AIC 53rd Annual Meeting

Stanford Libraries (SUL) comprises 20 branch libraries and centers, many with their own special collections materials. Over the past few years, Conservation Services has been actively reaching out to individual branch libraries to expand preservation efforts across SUL. These efforts generated an influx of materials in need of treatment from SUL’s East Asia Library. In order to better conserve East Asian bound materials and deepen our relationship with this library, we collaborated with internal staff and external conservation peers within and beyond book conservation to understand curatorial expectations, select appropriate terminology, and develop new techniques allowing us to meet treatment priorities.

Most materials we received from the East Asia Library have been traditional side-stitched books, bound as multiple fascicles enclosed in cloth-covered wrappers. Conservators at SUL found that our existing documentation forms and terminology, designed for European-style books, were inadequate. We addressed this by working with curatorial and cataloging staff to develop new treatment documentation policies. Conservators also shared treatment knowledge with one another to increase confidence and efficiency. This led to further collaboration with international peers on the Book and Paper Group wiki working group for East Asian Bound Formats, enhancing our understanding of East Asian book structures and materials. 

Discussions with East Asia Library curators highlighted the importance of retaining and stabilizing the original wrappers for continued use. Standard book conservation techniques were used to stabilize the wrappers, but many items required additional enclosures after treatment as we lacked the textile conservation expertise to repair and restore function to failing textile components. To fill this expertise gap, Conservation Services hosted a textile conservator for a workshop in 2023. The East Asia Library selected items with failing textile components for trial treatment, with the goal of restoring functionality to wrappers and eliminating the need for additional enclosures. Book conservators worked closely with the textile conservator to explore treatment options for these items.

Successful application of textile conservation techniques on trial treatments has resulted in more regular workflows from the East Asia Library. Our growing relationship with them has spurred more discussions with curatorial, technical, and public services staff about preservation best practices for security tags, labeling, and handling. While these individual efforts on different areas of focus might seem minor, together they have strengthened our partnership with a relatively new “client” library and expanded treatment possibilities. We view this collaboration as a model for engaging with other branch libraries and collections, addressing their unique cultural and material needs through thoughtful conservation practices.