[PADG:2120] prioritizing book repairs

["Douglas Sanders" <dsanders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Verdana'>Here at the Indiana Historical Society, we have over
70,000 volumes in our collection.  They are available for researchers and
public to use in-house.  To date, no survey has been done of their
condition from a conservation standpoint, though we have consistently surveyed
other types of holdings such as maps, pamphlets, graphic works, etc. and could
adapt their protocol.

<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Verdana'>In the past, if a volume has needed repair, it has
generally been recognized as such by a member of the library staff in a
haphazard fashion, then passed on to Conservation.  Once several are
collected, they are sent off to a local commercial bindery for repairs. 

<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Verdana'>With recent changes of staff, we are now able to do some
repairs in-house, and are examining ways by which needy books will find their
way into the Conservation Lab.  One option is to begin the huge process of
surveying books in storage from point A to Z, and establishing various levels
of priority- all of which seems very inefficient.  Another option, which
seems more feasible is to introduce prioritization at point of return from
circulation. <span style='font-size:
 10.0pt;font-family:Verdana'> Library<font size=2
face=Verdana> reading room
staff could be trained to recognize signs of damage, then pass the &#8216;flagged&#8217;
information on to Conservation.  This results in a public needs-based
prioritization.  Another method would be to examine our use statistics to
find the volumes that get the most requests and go to them first to check their
condition.

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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Verdana'>I would appreciate receiving comments from others about
what works and what doesn&#8217;t in terms of bringing non-surveyed items into
the lab, as we&#8217;re starting almost from scratch.

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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
 font-family:Arial'>Douglas Sanders

<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Conservator

<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Indiana Historical Society

<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>450 West Ohio Street

<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269

<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>tel: 317-234-0045

<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>dsanders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx