I began reclassifying the Mark Longman Library 4 or 5 years ago as a background task.  I am a Library Assistant in the cataloging department at Special Collections and my priority is to support the librarian and the cataloguer and then Reading Room duty; much of my time is spent  fetching, returning and problem solving.  While it is a background task and low priority as regards some of the other collections the Mark Longman Library has become my child and very special.

The collection consists of around 4,000 books, pamphlets and journals on subjects related to the history of the book, including bibliography, book production, publishing history and practice, readers and reading, and literary biography.

Formerly the ‘books about books’ collection was donated to the National Book League by Maurice Marston, its first secretary; the collection was expanded following the launch of an appeal in 1972 in memory of Mark Longman, Chairman of the National Book League 1967-1971.

The collection passed to the University Library in 2002. It was classified in the Bliss bibliographic classification and maintained on a card catalogue.  While the collection did not require special conditions we decided also to keep in open access and browsable.  However, it was important for the catalogue to be electronically accessible as well.  So while I downloaded  the records I reclassified the books into the Dewey Decimal System instead.

This has meant I have handled every book in the collection. I have skimmed, flicked, browsed, read – not just to discover the subject  matter but because it was interesting or just plain beautiful!

Some have been so deep, profound or obscure I have almost abandoned them. I am not a trained cataloguer and sometimes the subject matter is not clear.  Nonetheless, these experiences have ensured that the task, considered by some as tedious or not required, has been and continues to be  for me  a labour of love.

There are also many pamphlets in the collection and it is tempting as they will be time consuming to put them in a box marked ‘pamphlets’. However these have proved to be as diverse and precious as the books; possibly containing unpublished literature by the famous and not so, that would otherwise be considered a mere leaflet, publishing literature or ephemera.

I was hoping to tell you about some of the gems I have discovered over the years, so maybe next time …

Written by Claire Wooldridge, UMASCS Graduate Trainee Library Assistant

Bookbinding work station in the old bindery

As the library graduate trainee here at the University of Reading’s Special Collections Service, I am fortunate enough to get lots of opportunities for training in all aspects of rare books, from manufacture and repair, to descriptive cataloguing, to their use in publications and for social media.

The sewing takes shape

In the last few weeks I have been having training sessions with Geoff, our conservation and preservation manager at the main campus library.  Geoff has been training me in order that I can assist him and his preservation team by conducting some small book repairs here at special collections.  In time I will be doing paper and binding repairs and preservation, including reattaching boards and sewing in gatherings.  Sadly old books do become damaged with time and use… an inevitable development but one which also provides me with plenty of material to work on.  Never fear – my practice books are strictly those withdrawn from circulation!

As Geoff has taught me – the most important part of preservation of rare books is using water soluble materials, meaning a repair can be reversed if necessary.  So that means Japanese paper and paste, no superglue or Sellotape!

In order to understand how to repair the book Geoff has been teaching and showing me how a book is made.  As a complete beginner this training is invaluable to me and is significantly improving my understanding and appreciation of all aspects of the importance of the book as a physical object, besides the significance of the content, author and so on.

Sewing around the tapes

Week one was an explanation of paper making, week two was the use of Japanese paper for repairs and this week we covered sewing.  Although the needle and thread were familiar… this was a little different from sewing I have done in the past!  Although for new books the gatherings are joined together by machine, in days gone by prior to the mechanization of printing this would have been done by hand.

Although it took me a few tries to get the hang of it – by then end of the morning I had produced a simple book, made of several gatherings of paper.  Sewing around pieces of tape gave the spine more strength.

With this experience I can go onto repair books here at special collections by sewing loose pages back in.  I look forward to my next training session.