Re: Book cleaning project

["Robert J. Milevski" <milevski@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My answer does not directly address Lorraine's questions, but my two cents
is tied up in this tidbit.

When I worked at the UIllinois Library, Urbana, long long ago, they had
instituted there in the shelving unit a regular routine for student
assistants.  Shelving, stack reading, and book cleaning.  Students would be
rotated through these activities.  There were reading and cleaning sheets
for every stack level so that one person could pick up from the previous
one. Cleaning was done with a short-handled dust mop, although I don't
remember much else about the procedure.   I thought and still think that
this is a good idea, cleaning books as part of some other greater activity.
I am going to try to institute something like that here at Princeton, but
primarily directed toward cleaning; reading is done on a regular basis.
Our shelvers are full-time folk rather than students and cleaning can be
fitted into their schedules.  I am going to try out vacs in the stacks,
along with dust masks and ear protection, and see if our 6-8 folks can clean
at least one-half day per week.  It should be quite an experiment, although
it will take a long time to dust 5 million books.

My pennies have corroded.

Robert Milevski
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Robert J. Milevski
Preservation Librarian
Princeton University Library
One Washington Road
Princeton, NJ 08540
609-258-5591; fax: 609-258-4105
email: milevski@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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