Care and Handling of Library Books

• Organization Chart
• Library Staff Directory

• Brittle Books Program
• Conservation
• Digital Technology
• Environmental Monitoring
• Materials Processing

• get help in a collections emergency?
• care for library materials?
• get my own books or dissertation bound?

• preservation@northwestern.edu

The Preservation Department is responsible for the preservation of library collections in all formats, including books, archival materials, audio, film, and digital collections.

These pages are designed to assist you in helping to preserve library collections. Following these basic guidelines will help assure that Northwestern collections are available to future generations of library users.

Repair

Northwestern has a conservation lab that repairs books from all collections within the library. Please let our trained conservators and conservation technicians repair any damaged library books.

Do not use scotch tape or any other method to try and repair a book yourself. These kinds of repairs can be very damaging and the library must replace books that have been been "fixed" with tape. If a book has been damaged, please let the Circulation desk know and they will be able to send it to the Preservation Department for review.