How to Care for Old Books

Handle your old books while wearing cotton gloves. Your hands are covered in oils and dirt that can hurt books. The exception is leather bound books as they can sometimes benefit from these oils, keeping the leather supple.

Store the book in a place where it will be able to avoid heat, humidity and light. You might want to display the book in a frame for everyone to see, but this will just allow UV light to bleach the color out and allow temperature changes to weaken the binding. Humidity needs to be controlled because books, of course, are made from paper, and this makes them extremely sensitive to changes in humidity.

Remove old books from the shelf in a way that preserves the binding. Don’t pull them by the binding, as this focuses a lot of force on them. Remove a delicate old book by sliding it off between two other books.

Perform fixes with acid-free materials. Over time, acid in pages or from your fingers will cause big problems and cause a book to fall apart. Use acid-free paper tape to put torn pages back together. Strengthen a binding by taping pieces of acid-free paper between the cover and front page.

Store books properly. Large books should be placed on their sides. Never store books in plastic, as books need to breathe, too. Don’t wrap them in newspaper, as these contain acids.