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Salvaging Water-Damaged Books

Posted by Penny Cook on March 9, 2018 at 10:53am

Hi all,

I'd love to know if anyone has any advice on whether it's possible to salvage a book that has suffered water damage in the past, and the pages have become stuck together as they dried.

The paper has that slightly glossy finish that comes with colour printing. Is there any process that can be used to pry the pages apart?

Many of the pages have hand-written annotations, which are of sentimental value to the owner.

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Replies

  • H. Edwards-Hedley March 12, 2018 at 10:31pm

    The following contact may be a useful source of information on this subject.

    Emma Dadson - Key Account Director

    Harwell

    Telephone: 01235 432245 M. 07887 984870 W. www.harwellrestoration.co.uk

    Email: emma.dadson@hdrs.co.uk

  • Penny Cook March 12, 2018 at 7:54am

    Thanks David, I have a feeling there won't be much I can do now, but I just wanted to see if there was any chance.

  • David Adams March 12, 2018 at 6:54am

    Hi Penny,

    From my understanding and feedback from our Conservators, glossy pages like this usually are not recoverable from freeze drying, even when they are kept wet, frozen immediately and processed in a freeze drier. You would need to consult a Conservator on what success that they may have treating this.

    Regards

    David

  • Penny Cook March 9, 2018 at 4:30pm

    Thanks for your reply, Kay - I suspect the book might not be salvagable, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

    I'm only dealing with one volume, but the damage was only discovered a long time after it occurred, by which time the book had dried out and the pages had fused.

    I might try a spatula in a small test area to see how that goes.

  • Penny Cook March 9, 2018 at 4:24pm

    Thanks Luisa, I'll check it out!

  • Luisa Moscato March 9, 2018 at 4:12pm

    Penny, There was a great article on the Facebook page of the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials (AICCM) posted on 5 March this year regarding The Australian National University's Chiefly Library's flooding. It was sources from an ABC News item by Jake Evans updated on 2nd March....granted it is of a recent flood.

    I outsource damage to publications to conservators.

  • Kay Soderlund March 9, 2018 at 3:24pm

    Hello Penny

    This book sounds like the paper is similar to 'coffee table' books, ie has a high clay content. Unfortunately, once the pages are dried after being wet, they are essentially 'glued' together. They are notoriously difficult books to salvage in a disaster, and really need to be attended to immediately to have a chance of surviving. When there a lot of them, freeze drying is a good option for salvage. When just a few, and if there is time, separating the pages while wet and keeping an interleaving material inserted while drying offers a chance of salvage. The only suggestion I can make is to try to gently pry the pages apart with a thin spatula - sometimes this is successful if the pages are not too stuck together. Good luck - and if you would like to talk further about the problem please call us at Preservation Australia - 02 9568 4841.

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