A Penny & a Gum Wrapper

I worked on the gluing I had left on Friday. There are sometimes so many steps you have to take when refurbishing these old texts. I usually start with the corners where the ends have torn through the outside cover, then the cardboard starts to fray and separate into layers. I put a little glue inbetween the layers, put wax paper around it, a few pieces of cardboard and a clamp to hold it. Then I look at the end papers. These are the papers glued to the inside of the cover and the glue does give out. Those also need gluing back together. They are the strength of the hinges that hold the main body of the book in the cover. Some of the spines have their covers ripped, so a lot of times I reinforce the tear with construction paper and glue and also glue the tear shut. Then after all that dries, I tape the outside spines and hinges (on the American Experience books I'm working on they are so thick they take three spans of tape), then color the dings in the book edges that are white where the red color has been rubbed or nicked off, tape them, then the corners with the fabric corners and the spine ends with the wings. Lastly (if I don't forget!) I check the book number, put it on the old barcode and tape over the barcode so it won't wear out (I've been using our cheap tape instead of the fancy expensive barcode covers - saving them for other uses). Today as I was smoothing tape down the spine, I could feel two lumps inside between the spine cover and the actual spine of the body. I had to get my little double bladed scalpel looking tool to push them out. One was a penny, the other was a waded up gum wrapper. Oh, my. Got books back on the shelf, always a good thing. Checked in and out a few books today, the library was still closed for registration and we also had mock interviews going on. Had a book dealer call with an encyclopedia of black history so I told that we were unable to even look at them since the budget is up in the air (we're hoping it will come back to earth). Checked on our Witness books for Mrs. S and we didn't have enough in, so I talked with Ms. O that has most of them out currently and she hopes to be done by the end of the week. I let Mrs. S know and she will start after spring break. Had Mr. D ask if we had a teacher's edition of the Physics book and took him straight to it and checked it out to him. Checked in a class set of The Martian Chronicles. It's a good time to furrow through repairs and I'll be finishing up this set tomorrow.