Tour our online gallery of damaged books below, all of which come from Vanderbilt Library collections.
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| Book with missing covers repaired with inappropriate tapes. |
Book
burnt on top of stove.
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| Book mutilated by cutting out part of page. Note the little girl's eyes are missing. |
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Charred spine of book. Can this marriage between book
and its user be saved?
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Mutilated
Vanderbilt University yearbook.
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Now.....
Take a moment to think about how you can help preserve our library book collections by handling items carefully and responsibly.
Here are a few tips:
- Keep books out of the rain and direct sunlight.
- Keep drink containers away from books.
- Don't mix lunch with library books.
- Give Fido and Fluffy other kinds of chewy toys.
- Photocopy (gently) pages from books rather than cutting out the part that interests you.
- Don't use that bright pink highlighter in library materials even if it looks good in your textbooks. Ditto for pencils and pens.
- Don't interleave library books with Post-it notes.
- If an item does get damaged, bring the problem to a library employee's attention as soon as you can. Sometimes immediate action can save a book.