Conservation

The Mendery is the Libraries’ conservation unit. Each year, the Mendery staff provide repair, binding and protective enclosures for 10,000-12,000 items in the Libraries collections. This care is meant to preserve, stabilize or restore the usability of book and paper materials. The work compliments the services of Binding and Preservation, all of which work collaboratively to provide the most appropriate preservation treatment for materials.

• Repair includes page repair, reinforcing weakened hinges, re-sewing and re-backing of cloth bindings, and board reattachment for leather bindings.
• Pamphlet binding is used for items up to ½” thick. Sewing or stapling is used to attach this textblock to pre-made pamphlet covers. Pockets or folded enclosures may also be used in pam binders.
• Enclosures include sleeves for flat materials, pockets and wrappers within bindings, and archival corrugated clamshell boxes, and rare book boxes. All have the advantage of being custom sized for each item, which maximizes their protective benefit.