Preservation & Collections Care

The Bindery Preparation unit is responsible for fulfilling the binding needs of all of the Libraries’ collections. We also provide archival quality enclosures for brittle or fragile materials. We do our best to provide thoughtful, cost-effective judgments regarding the handling of all of the collections through good preservation practices.

The Shelf Preparation unit prepares circulating and reference materials for shelving, circulation or transfer to our off-site storage facility, PASCAL. Most items receive a property stamp, a security device and a label with location and call number information.

The Conservation unit provides intermediate and advanced conservation treatments for both circulating and non-circulating collections. Treatments include a wide range of repairs, archival enclosures of all types, conservation matting, board attachment, cloth rebacks, tissue mends and encapsulation of flat documents.

The Book Repair unit provides quick and simple repairs for the general collections such as spine mends, tip-ins, hinge mends or pamphlet binding.

The Assessment and Processing unit reviews Rare and Distinctive Collections materials for possible treatment prior to transfer offsite as well as providing enclosures, and performing preservation processing for materials transferring offsite.