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Scope: Staff of the Library Technical Services, Preservation, and Resource Services departments regularly handle books that are damaged and deteriorated. This procedure describes the 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.). Books with intact hardcover bindings, are 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:  

Date of next review:  April 2026

Circulated Books

Selector Referrals and Decisions

Newly Acquired Books

Examples of Items to send to Book Repair

1. Circulated Books

Damaged books from the collection are sent to Book Repair by staff from all of the endowed libraries of the university. The Book Repair supervisor 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:

  1. If the paper is not fragile, and the sewing is sound, the book is repaired and returned to the appropriate library as quickly as possible.  
  2. 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. CUL is required to keep all physical items that have been digitized for preservation.
  3. 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 Decisions

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:

  1. Have the book digitized by DCAPS, enclose if necessary, and transfer to Annex.
  2. Enclose only (as applicable), and transfer to Annex*.
  3. 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.

3. Newly Acquired Books

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:

  1. Input and catalog the piece
  2. 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. 
  3. 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.

4. Examples of Items to Send to Book Repair

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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