Book Lovers Invited to Hands-On Conservation Workshop at Livingston Manor Library

Attention book lovers: the Livingston Manor Library is hosting a unique program this week on how to preserve and protect your personal library. On Thursday, September 4 at 6:00 p.m., professional book conservator Cara Schlesinger will lead a hands-on presentation about book conservation and care.

“Book conservation is the field that encompasses the care and preservation of books so that people can continue using them after they leave our hands and they move on to the next generations and into the future,” Schlesinger explained. “Conservators are concerned with everything from the environmental conditions where books are stored, so temperature and humidity, to pest management.”

Schlesinger, who has been practicing conservation for more than 20 years, will guide participants through both preventive care and simple at-home repairs.

“These are books that we use, that we handle, that we interact with. And so there are ways to keep those books safe even as we’re interacting with them,” she said.

Tips, Demonstrations, and Starch Paste
The evening will include demonstrations on how to handle torn pages, loose bindings, and protective wrapping methods. Schlesinger will also introduce attendees to starch paste, a traditional material used in bookbinding and paper repair.

“Starch paste has actually been used since the first century AD, where there is a record of it being used to make papyrus,” she said. “In the West and also in the East, we traditionally use wheat starch… but you can also use corn starch from the store. It works just as well and I’ll demonstrate how to do that.”

The Craftsmanship of Conservation
Schlesinger noted that book conservation requires both historical knowledge and technical skill. “You need to know so much about the history of books so that when a book is broken, you know the appropriate way to address it… I listen to the books. I let them tell me what they need and then I work with them to give them the best that I can,” she said.

One of her most memorable projects was restoring an early Princeton yearbook made entirely of original photographs. “It was like doing detective work to look at what was left of the book to figure out what the original marbled paper looked like and how the book needed to go back together,” Schlesinger recalled.

More information is available at livingstonmanorlibrary.org. More information about Schlesinger is at carabooks.com

Image: Cara Schlesinger, the proprietor of Faenwyl Bindery, is a bench-trained bookbinder and book conservator. (Credit: Sophia Kramer).