Yeah, it didn't go so well. A faculty member donated a young adult book to the library. To put it nicely, it was not in the greatest condition. Pages falling out, the cover was extremely worn on the corners. Personally, I love old books, even ones that are falling apart. There's just something special about them to me. However, for a library that hopes to move toward circulating part of its collection, it's not such a good thing.
So first I tried to glue the pages back into the binding using a special book binding glue. Apparantely the book's pages were not acid free (something I should've known right away since the pages were yellowish-brown and very brittle) so the glue seeped into each page individually making them extra dry and crackly. Okay, bad choice. Next I tried using book binding tape to put the pages back into their seams. Because of my spectacular skills as a seamstress, NONE of the pages were aligned and most were at least half an inch away from the cover of the book. As you know, they're either supposed to be flesh with the cover or shorter. Finally, to top it all off, after I taped and glued these suckers back in, I reviewed my work and noticed the pages were...yes...out of order. I HATE BOOKS!! Okay, no, I don't hate books. But I was so frustrated I had to set the book somewhere far from my reach and work on something else. Otherwise the book was destined to be destroyed. Oh well.
Other than the preservation disaster, I have to say I really like my job (knock on wood). I feel like my skills are being used, people respect and appreciate me and value my professional opinion...it's so bizarre. Plus they're paying for my way into the American Library Association's annual conference this weekend in Chicago! I'll be able to geek out with other library geeks all weekend! Yes!
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