How to Rescue a Wet, Damaged Book: A Short, Handy Visual Primer

After the hur­ri­canes pass, the ques­tion has sure­ly been asked: How to save those wet, dam­aged books? Above, you can watch a visu­al primer from the Syra­cuse Uni­ver­si­ty Libraries–peo­ple who know some­thing about tak­ing care of books. It con­tains a series of tips–some intu­itive, some less so–that will give you a clear action plan the next time water and paper meet.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Art of Mak­ing Old-Fash­ioned, Hand-Print­ed Books

How to Clean Your Vinyl Records with Wood Glue

How to Open a Wine Bot­tle with Your Shoe


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Comments (7)
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  • febie says:

    I loved it.
    And i think this is easy to remem­ber. I will do this incase ☺.
    Thank you for shar­ing.

  • Beth C says:

    You have the temer­i­ty to link some­one else’s con­tent and use their idea but pre­sent­ed a pay­wall ask­ing for a dona­tion.

  • Penemuel says:

    What do you do if the book has glossy paper and pic­tures? I’ve had issues with those stick­ing to each oth­er like they’ve been glued…

  • Mosfet says:

    What I have done with some books and mag­a­zines like that is to inter­leave the pages with paper tow­els, Blot­ter paper would work as well. If there were con­cern about the paper tow­els or blot­ter paper stick­ing, you could try inter­leav­ing with kitchen parch­ment paper, though this could poten­tial­ly increase dry­ing time as well.

    Your mileage may vary.

  • ilaria says:

    very inter­est­ing! Thank you!

  • Anna says:

    Calm down…

  • Jo says:

    …but, don’t throw away the paper tow­els — they can be reused. Just an idea for an oth­er­wise help­ful video!…

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