We will cover determining safe opening angles, how much to tilt, how to construct basic museum board cradles for open and closed books, accommodations for special shapes, and how to make the wedge to tilt. These cradles are economical (I can generally make mine out of mounting scraps, depending on the size of the book), quick (30–45 min once you get going), easy to customise, and recyclable/compostable. You'll be given notes to remind you about the measurements.

POSTPONED: New date October 12.
Papyrus is one of the oldest materials used as a substrate to carry the written word. Marieka Kaye, conservator of the papyrus collection at the University of Michigan Library, will give an overview of the manufacture, use, and properties of papyrus as it has been used for writing and codex construction. This overview will be followed by a discussion of preservation concerns and recommendations for care. 

Alberto Campagnolo and Sonja Schwoll will discuss current approaches and trends in Conservation Documentation—in person and online

The stationery binding is a unique, understudied body of hand-bound blank-book bindings representing a quintessentially quotidian element of the medieval to 19th century bookkeeper’s life. Join us at The National Archives, Kew, as we map the birth and development of the late medieval (1300 – 1500) English stationery binding’s structure from roll to codex through a series of presentations, open object displays and a bookbinding workshop.
Online/In-person options

The Anabaptist community in early America created and used devotionals with bookbinding features not commonly seen outside that community. This talk will explore those structural and decorative binding features, while placing these devotionals in a context of European Swiss Anabaptist books, and touching on the ways Anabaptists used devotionals in their community life.

The talk will present early development and evolution of Korean bookbinding within the context of East Asian bookbinding history. From scrolls to side-stitched books, different styles mark subsequent stages of the evolution of Korean bookbinding, but the whole process was always more of the enrichment rather than replacement. The most representative Korean binding style, side-stitched books, evolved under the influence of China, but its uniqueness can be recognised in details of style, paper, decorations, and in printing techniques. The author will talk about fine points of the Korean binding structure, characteristics of paper and ink with examples, and also discuss conservation treatment and storage issues regarding Korean books.

Alberto Campagnolo and Sonja Schwoll will discuss current approaches and trends in conservation documentation. Alberto will highlight historical trends in conservation documentation: from ledgers, index and punch cards to linked-data and knowledge-representation systems. Sonja will give an overview about the ResearchSpace knowledge system as it is now used in Collection Care at The National Archives UK.

Learn to make a bespoke book cradle for exhibition out of mount board, as described in Chapter 21 of Conservation of Books

A one-day workshop taught by Sonja Schwoll which will introduce various soft paper binding structures which are particularly useful as reversible conservation bindings. You will learn how to adopt the method for various situations and available materials. A ticket for this class also gives you access to a lecture on the underlying principles of this structure, to be given online two days earlier on May 24.

What is a conservation binding—is there any such thing? Should we be rebinding books? What can we learn from rebindings of the past?

This online talk provides the foundational principles behind Sonja’s in-person class on soft paper bindings on May 26. Sonja will explore the history of the idea of the conservation binding and its features, what to consider in making the decision to rebind, and potential of the soft paper binding to serve as an appropriate structure for this purpose. She is co-author of Chapter 26 of Conservation of Books, “Binding Structure, Functionality, and Integrity” which explores various case studies of rebindings.

The talk by Martha Romero will be about the process she and her co-author María Ángela Silvetti followed to write Chapter 9 of the book Conservation of books, which were the main challenges, the information available about bookbinding in Latin America, the collaborators, the photographs, and the finally content of the chapter. Romero will also talk about the conclusions about regional bookbinding and research lines that are still open about the subject.
Co-hosted by the Icon Book & Paper Group