How to Rescue a Wet, Damaged Book: A Handy Visual Primer

in Art, Maps | June 27th, 2019 4 Comments

How to save those wet, dam­aged books? The ques­tion has to be asked. Above, you can watch a visu­al primer from the Syra­cuse Uni­ver­si­ty Libraries–peo­ple who know some­thing about tak­ing care of books. It con­tains a series of tips–some intu­itive, some less so–that will give you a clear action plan the next time water and paper meet.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Art of Mak­ing Old-Fash­ioned, Hand-Print­ed Books

How to Clean Your Vinyl Records with Wood Glue

How to Open a Wine Bot­tle with Your Shoe


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  • Asta says:
    June 27, 2019 at 10:05 pm

    Except, you should not press down the cov­ers first, as this will only fur­ther dis­trib­ute water residue across the pages (instead, fan the pages and shake them off first). Also, straight­en­ing the cor­ners of the pages before putting the book under press/weight will ensure that the leaves line up tighter. (Just my bib­lio OCD talk­ing:)

    Reply
  • Claire Jeanine Satin says:
    June 30, 2019 at 6:10 am

    Infor­ma­tion: dam­age to books after they have been sit­ting for a long while when they were dam­aged by water. How to treat them? Sal­vage­able ?

    Thank you for your help

    Also how to treat fix­ing ?

    Reply
  • Claire Jeanine Satin says:
    June 30, 2019 at 6:20 am

    How to cor­rect fox­ing on paper and fab­ric on books?

    Reply
  • Jamey Gladney says:
    July 11, 2019 at 11:41 am

    What is your sug­ges­tion on how to clean bug excre­ment from books that have been stored?

    Reply

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