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Scope: Staff of the Library Technical Services and the Department of , Preservation, and Collection Maintenance Resource Services departments regularly handle books that are damaged and deteriorated. The following This procedure describes the general procedures for processing steps for adding or maintaining these items, identified either at the point of use, or on entering the acquisitions workflow in Olin LTS (as from a donation or order). 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 NOT covered by this procedure, whether or not the paper is brittle. Similarly, any items having the appearance or odor of mold should immediately be enclosed in a plastic bag, and be taken to directly to either the DBQ Supervisor or to the Book Repair supervisor, without proceeding through any of the steps below. These items should be isolated from other material and strictly assessed for inclusion into the collection, to prevent potential cross-contamination.
Contact: Pedro Arroyo
Unit: Acquisitions Services
Date last updated: 05/04/2017
Date of next review: April 20182026
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Circulated Books
Selector Referrals and Decisions
Examples of Items to send to Book Repair
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Damaged books from the collection are sent to Book Repair by staff from all of 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 assesses the piece for possible transfer to RMC (based on year of publication and other factors), and if referral to RMC is not necessary, the Book Repair supervisor makes one of the following decisions:
- If the paper is not fragile, and the sewing is sound, the book is repaired and returned to the
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- appropriate library as quickly as possible.
- If the paper is fragile enough so that normal use may cause damage, AND the exact copy of the item in-hand has been digitized for HathiTrust or other digital preservation service, the item is sent to DBQ for transfer to the Annex*, in an enclosure if necessary.
- If the paper is too fragile for normal use, and the exact item has NOT been digitized for preservation, the item will be sent to DBQ, who will refer it back to the selectors for their decision (see below).
2. Selector Referrals and DecisionsAnchor B B
When a cataloged, NON-digitized item in poor condition is sent to the selector, they will make a decision about its retention, taking into account the following factors (among others):
- Whether CUL has other copies of the item
- Whether the item is available through Interlibrary Loan
- The nature and extent of the damage/deterioration
- Whether there is something unique about the copy in-hand (provenance, inscriptions, etc.) that necessitates its retention.
After considering these factors, the selector will notify the DBQ supervisor with one of the following decisions:
- Have the book digitized by DCAPS, enclose if necessary, and transfer to Annex.
- Enclose only (as applicable), and transfer to Annex*.
- Withdraw the item from CUL.
*Special Cases: while transferring single-part monographs to the Annex is the default, there are cases when an item will be enclosed and returned to the stacks instead. For example, if the fragile item is part of a large multi-volume set that has been digitized, and the rest of the volumes are not in fragile condition, it's preferable that they all stay together on a single Holdings, rather than A.) for a single volume to have a separate Annex holdings, or B.) to have to transfer the whole set to the Annex, based on the condition of a single volume.
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When damaged or deteriorated materials enter the workflow as new acquisitions (e.g. donations, orders, or approvals, etc.), LTS staff should perform the following steps:
- Input and catalog the piece
- Circle "Special Handling" at the top of the location flyer, and write "To Book Repair" on either across the top, or in the "Special Handling Notes" box at bottom of the flyer.
- Physical Processing staff will mark the piece and send it to the Book Repair unit, who will assess it in the same way as described above (see section 1/1), where the same chain of decisions will take place.
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4. Examples of Items to Send to Book Repair
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Below is a guide distributed to Resources Services staff, that helps identify damaged material that should be sent to Book Repair. If you see any damage that doesn't fit one of these examples, or if there is any doubt about whether the damage is significant enough, staff should send it to Book Repair anyway, and they will make the choice.
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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.