Scope: Staff of Library Technical Services and the Department of Preservation and Collection Maintenance regularly handle books that are damaged and deteriorated. The following describes the general procedures for processing these items, identified either at the point of use, or on entering the acquisitions workflow in Olin LTS. Damaged/deteriorated books are those that have obvious damage to the binding (torn spine, loose boards, detached leaves, etc.) and that also have paper that will not withstand a double corner fold. Books with intact hardcover bindings, irrespective of paper condition, are not covered by this procedure.
Contact: Pedro Arroyo
Unit: Acquisitions Services
Date last updated: 05/04/2017
Date of next review: April 2018
Circulated Books
For Preservation staff, the largest category of damaged/deteriorated books enters the workflow as a consequence of circulation. Damaged books are sent to Preservation by Access Services staff from all the endowed libraries of the university. The following decisions are made by the Book Repair supervisor: (a) if the book is published prior to 1850, it is brought to the attention of Rare Books staff to determine whether it should be transferred to Kroch, (b) if the paper is sound, the book is repaired and returned to the shelf within a 48-hour period; (c) if the paper is brittle, it is given to the brittle books coordinator and reformatted via Olin Photocopy Services and charged to the Brittle Book Replacement account administered by Preservation; (d) Olin Photocopy Services staff return the original and the copy via a return shelf to the brittle books coordinator, who checks for copy accuracy and passes the photocopy to the Commercial Binding Office for binding; (e) when binding is complete, the book is returned to the brittle books coordinator for a final check, then the original is discarded and the bound photocopy passed on to Cataloging staff for record revision with a slip marked PHOTOCOPY REPLACEMENT.
Uncataloged Books
When books that are damaged or deteriorated enter the workflow because of selection decisions by selectors, often as a result of a donation; or they are ordered and the condition does not become apparent until the item is received. As books in this category should not be shelved in damaged condition, it is important that a repair, discard, or reformatting decision be made prior to cataloging. Books that are found by LTS Olin staff to be damaged should be placed on the Preservation Decision Shelf in Olin Acquisitions.
Every Friday a staff member from the Conservation Unit comes to LTS Olin to examine these books. These books will be flagged with one of two flyers, (a) "PLEASE ROUTE TO CONSERVATION" or (b) "BOOK TOO DETERIORATED FOR CATALOGING - PLEASE DISCARD OR REPLACE WITH PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY". The flagged books are then given to the Inputting Unit supervisor.
The books flagged "REPAIR AFTER CATALOGING" are re-entered into the processing stream as follows:
- Those that have not yet been input (i.e. have no Voyager record) will be placed on the inputting shelves.
- Those that have been input, but not yet cataloged, will go into the proper cataloging stream.
NOTE: LTS staff should leave the “Route to Conservation” flyer in the piece when they take it to Physical Processing after it’s been cataloged.
The books flagged "BOOK TOO DETERIORATED FOR CATALOGING?" are placed on selectors review shelves, with a flyer indicating that the selector either:
- Have the item discarded, or
- Have the book reformatted and cataloged, providing the appropriate fund to which it should be charged.
After the selector has made a decision and checks the flyer, the item should be placed on the "Selectors Decision" shelf.
If the item is to be discarded, Gifts staff will dispose of it. If the book has already been entered into Voyager, Gifts staff will have the record deleted from Voyager, and return the book to Gifts for disposal.
If the item is to be reformatted, Gifts staff will take it to the Olin Copy Center. Copy Center staff will reformat the book and return it to Gifts staff, where it will re-enter the processing stream in LTS Olin.