Hello Kathy,

If you have access to a paper conservator or preservation department at Clemson, I would recommend reaching out to them for advice.

In any case, the materials we used in our library's Preservation Department were PVA glue (white, but it dries clear) and for light jobs we would use an acid-free, photo-safe Glue Stic or Uhu Glue Stick in the book lab. The PVA was used for building custom boxes and binding. Glue Stic for inserting gift bookplates. For repairing paper tears and matting we used Japanese tissue with wheat starch paste. All are reversible treatments.

The materials are available through conservation and archival material suppliers such as:

Hollinger Metal Edge

University Products

Gaylord

Talas

Good luck,

Malia

(formerly in Preservation Management)

Malia Van Heukelem

Art Archivist Librarian

Jean Charlot Collection

University of Hawaii at Manoa

808-956-2849

On Mon, Jan 3, 2022 at 5:56 AM Kathy Edwards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I love a puzzle probably twice as much as the next person, but some challenges are more challenging than others.

 

Doing a stringent weed of the Gunnin’s reference collection, yesterday I came across the title in the subject line, contained in a three-ring binder, vintage 1974. As I transferred the binder to my ‘working’ book cart, it left behind a delightful stream of colorful little squares—on the shelf, across the carpet, on my shoes. Sigh.

 

Making sure to gather up every one of them, I opened the binder on my work table—only to discover a dozen or more colorful squares caught in the binder’s spine and/or otherwise wandering about between the page leaves. Every turn of a page released another one or two.

 

At first I resorted to Elmer’s glue, for those color bits whose place I was sure I knew. I’m pretty good with color. But the deeper into the atlas I got, the more the situation devolved into hopelessness.

 

So I took it home with me, and on the kitchen counter—with a supply of paper clips—I gathered the loose color samples into what I settled upon as related groupings. Those I could definitively associate with a specific placing I clipped to the top of the page.

 

But still---If I were to repair it (assuming it still has use value, which remains an open question), what sort of glue should I use? The original substance held up for nearly 50 years—impressive.

 

Any advice appreciated, and—Happy 2022. May all the year’s challenges be this mundane…

 

Kathy

 

Kathy Edwards

Librarian, Emery A. Gunnin Architecture Library

2-112 Lee Hall

Clemson University

[log in to unmask]

864.656.4289

Schedule an appointment with me

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/membership/join-arlisna Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/membership/join-arlisna Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~