Book Conservators

If you are interested in becoming a book conservator, you should start out by learning all you can about how books are made. Study the history of books and of binding. Purchase an inexpensive, hardcover book at a used bookstore and take it apart to see how the book block is sewn together and how it is connected to the cover. Then try to put the book back together. There are many "how to" bookbinding guides to help you. Check out Hand Bookbinding: A Manual of Instruction, by Aldren A. Watson (New York: Dover Publications, 1996); Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms, by Alisa Golden (Asheville, N.C.: Lark Crafts, 2011); The Care of Fine Books, by Jane Greenfield (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2007); and The Encyclopedia of Papermaking and Bookbinding, by Heidi Reimer-Epp and Mary Reimer (Philadelphia: Running Press Book Publishers, 2002) for the history of different styles of bookbinding and definitions of terms used in the field.

Contact the conservation or preservation department at your local library. The department may offer tours of its facilities or workshops on the proper care of books. Contact professional librarian associations; they may have divisions devoted to conservation. Community colleges and art museums often have weekend or evening classes in the conservation and book arts.

Finally, you might try contacting your local park district or community center to suggest sessions about book conservation. Many such groups offer summer day camps or after-school programs and look for input from participants about what types of activities are of interest. Plus, if you have had some conservation experience of your own, you could offer to teach younger students about how they can begin conserving books by taking good care of their own materials and the books they check out of the library.