February 3, 2017

On January 10, 2017, Drexel University Libraries employees Stephanie Davis and Lydia Smith joined more than 30 other library professionals from the region at the Tri-State College Library Cooperative's (TCLC) 2017 Book Repair Winter workshop at Immaculata University.                         

'We gathered with fellow librarians and support staff to learn and share knowledge of book repair,' Smith reported following the workshop. 'The event taught us new ways to repair books and was also a great opportunity for networking.' The workshop - or 'unconference,' as it was called - provided training on easy, low-cost, and effective ways to make library resources more stable and secure. Event organizers demonstrated several different book repair products and tools that are often used to help restore and extend the shelf lives of books.

Attendees also had the opportunity to test out two of the machines - one that binds books and another that creates custom book jackets to protect materials.

'A lot of self-taught methods and former equipment I used are still valuable to libraries today. It was also nice to learn some new repair tricks that could save on the cost of binding,' Davis added.

Now that the workshop is over, Davis and Smith plan to document the practices they learned at the workshop and to train other interested staff members to use some of these techniques.