Replied: Tue, 04 Feb 1997 15:05:53 EST Replied: "Mike Berro " From mikeb@massmedia.com Mon Jan 20 16:43:29 1997 Received: from MIT.EDU (SOUTH-STATION-ANNEX.MIT.EDU [18.72.1.2]) by bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU (8.7.6/2.3JIK) with SMTP id QAA19994; Mon, 20 Jan 1997 16:43:25 -0500 Received: from massmedia.earthlink.net by MIT.EDU with SMTP id AA05730; Mon, 20 Jan 97 16:37:26 EST Received: from mikeb.massmedia.com (mikeb.massmedia.com [204.250.42.48]) by netserver.massmedia.com (8.7.6/8.7.3) with SMTP id NAA17140 for ; Mon, 20 Jan 1997 13:37:09 -0800 Message-Id: <2.2.32.19970120133559.006d42cc@massmedia.com> X-Sender: mikeb@massmedia.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 2.2 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 13:35:59 +0000 To: news-answers@MIT.EDU From: Mike Berro Subject: New FAQ Submission - rec.collecting.books From: mikeb@massmedia.com (Mike Berro) Newsgroups: rec.collecting.books Subject: rec.collecting.books FAQ Followup-To: poster Summary: This article is a collection of information sources pertaining to book collecting. Archive-name: rec/collecting/books Posting-Frequency: bi-weekly rec.collecting.books FAQ Last-Modified: 16-Jan-97 Location: http://www.massmedia.com/~mikeb/rcb/ Feedback to: mikeb@massmedia.com If you have written something you think belongs in the FAQ that you don't see here and want included, please send it to me, as well as any corrections or additions you think should be made. Sections which are new or have been modified since the last version are marked with a plus sign (+) [many thanks to Ken Kapson for this suggestion.] Table of Contents ----------------- 0) What is REC.COLLECTING.BOOKS? 1) What Kind of Posts are Inappropriate? 2) What Kind of Posts are Appropriate? 3) How Do I Advertise My Cool Website? 4) How Do I Know If It's a First Edition? 5) Do Signatures Enhance Value? 6) Do Dust Jackets Enhance Value? 7) What is the Difference Between "First Edition" and "First Printing" 8) What does "Second Printing Before Publication" mean? 9) What Are Some Useful Guides to Collecting? +10) What Are Some Useful Guides to Repair and Conservation? 11) What Are Some Useful Price Guides? 12) Where Can I Find Conservation and Repair Supplies? 13) How Do I Cancel a Usenet Article I Posted? 14) What Do All Those Book Terms Mean? 15) How Do I Get Rid of That "Musty Smell"? 16) How Do I Remove A Label From A Dust Jacket? 17) Who Is Responsible For Shipping Problems? 18) How Do I Recognize a Book Club Edition? 19) What Do I Do About Bookloving Insects? 20) How Do I Validate an ISBN? 21) How Do I Describe the Sizes of Books? 22) How Do I Get Rid Of Unwanted Odors? 23) How Do I Care For My Leather Books? +24) Can I Fix A Cocked Or Slanted Spine? 0) What is REC.COLLECTING.BOOKS? -------------------------------- * It is an unmoderated Usenet newsgroup devoted to discussion and questions related to all aspects of book collecting. 1) What Kind of Posts are Inappropriate? ---------------------------------------- * Want to buy ... * For sale ... * Visit my commercial website. * A list of books for sale is available from ... * Before participating in Usenet you should make sure that you have read at least the articles on netiquette in news.announce.newusers. * More information can be found at; "Usenet Info Center Launch Pad" at the URL: http://sunsite.unc.edu/usenet-b/home.html. * and "The Beginner's Guide to the Internet" at the URL: http://www.frontiernet.net/~syoggy/beguide.html. 2) What Kind of Posts are Appropriate? -------------------------------------- * Who else collects ...? * Where can I find information about ...? * Event announcements: Fairs, shows, auctions, etc. * What information about it can anyone tell me? * About how much is it worth? * What edition do I have? * If nobody seems to be discussing what you want to talk about, post a (polite) message opening the discussion. Don't just say, "Does anyone want to talk about X" or "I really like X" however; try to have something interesting to say about the topic to get discussion going. Don't be angry or upset if no one responds. It may be that X is just a personal taste of your own, or quite obscure. Or it may be that X was discussed to death a few weeks ago, *just* before you came into the group. [Evelyn Leeper] 3) How Do I Advertise My Cool Website? -------------------------------------- * Add the information below your "signature". It is considered rude to just blurt out an ad, but if you join in the discussions people will see the information, and be more interested in visiting as well. 4) How Do I Know If It's a First Edition? ----------------------------------------- * Identifying a first edition is often the most difficult aspect of collecting books. You are welcome to ask about specific books on the newsgroup, but it can be beneficial to purchase a guide to identification. 5) Do Signatures Enhance Value? ------------------------------- * The signatures of the author(s) and/or artist(s) generally enhance the value of a book. If the book is inscribed to a (famous) friend or acquaintaince of the author, it is called an "association copy", and is usually even more desirable. 6) Do Dust Jackets Enhance Value? --------------------------------- * John Carter's 'ABC for Book Collectors' (1995 edition. p 82): "The earliest recorded dust-jacket dates from 1832..." [Steve Trussel] * For modern books, very much so; often a book without a DJ will be worth 10-20% of one that has it. [Mike Berro] 7) What is the Difference Between "First Edition" and "First Printing" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * Discussion of book editions, printings & states hinges on the printing technology used. From the time of Gutenberg in the later half of the 1400s to the first half of the 1800s the usual printing methods used moveable type; individual letters, symbols and characters set up on racks to form a mirror image of the desired text, and inked. Then paper is laid on top and pressed so the image of the type is transferred to the paper. Traditionally, an edition is all copies of a book printed from one setting of the type so the first edition is all copies printed from the first setting of type, with the type being dispersed and reused for other books. Reprinting would involve resetting the type from scratch which would allow for the correction of typographical and editorial errors, revision by the author or editor, the updating of information and expanding the amount of material covered. If the changes and corrections are substantive enough the publisher will describe a later printing as a second, revised, corrected or expanded edition. It is also possible to stop the printing process, reset a small section (one miss-spelled word or perhaps an entire page) and then carry on. That portion of the first printing/first edition before the pause would be the first state, after the pause would be the second state. A leaf or gathering of leaves might be reprinted and inserted into the book, replacing the original leaf or gathering even after the book was bound. Such inserted leaves are called cancels. Later printings of fiction, poetry etc. would probably not differ from the first except for correcting typographical and grammatical errors. [R. R. Knott] * Technological advances in the nineteenth century allowed for printing from a larger (usually)metal plate which would include the text of an entire page, leaf, gathering etc. This plate could be melted down and the metal reused or it could be stored and kept for later printings. Thus it is harder to change the text and make corrections but deletion of text (such as a date on the title-page) or the addition of text to a blank section (such as "Third Printing" on a copyright page) is still easy. [R. R. Knott] * "Modern First Editions" is an area of collecting (usually literature) where the establishment of the actual edition is paramount. Since there are seldom editorial changes made after the book is published the term "First Edition" really means "First Printing". The term "Second Printing before publication" indicates that the publisher received more orders for the book than anticipated and had to get it reprinted even before it was shipped. Any second printing and pre-publication printings of a title would not be of interest to most "First Edition' collectors. [R. R. Knott] 8) What does "Second Printing Before Publication" mean? ------------------------------------------------------- * It means that the book received enough orders (from booksellers) that additional copies were printed prior to the official publication (release) date. So it's a second printing. [Seth Steingraph] * In general, and especially for modern fiction books, the first printing is the only "collectible" edition. [Mike Berro] * However, in some cases, they are collectable in their own right to completists. For example Steinbeck's 'The Forgotten Village' indicates "Viking" at the bottom of the DJ spine on the first printing. But the "Second Printing Before Publication" copies state "Book League" at the bottom of the DJ spine. [Mike Henry] 9) What Are Some Useful Guides to Collecting? --------------------------------------------- * McBride's A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions (860) 523-7707 or (860) 523-1622. * Ahearn, Allen. Book Collecting: A Comprehensive Guide. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995. [Gerard Gormley] * Bradley, Van Allen. Gold In Your Attic. New York: Fleet Publishing, 19--. [Gerard Gormley] * Bradley, Van Allen. More Gold In Your Attic. New York: Fleet Publishing, 1961. [Gerard Gormley] * Carter, John. ABC For Book Collectors. New York: Knopf, 1966. [Gerard Gormley] * Tannen, Jack. How To Identify and Collect American First Editions. New York: Arco Publishing, 1985. [Gerard Gormley] * Wilson, Robert A. Modern Book Collecting. New York: Knopf, 1980 [Gerard Gormley] * Zempel, Edward N. and Linda A. Verkler. First Editions: A Guide To Identification, Second Edition. Peoria IL: Spoon River Press. [Gerard Gormley] * Muir, P. H. Book Collecting as a Hobby: In a Series of Letters to Everyman, Knopf 1947. [Ken MacIver] * Ellis, Ian C. Book Finds: How to Find, Buy, and Sell Used and Rare Books, 1996. [Ken MacIver] 10) What Are Some Useful Guides to Repair and Conservation? ----------------------------------------------------------- * Johnson, Arthur W., Thames & Hudson Manual of Bookbinding published by Thames and Hudson, 30 Bloomsbury Street, London England WCIB 3QP * Johnson, Arthur W., The Practical Guide to Book Repair and Conservation ISBN 0-500-01454-X published by Thames and Hudson, 30 Bloomsbury Street, London England WCIB 3QP * Conservation OnLine [CoOL], Resources for Conservation Professionals, a project of the Preservation Department of Stanford University Libraries at http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/. * Here is a Library of Congress website for FAQs regarding the preservation of books: http://lcweb.loc.gov/preserv/presfaq.html. [John P. Giunta] 11) What Are Some Useful Price Guides? -------------------------------------- * Zempel and Verkley. A Guide To First Editions, published by Spoon River Press, 2319-C West Rohmann, Peoria, Il 61604 phone (309) 672-2665, fax (309) 672-7853. * Reviews of over 30 book price guides and a few other key reference works are now online at my web site "http://members.aol.com/bookxpress/". [Seth Steingraph] 12) Where Can I Find Conservation and Repair Supplies? ------------------------------------------------------ * University Products at "http://www.universityproducts.com", 800-762-1165 * Brodart at "http://www.brodart.com/", 800-233-8467 * Gaylord at "http://www.gaylord.com/". 13) How Do I Cancel a Usenet Article I Posted? ---------------------------------------------- * Most newsreaders allow you cancel your own message. The exact procedure varies depending on the software, but usually you simply highlight the message and select "cancel article" from the menu. It may take some time before the message is cancelled from every news server. * An article titled How To Cancel An Article That You've Posted is located at "http://cs1.presby.edu/~jtbell/usenet/". It covers many (but not all) the various newsreaders currently in use. 14) What Do All Those Book Terms Mean? -------------------------------------- * Bookplate: A sticker or label adhered to a book (usually inside the front cover or on the front free end paper). Some book owners use bookplates to identify themselves as the owner. [Craig Newtson] * Chip: An edge tear (usually triangular shaped) which has resulted in the loss of a small portion of the dust jacket. "Lightly chipped" usually refers to a dust jacket with a few chips all smaller than 1/4 inch. "Chipped" usually refers to dust jacket with a couple of chips as large as 3/4 inch and several smaller chips. [Craig Newtson] * Closed Tear: A tear in the dust jacket that resulted in no loss of material. When held closed, the presense of the tear should not be obvious at a glance. [Craig Newtson] * Foxing: Yellowing or browning of a book's pages caused by chemical changes in the paper. Books printed on low quality paper are often susceptible to foxing. [Craig Newtson] * Frontispiece: An illustration presented before the beginning of a book's text (usually before the title page). [Craig Newtson] * Photo-play Edition: A book that is illustrated with still photographs from a motion picture. These editions were most popular during the 1920's. A photo-play edition may or may not be a first edition. Photo-play editions that are not first editions often command premiums over other reprints. [Craig Newtson] * Price Clipped: Most books have the price printed on the dust jacket, usually the top right corner of the inside flap. People often clip this off (diagonal cut) when giving a book as a gift. * Remainder Mark: A remainder mark is a line drawn by a magic marker or some such thing across the top or bottom edge of a book to identify the book as a remainder so that book doesn't come back to the publisher from a bookseller as a return on a full price. Ian Ellis, in BOOK FINDS (1996), states that such marks knock 20% or more off the price of an otherwise "mint" book. [Ken MacIver] * Soiled: A book or dust jacket that is discolored by the presence of a foreign substance such as dust or dirt. If the contaminate has actually damaged the integrity of the book this damage should be noted seperately. Damage due to water/moisture should not be referred to as soiling (generally speaking). [Craig Newtson] * FPT: "Freight Pass Through." This acronym, found on some dust jackets, means that the price includes shipping. The presence of this acronym is an indication that the book is not a book club edition. [Steve Thompson] 15) How Do I Get Rid of That "Musty Smell"? ------------------------------------------- * Try enclosing in plastic bag after dusting with baking soda liberally. [Jack Evans] * Someone claimed that putting the book in an enclosed bag with kitty litter helps. Make sure the stuff doesn't touch the book, and also make sure it's not been used. I've tried pointing an electric fan at the book(s) for about a week (this was for smoke smell), and it worked fairly well. [Mike Berro] * When you smell a "musty" or "mildewy" type odor, you are quite often reacting to mold spores which have left the book and are floating in the air. This is a situation where using a fan could cause a problem. Blowing the mold spores around could cause them to land on other items, such as books, and spread the problem...especially if you were using the fan in a closed environment. [Ken Kapson] * The fan also wouldn't treat the mold problem on the infected book itself. At best, it would dry up any moisture which is present and stop the mold from producing futher spores. But desiccation alone will not kill the mold. It will become inactive. However, once moisture becomes present again, the mold will reactivate itself (hardy little buggers, aren't they?). [Ken Kapson] * One further comment, which may be of interest. The smell receptors in your nose will become "fatigued" after being exposed to an odor for a period of time. This means that you will stop noticing the smell. So, this means that if you go to someone's musty basement and start looking at their books, eventually you won't notice the smell that could be present in some of the individual items. But later on, after you've brought your new purchases home and your smell receptors have returned to normal, you'll once again be able to smell the mold on the books (which you didn't notice at the time you bought them). [Ken Kapson] 16) How Do I Remove A Label From A Dust Jacket? ----------------------------------------------- * Removing labels is often quite simple. I apply a hot iron for a moment to heat the label. This loosens the glue and often, but not always, the label can be removed very cleanly. To supplement the iron, try using cigarette lighter fluid (naphta), which helps get rid of any sticky residue. Once cleaned up, many up ex-lib books become much easier to sell. It's amazing what a few minute touchup will do. Yes, you must still declare the book ex-lib when selling. [Seth Steingraph] * I use mineral spirits. Less flammable and, to my knowledge, equally effective. In cases where the heat of an iron might risk damage, I dab mineral spirits onto the label until it loosens the adhesive. [Gerard Gormley] 17) Who Is Responsible For Shipping Problems? --------------------------------------------- * West's Business Law, Second Edition, quotes the Uniform Commercial Code paragraph 2-509(1)(b) as follows: "Risk of loss can be assigned through an agreement of the parties. Assuming that there is no spcification in the agreement, if the seller is required or authorized to ship goods by carrier, risk of loss passes to the buyer when the goods are duly delivered to the carrier." The Uniform Commercial Code has been adopted in all states except Louisiana, as of 1983 when this edition was published. [Bill Fishman] * Of course, there's not always a correlation between the law and standard business practice, which in bookselling appears to put the onus on the seller, until the item has reached the buyer's doorstep. [Mark Wilden] 18) How Do I Recognize a Book Club Edition? ------------------------------------------- * There was a time when bookclub editions were easily identified. They were smaller, looked cheap, were lighter in weight, and were usually marked "Bookclub Edition" on the dust jacket. Now bookclubs try hard to disguise their editions, and with original editions getting junkier by the year, there's often little apparent difference between the two. It's quite common for bookclub editions to use the original publishers' first-edition negatives or printing plates. According to Wilson (p. 111), many book club editions (bce's) are supplied by the original publishers in identical format (I take it this means with the same binding and paper?). Either way, book club editions can bear "First Edition" on their copyright-pages. [Gerard Gormley] * Some bookclub editions even have prices on the dust jackets, though this is uncommon. Increasingly common is the original edition with no price on the dust jacket. This is said to enable bookstores to do their own pricing. It also helps to hide bookclub editions, but this is probably incidental. [Gerard Gormley] * If you find a circle, square, maple leaf, dot, or star blind-stamped on the bottom right of the outside back cover, it's a Book of the Month Club (BOMC) edition. The great majority, but not all, BOMC books are so stamped. BOMC has been doing this since 1948 or 1949. BOMC books published prior to that time are difficult to distinguish from true first editions (as are their more recent books). [Gerard Gormley] * Literary Guild shows no identification on book, only on dust jacket. [Ahearn states on p. 46 that Literary Guild is identified on spine and title page. Such books must be uncommon, for I have yet to find any Literary Guild identification on any book or dust jacket.] Tanner says that no book club edition is considered a first, but people are selling book club firsts, albeit at reduced prices. [Gerard Gormley] 19) What Do I Do About Bookloving Insects? ------------------------------------------ * Place your books in airtight plastic bag and put them in your freezer a couple of days. That will kill the insects. * Prevention is the best route, and that's best accomplished by climate control. Low temperature and low humidity discourage most book-eaters. I keep my book room as cold and dry as my computer (static electricity a problem if humidity drops too low) and I can stand it. [Gerard Gormley] * Correction measures recommended by most professionals involve freezing -- blast freezing, if possible -- and double freezing. Books should be bagged before freezing. This is not a guaranteed method. Some insects may be able to develop a resistance to freezing. The experts frown on insectides and other chemical measures. These can be harmful to people as well as books. [Gerard Gormley] * I suggest you order the Technical Leaflet, "Integrated Pest Management," from Northeast Document Conservation Center /100 Brickstone Square / Anadover MA 01810-1494 / TEL: 508-470-1010 FAX: 508-475-6021 [Gerard Gormley] 20) How Do I Validate an ISBN? ------------------------------ * You have to multiply the digits with their position, disregarding the dashes, and then divide by 11. Example: 3-472-61516-8 yields 3 + 4*2 + 7*3 + 2*4 + 6*5 + 1*6 + 5*7 + 1*8 + 6*9 = 173 and 173 - (15*11) = 8. [Christian Pree] * When ISBN was introduced (in German pocket books about 1972/73), a remarkable number of ISBNs had wrong validation digits, at least in German pocket books. [Christian Pree] * The importance of ISBN is declining and as far as I know will be replaced with a new system, because ISBN does not fit into EAN (barcode) and is therefore not machine readable. In Germany (and other countries that utilize EAN13), an ISBN can be easily translated into EAN: Remove the validation digit, add 978 at the beginning and a new validation number at the end. For example, ISBN: 3-453-09982-6 yields EAN: 9783453099821 [Christian Pree] * By the way, ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number (at least in the English-speaking part of the world), and Internationale Standard Buch-Nummer (for the German speaking part of the world.) EAN stands for Europaeische Artikel-Numerierung, roughly translated as European Article Numbering System. EAN is an international system for the identification of articles, used throughout the market for consumer goods, so for example cash registers in the supermarket can identify products via scanner and automatically register product and price. You find the number on almost every product as a number and a barcode. I don't know if the same system is used in USA. [Christian Pree] * "EAN" stands for "European Article Number", the most widely-used standard for product numbering in Europe and many other parts of the world (but not, of course, in the U.S., who have to be different). Commonly-used forms are the 8-digit EAN8 (usually used for company-internal product codes and therefore not guaranteed to be unique) and 13-digit EAN13 (unique to a product). It is, incidentally, possible to derive a book's EAN13 from its ISBN: stick "978" on the front, then re-calculate the last (check) digit. [Andy Key] 21) How Do I Describe the Sizes of Books? ----------------------------------------- * There seems to be some confusion here. A lot of booksellers and even librarians (many of whom should really know better) tend to talk about these three terms as though they refer to specific sizes. Historically, they don't. They refer to the way that books are printed and bound. A folio puts two pages on each side of one sheet of paper (a single sheet of with two pages on it is called a leaf). When you print a quarto, you put four pages on each side of a leaf, so that 8 pages are printed on one sheet of paper. Today, giant presses are used to print folio-sized books many pages at a time, of course. [Christopher G. Mullin] * There seems to be particular confusion over the term "octavo." An octavo was never 8 pages printed on a leaf. It was (and sometimes still is) 8 pages printed on *EACH SIDE* of a leaf, or 16 pages printed on one sheet of paper. This bundle of (in this case) 16 pages is called a signature. A signature can be as few as 4 pages in the case of a quarto. Many modern paperbacks have 48-page signatures. Basically, 8, 12, and 24 leaves are the most common number to be printed on a single sheet of paper. [Christopher G. Mullin] * You fold the signatures of a book, trim off the edges, and then (traditionally) you sew the signatures together. These days, paperback are just glued along the spine, but as we all know the pages tend to come out. A sewn book, OTOH, will last through hundreds of years of intermittent use. [Christopher G. Mullin] * Since there were certain standard paper sizes in the book trade, various specific sizes of book became more or less standard-- royal octavo, crown octavo, demi-octavo, etc. There are even special rulers that you can use to measure your books and call them by these traditional name, if you like. [Christopher G. Mullin] * But... for clarity of description, don't try to tell someone you have a royal octavo (or whatever). Mostly, people won't know what that means, And it's probably not really true anyway. Most modern "octavo" books are printed with 24-page signatures. Instead, as libraries worldwide do, measure the height of your book in centimeters, and the width too, if that's greater than the height. With a little practice, you can judge the height of every book you see within a centimeter or so. [Christopher G. Mullin] * If you're really serious about describing a book printed before 1800, then you list exactly how many signatures there are, and how many pages there are in each-- frequently there were a mixture of 16-page and 4-page signatures in octavos printed the handpress era. Look at Fredson Bowers 500-page book Principles of Bibliographical Description if you want to understand how complicated this can get. [Christopher G. Mullin] 22) How Do I Get Rid Of Unwanted Odors? --------------------------------------- * Absorene: Seriously, folks, the best method of removing cigarette smell from books is Absorene paper and book cleaner. It's a pink clay that you apply like a sponge to the front and back of books. It absorbs the smell. On the ends of the books, apply very gently. The stuff is magic! You can order it through the Brodart catalog, or write to the Absorene MFG Co. at 1609 N. 14th St., St Louis, MO 63106 USA. Terrific stuff. Two cans will last all year! [Larry Burdick] * Activated Charcoal: I think charcoal or baking soda or any other odor absorber would also work. [Chris Volk/Shep Iiams] * Aftershave Lotion: Putting a book in an airtight container with aftershave lotion works. Best if the book is fanned open, and of course kept from getting the liquid lotion on the book. Moisten some kind of absorbent material in the bottom of the box with the book above it. The after shave lotion method is used by car dealers to freshen up a smelly car. They spray or put moistened rags in the car and keep it closed up for several days. (things you didn't need to know). [] * Baking Soda or Talc: Baking powder absorbs both moisture and odors, but the process is tedious and messy and not guaranteed. Interleaving with powdered paper takes forever, so I reserve it for those [books] really worth reviving. I have used rice paper dredged in baking soda or unscented talc. There probably is some pre-powdered paper on the market. I've used both baking powder and baking soda. The powder is ground finer and so is more absorbent and harder to brush off. [] * Baking Soda or Talc: One of the ideas was to put said smelly book in a plastic baggie with baking soda in the bottom. You should also put a layer of paper between the book and soda so there was no direct contact. I've gone the soda route and it works reasonably well - I've let the book "sit in it" for around two weeks. [Nate's Books ] * Carpet Deodorizer: I'm not sure if this would work for smoke but we use carpet deodorizer for books that smell musty or mildue. Might want to try it. [Amy ] * Carpet Deodorizer: Carpet de-odouriser non coloured-non scented variety. Use one called 'Neutradol' if you can get it. It is a white powder a bit like talc. Dust every page and the cover with it, then wrap it up for about two weeks (use a polyethelene freezer bag). The powder will come off easily with a small vacuum cleaner such as a Dust Buster, or brushing with a soft shaving brush. Hey presto, a smell-free book. [Broder's Books ] * Kitty Litter: Recently we purchased a math library which, while it had no apparent mildew, had that telltail odor. In addition, a couple of the volumes had "philandering pussy cat" musk about them. We plunged the books into the middle of a box of unscented clay clumping kitty litter, having first very lightly "misted" them with lysol. We held the lysol can approximately 4' above the books, and gave a very light psst! on the spray nozzle, letting the fine mist drift over them. After a week we pulled the books out of the box of kitty litter and behold, they no longer smelled. [Bree Books ] * Cedar Chips: Cedar chips have done wonders for me with all kinds of odors. You get a bag at a pet store, then put the books and a load of cedar chips in a plastic garbage bag or sealed carton for a period of time. The most difficult to deodorize are art books on coated papers. How long it takes depends on the odor, but the cedar chips leave no odor. [Evert Volkersz ] * Coffee Grounds: Some booksellers have had luck with removing mold/must smell from old paperbacks by placing them in a plastic bag, and placing an open container of coffee grounds in the bag, and then leaving for a week or so (seems to help if placed in a warm environment). The mold smell disappears, and the books, if aired for a couple of days before being placed on the shelfs, lose the coffee smell. Both used and un-used coffee grounds are said to work. Haven't heard if this works with hardcovers or other items. [John F. Kuenzig ] * Diss: Someone also suggested the use of diss... you know - that stuff they store with film that absorbes moisture. [Nate's Books ] * Fabric Softener Sheets: I got this suggestion from someone on AOL last year. Tried it with an ARC of Jurassic Park which must have lived its whole life in the smoking lounge...It pretty much worked, might have worked better if I'd been more diligent or used more strips... The suggestion is to take one or two of those dryer fabric softener sheets (I use Bounce), cut them into a few lengthwise strips and place the strips here and there inside the book. Then seal the book up in a plastic bag, strips and all, and wait for some period of time which I don't remember (I left my copy sitting around for months, but that wasn't really on purpose). Probably a week or so. And no, I have no idea whether this would be chemically bad for the book's paper; certainly my ARC wasn't any the worse for the treatment, that I noticed anyway. [Suzanne Saunders ] * White Vinegar: My pet way of getting rid of odors in books is thus: Put the book on thread spools [or something similar] in the microwave oven. Use another object to prop open the topside cover. DO NOT TURN ON THE OVEN!!! Place a saucer of white vinegar in the oven, and let it set overnight. One night usually takes care of it. The book may smell like vinegar for a few hours, but then is odor free. [Diane Johnson ] * Ozone: At Wells Books, we have converted an unused closet into an ozone chamber. Books from the homes of smokers or from smoke damage in house fires go into this "chamber" with our ozone machine going for a two hour session. This will remove almost all the smoke smell (also most mildew smell). This is the method used by the Royal B.C. Museum and by many companies specializing in insurance claims. We first started this when one of our stores had a serious fire. The ozone treatment if done many times over the life of a book might damage the make up of the paper. But then, badly smoked books would have a shorter life time anyway. What smell isn't removed can be wiped off with a treated sponge from a janitor supply store (again the type of thing used by the folks who clean up after house fires). We not only clean our own books, we would also provide a service to our customers on Vancouver Island. [Wells Books ] 23) How Do I Care For My Leather Books? --------------------------------------- * For at least 3 decades I have been applying potassium lactate to new leather bindings followed by the British Museum leather dressing formula (40% anhydrous lanolin, 60% neatsfoot oil), and using the Brit Mus formula for other leather bindings. Never had any trouble with either treatment. At a preservation workshop at UTex Austin this month the presenter mentioned (with photos) that some collections believe that the oil in this formula migrates to the text block (mainly to the gutters) of some of their books. I don't notice this on any of my books. [Sam Lanham (slanham@sig.net)] * I would suggest immediate climate control. Get the humidity and temperature down and keep them there. [Gerard Gormley] * Weird book rot may indeed be a literal "bug"---that was my guess, too. I carefully daubed the open sore with Lysol, and the sudden eruption stopped! Because the leather was red-dyed, it literally looked like a bleeding wound, and that seems to have stopped. [fcattus@aol.com] * I've been using Marney's Conservation Leather Dressing for some time now. I bought from a local book binder. It may not restore leather that has rotted, but does a good job otherwise. Contents are Lanolin, Neatsfoot Oil & Beeswax. From experience, use in very small amounts per application. Too much moisture at one time may cause warping to the boards. It's recommended to rotate books so they get the treatment every six months. [Bill Strawbridge] * That depends. If your leather is dry and powdery, nothing will really help. Conservators will use a 5% soluction of Klucel-G in alcohol, but unless you've used it before, I advise against it. The last thing you want to do is get old leather wet with water. It has the potential to blacken the leather into a gross slime. This is because the water is solubolizing the acids in the leather and essentially burning it up. There are leather dressings available which should be used VERY sparingly, especially if the leather is cracked to avoid staining the paper. For more information you can contact these two vendors: Bookbinder's Warehouse (KarenC5071@aol.com) or Bookmakers (bookmowery@aol.com). They'll both be able to steer you to the right product. [Peter Verheyen] 24) Can I Fix A Cocked Or Slanted Spine? ---------------------------------------- * Here's one method a book dealer friend taught me, simpler in the doing than the saying: 1. Put book on flat surface. 2. Open to 2nd page and run finger along left inside edge near spine from top of book to bottom. 3. Open to last page - 2 and run finger along right inside edge near spine from top of book to bottom (as above). 4. Repeat from front of book page 4. 5. Repeat from back of book page [last - 4] 6. Repeat pattern until you meet in the middle. [Scot Kamins] * I used to do this to prevent cocking in the first place, but it never seemed to work (though it may work post facto). I like the suggestion on Biblio: simply turn the book upside down and "read" it backwards. [Mark Wilden] * On paperbacks, the books can be microwaved gently to warm the glue inside the spine. I have seen several items in auctions of vintage paperbacks listed as, "microwaveable". This process will usually correct off kilter or rolled spines. GO EASY !! don't cook 'em on high for 4 days or anything like that. Suggested: 30 seconds on low setting. [Blake at LDC]