To disbind or not disbind

Your advice is well taken.  I want to respond to make sure that my
description of the situation is clear:  The "rebinding" is casing in to
horrible library buckram with the highly acidic endpapers and was
probably done during the late 1940s or early 1950s.  It's aesthetically
repulsive in addition to the fact that the endpapers are burning the
books (visibly).  In other words, taking the books out of their cases
seems more like taking off a wooden leg that was irritating the skin
than like amputating a limb.  The amputation has already, unfortunately,
been done. Also, I don't propose to touch those vols. that have only
been rebacked--they are ok.--This just to clarify, in case my query was
misleading somehow. Perhaps you could add a further query.  If
interleaving with acid-free buffered paper is the best course, how long
will such a barrier hold up? Should the paper be changed out
periodically?

I already have many sad cases in the stacks, so I don't need to create
any more in order to justify a binding fund.   And I'm quite willing to
ignore aesthetics to do what's physically best for the books.

Thanks for your sensible advice.  All best, ebs

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 4:34
                 Distributed: Monday, December 24, 1990
                        Message Id: cdl-4-34-006
                                  ***