Balfour Library conservation project - look the state of those books!

Here are some photos showing the amount of dust that the volunteers have had to contend with. These will be followed by photos of some of the same books - now clean!

Dirt visible on the shelves, and on the boards and spines of the books.

Decades of dirt on the text blocks. These don't have a shelf above them so even more dirt has accumulated on them.

The amount of dirt that has collected on the shelves is amazing, especially at the back of the shelves behind books.

More dirt on the text blocks - you might also be able to see where fragments of spine or pages from the books above has collected on the top of the books below.

After cleaning! Look how clean the shelves are too!

Now you can actually appreciate the marbled colour effect on the text blocks of the first four books on the shelf. All the dirt has been removed from the whole of the books. You can also see where one book has needed tying.

Dirt is a real enemy of the book. It is acidic and gradually breaks down pages and bindings over time. It is also a potential health hazard, and makes the books generally unpleasant to handle. Pests might also be encouraged by its presence. It is great that we are finally tackling the problem and are managing to preserve the books for a little bit longer.