Caring for books
It is inevitable that some library books will be damaged by accidents or general wear and tear.
Our primary focus is building readers. We don’t recommend charging families for damaged books. Many schools factor a level of loss into their yearly budget.
Many school library staff teach students how to care for books in a positive way. Demco have a blog post that primary school staff may find useful – 8 Tips to teach book care basics.
Resources about caring for library collections:
- Basic Care of Books – Canadian Conservation Institute
- Caring for Your Books – The University of Chicago Library
Assessing damage
When a book is damaged you need to balance the cost of repairs with the cost of buying another copy. Many schools don’t have the time or materials to repair books.
Repairs can make books look shabby, so students often won’t want to borrow them. Repaired books can also weaken the structure and increase the risk of further damage.
Factors to consider:
- Do you need to keep the book?
- Has the book already been repaired?
- Do you have the materials and tools?
- Do you have the time and expertise?
It is often cheaper to replace popular books and limit repairs to precious and rare items.
We recommend that you withdraw shabby and damaged books to create more face-out space to display your best books.
Repairs
Resources about repairing books:
- Book covering and repair – how to guides (YouTube) – Raeco
- Book repairs (YouTube) – Quantum Libraries
- Repairing a loose spine (YouTube) – Bodlian Libraries
- Librarians share their best book repair tips – Demco
- Book Doctor blog – Demco
- Book repair (PDF 113 KB) – Granite School District
Disasters
If your library has a fire or flood, reach out to the library community for help.
Resources about disaster prevention and recovery:
- Fire, flood and mould – AICCM
- Disaster management for libraries – ALIA
- Disaster management plan for library collections – UTAS
