History

The Book Hospital is a collection of over 6500 books from Houghton Library needing repair and set aside for that purpose. It was started in the 1990s by staff retrieving the books and deciding they needed repair. The collection comprises mostly rare books and is housed in the northwest corner of the sub-basement level.

Project

In 2019, the Manager of Technical Services in consultation with the Preservation Librarian, took the initiative to begin work on preserving the books. Repair work was not possible given the staffing of the department, so preservation was determined to be an appropriate intervention.

In April 2019, a Library Assistant was hired to oversee the project. The books were placed in archival cases, their records updated, and the cases labeled and barcoded. The books were sent to the off-site facility called the Harvard Depository in Southborough, Massachusetts for shelving in a strict climate-controlled environment.The project was placed on hiatus in March 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the work-at-home mandate. Approximately 2500 volumes were processed before the mandate. There are an estimated 4000 volumes yet to process.

Books Issues

The books are in various states of disrepair including:

• separated front and/or back covers,
• loose spines,
• split spines,
• missing spine covers,
• loose pages,
• torn pages,
• red rot, and
• water damage.