Unusual Damage to Books

Most damage to library materials is a result of normal use and abuse including torn pages, broken spines and annotations applied by thoughtless patrons. Occasionally, however, library conservators and preservation specialists encounter surprising, amusing, or outrageous kinds of damage. Below are just a few examples of usual damages encountered recently by preservation staff at CARLI member libraries.

This empty case was found in the stacks by shelving staff. A patron used a blade to excise the entire text block. The title of the book: Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthrough Program to End Negative Behavior….and Feel Great Again. Obviously, the item was a total loss.

A user has destructively excised a small portion of this map when it was folded, producing a duplicate series of holes when the map was unfolded.

Perhaps by accident (or intentionally), a corner ripped from this page has produced a rather usual visual effect. This damage would have to be repaired by attaching a patch of japanese tissue, but the image can't be fully restored.

This severely mutilated book had nearly every page sliced and diced with multiple images and, in some cases, entire pages removed.

A severely annotated volume. Note the markings are in different colors of inks and in several different hands—demonstrating that one set of markings encourage subsequent users to annotate as well. One more reason to keep your collection free of annotations.

Don’t rest books on a hot surfaces. The heat (A stove top? A space heater?) cooked a pattern through the front cover into the first few pages. A new case and replacement of the damaged leaves made this item useable again.

More fire damage. Nobody could fiigure out how and why this occurred. Fortunately, the item was saved by trimming off the damage and replacing the case.

Not all damage is bad news. While removing a worn spine for replacement, this usually creative spine lining was revealed. Binderies often recycled materials for spine linings, but rarely in such an artful manner.

Thanks to M-J Long and Katie Risseeuw for images.