (if ambient humidity drops below its conditioning level), functioning as a passive humidity buffer. Suppliers such as Talas and Conservation Resources offer silica gel preconditioned to specific target humidity levels (typically 45% or 50% RH for book storage).

Silica gel must be reconditioned periodically as it approaches saturation or exhaustion. Indicating silica gel (which contains cobalt chloride or a moisture-indicating dye) changes color when it needs reconditioning, simplifying monitoring. For an enclosed cabinet, a modest amount of preconditioned silica gel — properly calculated for the volume of the space — can maintain humidity within 5 to 8 percentage points of its target level for months between reconditioning cycles.

When Professional Climate Control Is Warranted

If your collection has reached a level where individual items represent significant value, the economics of professional climate control begin to make sense. The cost of a properly designed storage environment — whether a dedicated room in an existing structure or a purpose-built space — can be justified by the preservation of value that would otherwise be lost to environmental degradation over a decade or two. If you are unsure whether your collection warrants this level of investment, a conversation with a qualified appraiser or a professional conservator who specializes in private collections can help clarify the decision.

Not sure whether your collection justifies the investment? I evaluate libraries in Albuquerque homes regularly — text me a few photos at 702-496-4214 and I can give you a ballpark.

11. Pest Prevention: Silverfish, Carpet Beetles, and New Mexico’s Specific Threats

Insects and rodents can destroy books faster than almost any environmental factor. A single silverfish infestation over several months can damage dozens of volumes. A pack rat nest discovered in a storage area can mean a collection loss that is both financially and emotionally devastating. Prevention is not optional; it is the baseline.

Silverfish (Lepisma saccharina)

Silverfish are among the most common book pests worldwide. They are wingless insects that subsist on cellulose, starch, and protein-based materials — which means they eat paper, book cloth, paste adhesives, and leather. Their feeding produces irregular, scraped-out areas on paper surfaces, often removing the print along with the surface fibers. They move quickly, are nocturnal, and are very good at hiding in the spines and gutters of books.

Silverfish thrive in humid, dark, undisturbed environments — conditions that commonly exist in book storage areas. In New Mexico, they are present but generally less numerous than in humid climates. However, in bathrooms adjacent to book storage, in older adobe homes where humidity penetrates from the walls, or in any storage area that has experienced water intrusion, silverfish can establish populations that cause significant damage before they are detected.

Carpet Beetles and Their Larvae

The varied carpet beetle (Anthrenus verbasci) and related species are serious threats to leather bindings, vellum, and cloth-covered boards. The adult beetles are small and largely harmless to books; the larvae — called woolly bears, for their bristled, caterpillar-like appearance — are the destructive stage. Woolly bears feed on natural fibers: wool, silk, leather, feathers, and the glue in book bindings. They leave irregular damage patterns and shed their skins as they molt, which are diagnostic of their presence.

Carpet beetles in New Mexico are a year-round concern. They are commonly introduced on cut flowers, bird nests in or near the structure, natural fiber textiles, and pet fur. Regular inspection of books in storage — quarterly at minimum — for the presence of shed larval skins, frass (insect droppings), or feeding damage is the most effective early warning system.

Booklice (Psocids)

Booklice (order Psocoptera) are tiny, soft-bodied insects barely visible to the naked eye. They feed on mold spores, fungal growth, and paste adhesives in bookbindings. In dry New Mexico conditions, booklice are less common than in humid climates — they require relative humidity above about 60% to thrive. However, they can establish in the humid microenvironments created by water-damaged books, books stored near HVAC condensation lines, or books stored in contact with slightly damp walls. Their presence usually indicates a humidity problem that needs to be addressed independently of the insect issue.

New Mexico’s Specific Threats: Pack Rats and Mice

Pack rats (Neotoma species) are native to the Southwest and are a particular concern in adobe homes, older structures, and any building with gaps in the foundation or walls at or below grade. Pack rats are industrious nesters and will shred paper, cloth, and leather for nesting material. A single pack rat establishing a nest in a storage area over a winter can destroy irreplaceable books. Unlike insects, pack rat damage is immediately catastrophic rather than gradual. The urine and feces of rodents also introduce biological contamination that can support mold and bacteria on paper.

Mice are similarly destructive and similarly common in New Mexico’s older building stock. Mouse-proofing a storage space means sealing all gaps larger than a quarter inch with steel wool, metal flashing, or hardware cloth; not leaving food or organic material in the storage area; and inspecting regularly for evidence of entry (droppings, gnawed materials, smeared marks near entry points).

The Freezing Method for Pest Treatment

If you discover an active insect infestation in a book or group of books, the safest treatment for the books themselves is controlled freezing. Insects at all life stages — eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults — are killed by sustained exposure to temperatures below -4°F (-20°C). The freezing protocol used by professional conservators is: seal the infested books in sealed plastic bags (to prevent moisture condensation during the temperature transition), place them in a chest freezer at -4°F or below for at least 72 hours, then remove them and allow them to return to room temperature gradually over 24 to 48 hours while still sealed in the bags.

The gradual warming period is critical — if sealed books are allowed to warm quickly, the sudden warming causes moisture to condense on cold paper surfaces. The sealed bag traps this condensation outside the bag rather than on the book. Once the books have fully returned to room temperature, open the bags in your storage area, brush away any dead insects and debris, and inspect the books for damage before reshelving.

Why not use pesticides? Because pesticide residues on paper can themselves cause long-term chemical damage to books. Historical use of insecticides in library collections — particularly arsenic compounds and DDT used in the mid-twentieth century — has created ongoing conservation challenges. For modern collections, physical pest management (freezing, exclusion, environmental control) is strongly preferred over chemical treatment.

12. Handling Best Practices: The Cotton Glove Myth and Correct Technique

Handling damage is among the most common causes of book deterioration, and most of it comes not from carelessness but from habits that feel careful but are actually harmful. Let me address the most persistent myths and then walk through correct technique.

The Cotton Glove Myth

Cotton gloves became standard in museum handling practice decades ago, originally adopted from the photography world where fingerprint oils on photographic surfaces are a documented concern. The practice was extended, without specific research support, to book handling. In recent years, conservation research and practical experience have demonstrated that cotton gloves are counterproductive for handling books and most paper-based materials.

The problems are straightforward. Cotton gloves dramatically reduce tactile sensitivity, making it harder to feel whether a hinge is about to crack, whether a page is sticking to the adjacent page, or how much tension is on a fragile binding. They reduce grip, which makes it more likely you will drop or slip while handling a book. And cotton fibers can snag on protruding elements — leather ties, raised bands, tipped-in prints — causing damage that bare hands would avoid. The Library of Congress, the British Library, and the AIC now all recommend against cotton gloves for routine book handling.

The correct protocol is clean, dry hands. Wash your hands before handling valuable books. If your skin has natural oil that tends to leave fingerprints on surfaces, a light dusting with unperfumed talcum powder can reduce transfer without sacrificing tactile sensitivity. If you work with books regularly, keeping hand cream use minimal before handling sessions is a simple precaution. Nitrile gloves are appropriate for handling books that are heavily contaminated with biological material, mold, or unknown chemical residues — where the primary concern is your safety, not the book’s.

Removing Books from Shelves Correctly

The headcap — the small projecting cap of the spine at the head of the book — is the most fragile point of most bindings. It is also, unfortunately, the instinctive place to hook a finger when pulling a book from a tightly packed shelf. Headcap damage is one of the most common forms of binding injury seen on heavily used collections, and it is almost entirely preventable.

The correct technique: push the two books on either side of the one you want back on the shelf, creating space to grasp the book you want in the middle of its spine. Then pull it forward and out of the shelf. If the books on either side cannot be pushed back because the shelf is too tightly packed, remove several books at once to create adequate working space. The few extra seconds this takes are a worthwhile investment in the health of your bindings.

Opening a Book Correctly

Never force a book flat when opening it. Books are engineered with a specific opening angle in mind during binding — most modern commercial bindings are designed to open to about 120 to 140 degrees. Forcing a book beyond its designed opening angle puts stress on the spine liner, the kettle stitches (at the head and tail of the spine), and the adhesive layer between the spine and the case.

To open a book correctly, hold it upright by the spine in one hand, allow both covers to fall open under gravity, then gently open to the desired page. If the book resists opening without significant pressure, it is either too tightly bound in the first place (a manufacturing issue), the paper has cockled and is binding against itself, or the adhesive has failed in a way that causes the book to resist opening at certain points. Forcing through any of these resistances risks tearing pages or breaking the spine.

For rare books that you are reading or consulting, using a book cradle or book support — a wedge-shaped support that holds the book at a comfortable reading angle without forcing it flat — reduces handling stress significantly. These are available from conservation suppliers or can be made from acid-free board for a specific volume.

Transport Within Your Home

When carrying a book from one location to another, support it under the lower board with one hand and hold it upright (not horizontal) with the other. Carrying a large or heavy book supported only at its spine — as people naturally tend to do — puts the full weight of the text block on the spine and lower joint, which are not designed to bear that load. Never carry multiple books stacked in a single hand; they will shift and abrade each other. Use a flat-bottomed tray for transporting multiple books at once.

Have books you’re ready to part with? I offer free pickup across Albuquerque — call 702-496-4214.

13. Disaster Preparedness: Water, Fire, Smoke, and the First 48 Hours

No matter how well you maintain your storage environment, events outside your control can threaten your collection. A burst pipe, a roof failure during monsoon, a wildfire bringing smoke through unsealed windows, a flash flood in a low-lying storage area — these are real risks in New Mexico, and having a plan before disaster strikes dramatically improves your ability to salvage what matters.

Water Damage: The First 48 Hours

Water damage is the most common collection emergency. Books can survive water exposure — if the response is fast, appropriate, and systematic. The window for successful recovery is measured in hours, not days. Mold can begin growing on damp paper within 24 to 48 hours in warm conditions (above 70°F). Once mold is established on paper or leather, it is extremely difficult to arrest without professional intervention, and it leaves permanent staining and structural damage even after the mold is killed.

If books are wet, do the following immediately:

• Remove them from the water source and from contact with any materials still in contact with water.
• Do not try to open wet books. Wet paper fibers are swollen and extremely fragile. Forcing a wet book open will tear pages.
• Stand wet books upright on their lower edges on clean absorbent material (unprinted newsprint, paper towels, or cotton fabric) with air circulating around them. Do not stack wet books on top of each other.
• Use fans to circulate air, but do not direct fan airflow directly at the wet books. Circulating air around them is what you want — the goal is controlled drying, not rapid surface drying that causes the outer pages to dry unevenly relative to the inner pages.
• Do not apply heat. Space heaters or hair dryers focused on wet books cause rapid, uneven drying that results in severe cockling and can set stains permanently into paper fibers.
• If you cannot dry all the books within two days, freeze them. Pack wet books in sealed plastic bags (the sealing prevents additional moisture from the surrounding environment reaching the cold surfaces) and place them in a chest freezer. Frozen books can wait for professional freeze-drying treatment. Freeze-drying (sublimation drying) is the professional standard for mass water damage events and produces better results than air-drying for heavily soaked books.

Prioritizing Salvage

In any disaster scenario, time and capacity for response are limited. Knowing in advance what to save first reduces the paralysis that can cause irreversible losses in the first critical minutes. Consider maintaining a short written list of the ten to twenty items in your collection of greatest value or irreplaceability, stored somewhere accessible (not in the storage area itself). When disaster strikes, you work through that list first.

After life safety, the general priority order for book salvage is: unique or irreplaceable items first, then items of greatest financial value, then items of personal significance, then books in the best physical condition (since they are easiest to recover if damaged), and finally books already in compromised condition (which are both more vulnerable to disaster damage and more difficult to recover).

Fire and Smoke Damage

Books that survive a fire are often more damaged by smoke and soot than by the fire itself. Smoke particles are highly acidic and penetrate deep into paper and leather. Soot contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other combustion byproducts that are both chemically damaging and, in heavy deposits, cause immediate surface soiling. Smoke-affected books should be moved to clean air as quickly as possible, isolated from each other to prevent cross-contamination of soot, and assessed by a conservator before any cleaning is attempted. Do not attempt to wipe soot off book surfaces; dry soot particles are abrasive and wiping drives them further into the paper surface.

New Mexico’s Specific Risks: Wildfire Smoke and Flash Floods

Wildfire smoke is a seasonal reality in New Mexico, and smoke penetration into homes — even reasonably sealed homes — during nearby fire events is common. During major fire events, reducing air infiltration (closing windows and HVAC fresh-air intake dampers) protects both the people in the home and the collection. High-quality HEPA air filtration in the storage area can remove particulate matter from indoor air during smoke events.

Flash flooding is a significant risk for low-lying or below-grade storage in New Mexico, particularly along arroyos, in the South Valley, and in communities along drainage corridors. New Mexico’s desert soils have low absorption capacity, meaning that monsoon rainfall quickly becomes surface runoff that can arrive with almost no warning. Collections stored at or below grade in flood-risk areas should be elevated off the floor on shelving (minimum 4 to 6 inches), and waterproof storage options should be considered for the most valuable materials.

Insurance Documentation

A photographic inventory of your collection — images of each significant book including its copyright page, condition, and any identifying features — is essential for insurance claims following a disaster. Store this inventory off-site (cloud storage, a family member’s home, a safety deposit box). See the book collection insurance guide for detailed information on insuring a private collection and what documentation insurers require.

14. When to Call a Professional Conservator

One of the most important things I can tell you is what not to do yourself. The conservation field has a phrase for the damage caused by well-intentioned amateur repair: “do-it-yourself conservation.” It is said without affection. Amateur repair using inappropriate materials — rubber cement, household white glue, cellophane tape, Scotch tape, pressure-sensitive self-adhesive labels — creates damage that is often more difficult and expensive to remediate than the original problem would have been.

The Difference Between Conservation and Restoration

These two terms are often used interchangeably but mean quite different things in the profession. Conservation refers to treatment that stabilizes and preserves the existing material — stopping deterioration, consolidating fragile areas, cleaning harmful deposits, creating appropriate storage environments. The goal of conservation is minimal intervention and maximum preservation of original material. Restoration refers to treatment that attempts to return an object to a previous or idealized state, which may involve replacing lost material, rebinding in new materials, or altering the object’s current appearance to approximate its original appearance.

Conservation is almost always appropriate; restoration is sometimes appropriate and sometimes not, depending on the object and the goals of the owner. For collector purposes, restoration of a rare book typically reduces its collector value unless done in a way that is fully disclosed and uses reversible materials. A rebound first edition, however attractively executed, is worth less than the same book in its original binding, even if the original binding is damaged.

What Professional Conservation Involves

A qualified book conservator will begin with a condition assessment, documenting the nature and extent of all damage before proposing any treatment. They will provide a written treatment proposal that describes what they plan to do, what materials they will use, and why. They will use reversible materials — adhesives and consolidants that can be removed in the future without damaging the original material — unless there is a specific reason not to. They will document the treatment with photographs before, during, and after. And they will be honest about what can and cannot be achieved.

Common conservation treatments for books include: surface cleaning of text blocks and covers; humidification and pressing to relax distorted boards and cockled pages; consolidation of powdering or delaminating surfaces; reattachment of loose or detached boards; spine rebacking (replacing or reinforcing the spine lining while retaining the original case); paper mending using Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste; and deacidification of acidic paper.

Finding a Qualified Conservator

The American Institute for Conservation (AIC) maintains a Find a Conservator directory at culturalheritage.org. Search for conservators with specialization in “books and paper.” The AIC does not endorse specific conservators, but listing in the directory indicates membership in the professional organization. Professional Associates (PA) and Fellows (FAIC) of the AIC have demonstrated competency through peer review and adhere to the AIC’s code of ethics, which requires use of reversible materials and full documentation.

In New Mexico, you may need to look to conservators in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, or major cities in adjacent states. For books of significant value, the travel or shipping cost involved in reaching a well-qualified conservator is almost always worth it relative to the risk of using an unqualified practitioner. When shipping books for conservation assessment, use the packing methods described in the boxing section and insure the shipment for the book’s full replacement value.

What NOT to Do at Home

These are the interventions that consistently cause irreversible damage and should never be attempted at home on books of value:

• Applying pressure-sensitive tape of any kind to paper or binding elements. This includes Scotch tape, masking tape, cellophane tape, and “book repair tape.” All pressure-sensitive tapes eventually fail, stain, and require professional removal that is expensive and risky.
• Using rubber cement or household white glue (Elmer’s, PVA sold as “book glue” without archival specifications) to reattach loose pages or bindings. These adhesives are not reversible without damaging the paper.
• Washing paper in water to clean it. Paper washing is a legitimate professional conservation technique that requires controlled conditions, appropriate pH, and specific drying support. At home, washing paper causes severe distortion and can destroy fragile media.
• Erasing pencil or ink from pages without professional assessment. Mechanical erasure can abrade weakened paper; chemical erasure can affect surrounding media.
• Attempting to repair vellum with any materials not specifically designed for vellum. Vellum (made from processed animal skin) responds very differently from paper and requires specialist treatment.

Frequently Asked Questions