Book Conservation
Spyderco makes a number of similar, smaller rescue blades primarily for EMT’s to cut people out of their seat belts in car wrecks. This blade is used to free trapped whales from fishing lines. It apparently attaches to a pole.
I really need one.
Cathleen A. Baker, founder of The Legacy Press, has just published Volume 2 of Suave Mechanicals, Edited by Julia Miller. I had a chance to read an early version of Jim Croft’s contribution, and it is packed full of information derived from a lifetime of working with wood and books, all presented in the unique Croftian style. I’m looking forward to reading the entire book, and just purchased it through the Chicago Distribution Center. And if you don’t have Volume 1, you are missing my own contribution, “Beating, Rolling and Pressing: The Compression of Signatures in Bookbinding Prior to Sewing” Buy them both and save on shipping!
VOLUME 2 INCLUDES:
Cathleen A. Baker • Examination and Image-Capturing Techniques
Thomas E. Conroy • Binding at Midcentury: The Rivers of America Competition of 1946
Thomas E. Conroy • Bio-Bibliographical List of Individual Bookbinders (on DVD)
Jim Croft • Finding Suitable Wood for Book Boards and Related Considerations (also on DVD)
Julia Miller • Puzzle Me This: Early Binding Fragments in the Papyrology Collection of the University of Michigan Library (additional images on DVD)
Rosa Scobey Moore • Finding Identity on the Endpapers: Folk Traditions of Writing and Drawing in Books
Pamela J. Spitzmueller • A Visual Dictionary of Traditional Long- and Linkstitch Bookbinding Terminology
Larger version of this advertisement: Suave Mechanicals Vol 2. Please circulate.
It is confusing for the public to understand the differences between Bookbinder, Book Restorer and Book Conservator. Book Conservationist is never used, except by the uninitiated. Below are how some of these terms are commonly used — more precisely, how I wish the terms were commonly used — in the United States.
Bookbinder: Someone who makes books consisting of partially prepared materials from other crafts, rebinds and sometimes repairs older books.
Book Restorer: Someone who makes old books look an imagined “new”.
Book Conservator: Someone who preserves the historic, intrinsic, artistic and artifactual value of books through preventive measures and physical intervention.
The New York Public Library has muddied the waters even further, with a program called New York Public Library Conservators. In this case, the term “Conservator” means someone who supports or maintains NYPL financially. This adds confusion, and creates the need for more explanation. But if you have an extra $15,000.00 – $24,999.00, you can call yourself a New York Public Library Carnegie Conservator, which sounds like an endowed professional position.
Further resources if you want to read more of my rants discussing these terms:
https://jeffpeachey.com/2010/03/30/outside-of-the-text-my-work-in-book-conservation/
https://jeffpeachey.com/2010/03/11/a-future-for-book-conservation-at-the-end-of-the-mechanical-age/
http://www.bookbindersmuseum.org/the-future-of-book-restoration/ The second comment.
https://jeffpeachey.com/2013/05/07/book-conservation-and-book-restoration-and-ngrams/
https://jeffpeachey.com/2008/11/11/comments-on-clarkson-conservation-and-craft/
Peachey Conservation 