Handling books during cataloguing

I recently requested advice on "snakes" or "worms" and got a wide
variety of suggestions, ranging from commercial product such as the
leather device from The Country Store (just noted by  LoErna Simpson) to
Univ. Products snakes (rather cheap and nasty on first impression of my
sample) to make-your-own. The latter seems to be very popular, to the
extent even of my assistant volunteering to make one at home using beans
(in plastic and muslin and finally something stronger).

I have various concerns, ranging from quality of the product to proper
use to the women's-profession issues lurking behind the volunteerism.
I'm not asking for an International Standard on the topic but is there
anything better than oral tradition and folk wisdom in the preservation
community? Thanks.  --pg

Peter Graham
Rutgers University Libraries
169 College Ave.,
New Brunswick, NJ 08903
908-932-5908;
Fax: 908-932-5888

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 7:78
                 Distributed: Wednesday, April 27, 1994
                        Message Id: cdl-7-78-003
                                  ***