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.

Contact:  Pedro Arroyo

Unit:  Acquisitions Services

Date last updated:  

Date of next review:  April 2018

Circulated Books

Newly Cataloged Books

Circulated Books

Damaged books from the collection are sent to Book Repair by Resource Services staff from all of the endowed libraries of the university. The Book Repair supervisor initially assesses the piece for possible transfer to RMC (based on year of publication and other factors). 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. This is because 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 (see below).


Selector Referral


Newly Cataloged Books

When damaged or deteriorated materials enter the workflow as new acquisitions (e.g. donations, orders, or approval books), LTS staff should perform the following steps:

  1. Input and catalog the piece
  2. Circle "Special Handling" at the top of the book flyer, and write "To Book Repair" on either the top or bottom of the flyer.
  3. Physical Processing staff will send the book to Book Repair, 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:

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:

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.