CARE OF BOOKS.

Northern Advocate, 29 December 1934, Page 4

CARE OF BOOKS.

Never pack books away! If you have already done so, turn those out and do not pack any away again. If they are used so seldom you may as well get a small price for them. If you pack them away they will only deteriorate. Books should never be packed close together! They are very susceptible to damp, so they should always be placed so that air can circulate around them.

Watch a library assistant; he or she never takes a book down from a shelf without slapping it. Gentle slapping is very good for books.

If your books are on shelves, ' go through them every now and then, slapping the books gently together to remove dust. Never dust books until you have done this; if you do you will only send the dust into them. If your books are in a bookcase, turn the case out sometimes. Open the books and shut them again sharply, but never open books so wide that you stretch or break the binding—quite an easy thing to do if you are too vigorous—and never leave a book open face downwards.

Valuable leather bindings can be treated to a very sparing application of furniture cream, and then polished. When the back of a binding has come away from the rest, stick on again with a very little glue, and if a binding is coming loose from the inside secure again by sticking a firm piece of paper on the inside, covering the edges which are coming loose. Edges of leaves, which have become very dusty, can be rubbed with some fine pumice powder and then brushed.

A good many stains on pages may be removed with the help of a little bread, but grease marks are more difficult. If you care to take the trouble, and if the book is at all valuable, it will be well worth it; you can get out grease stains by treating them with French chalk and then applying a warm iron over brown paper. Books repay a little attention, so don’t forget them or neglect them, and don’t only remember them in the spring.