Tape

I am a catalog librarian in a small library system--one main library
and three branches.  When I began working here 7 months ago, I was
surprised by a number of things, one of them being the lavish use of
Scotch tape on library materials.  Evidently it has been the
practice here for decades to tape notes to books and other
materials, especially those that are being sent from one branch to
another.  Spine labels have always been attached with tape as well.
I'm a cataloger, and I don't know much about preservation, but even
I know that adhesives are bad for books.

After a little persuasion, I did get the staff to switch from
regular adhesive tape to the removable tape.  It's still not good,
but at least it's less damaging to the materials.  My problem is
that after using the tape for a couple of months, people are
complaining that it doesn't stick very well and they want to go back
to the old way of using regular sticky tape to attach notes to
books.  The topic will surely come up at our staff meeting in
January, and will I need to be prepared to defend my stance.

I've searched for some kind of documentation to use to argue my
case, but the concept is so basic that there doesn't seem to be much
written on it. I'm hoping that among the members of this list is a
professional who will take pity on me and help me document my
position.   Does anyone know of any publications on the issue?
Would anyone be willing to share your opinions and ideas?

I have suggested the use of streamers placed inside the books
instead of notes taped to the front, but our request system is based
on 3x5 cards that would fall out of the book and be lost.  Any
suggestions, or information about what you do in your libraries
would be greatly appreciated.

Rose Sheridan
Catalog Librarian
Little Dixie Regional Libraries
Moberly, MO  65270
816-263-4428

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:53
                 Distributed: Friday, December 12, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-53-013
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