Book Repair and Pamphlet Binding Staff

1998-99 Staff

L. to R.: Norma Linton, Laura Gregory, Jason Kuhl, Sally Oh; Jyotsana Agarwal, Viveka Kudaligama; Casey Westerman and Tom Healy (pictured below).

Our staff consists of part-time student employees, both undergraduate and graduate students. Some students have worked with us throughout most of their time of study at the university, ranging from two to five years. Typically, students work 10-12 hours per week and work shifts are a minimum of 2 hours long.

We have been able to identify and recruit some remarkably talented, accomplished, and dedicated individuals; our staff has included architects and a city planner who were practicing professionals in their countries of origin. Thirteen staff members have come to us from the following countries: India, Taiwan, China, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Thailand, Malaysia and Turkmenistan.

1997-98 Staff

Front: Chris Fava and Norma Linton Back: Casey Westerman, Tom Healy and Aaron Johnson.

1995-97 Staff:

Front: Ingrid Baksys, Viveka Kudaligama, Norma Linton Back: Chris Podgorski and Casey Westerman; Right: Nilay Deshmukh

Our paid staff is augmented and enriched through our Volunteer Program in which graduate students from the School of Library and Information Science volunteer a minimum of two hours per week to work with us. They can thereby learn the practical aspects of the preservation and conservation fields and gain some 'hands-on' experience.

This unit was formed, in 1989, with the guidance and encouragement of William Henderson, Preservation Librarian at that time. Norma Linton, the unit head, has been associated with conservation and preservation endeavors at the University of Illinois Library since 1984. She completed a Master's Degree in Library and Information Science in August 1997.

Some outstanding staff members from previous years.

Clockwise, from the top: Wika Kao, Karen Yee, Keith Kostecki, Laura Hays, Mike Garrette, Shuchi Chauhan, Theresa Juaniza, George Garcia, Christine Kranzler, Tawatchai Kobkaikit, Yuting Wu, Sarah Law, Kim Irwin, Corey Williams; and (not pictured) Eleni Holevas, Rosanna DeGuzman. (This graphic collage was created by Nilay Deshmukh.)

Stats

From 1990 through June 30, 2003, our staff has:

• Bound, by hand, 154, 462 pamphlets (stapled, sewn, multi-pamphlet formats, looseleaf)

From 1990 through June 30, 2001, the staff of Book Repair and Pamphlet Binding:

• Treated & repaired 15, 661 books (rebound, recased, recovered)
• Made 10, 435 enclosures (boxes, pockets, wraps, foam-lined packets)
• Treated & mended the paper in 32, 925 items (repair tears, reform signatures, dry wet books)
• Inserted pages into 11, 866 items (tipped in or glued loose or missing pages)

Credits

Art Work

Keith Kostecki executed many graphic art and design projects while on our staff, including his fine portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. He designed and rendered our book binder's "Coat of Arms", shown below.

The creation of this Web Site

One of our GSLIS volunteers, Jeff Makala, asked me in early Fall, 1997, if there was a project that he could do in our unit that could also serve to fulfill the 'final project' assignment for his Preservation class. As I had been trying for two years to find the time to create a preservation web site, Jeff's offer seemed to provide an impetus and opportunity to accomplish this goal. While Jeff worked on the site structure and page design, I started drafting text and photographing our work processes. Jeff found, on other web sites, some graphics to include in our pages, such as the marbelized paper and the row of books. We thank whomever it was who originally created these graphics which we have 'borrowed.' Jeff did the initial scanning of some photographs and the html coding; I later assumed these duties, eventually modifying most of the initial files. We 'launched' this site in early January, 1998; it has expanded and been modified a great deal since then.

In the fall of 1998, Jennie Kiffmeyer, (pictured, to the right) another student from a GSLIS Preservation class, offered to work on our web site as part of her final project. She scanned the photos and coded the text for the sequences on "casing-in," "quick/half hangs," "hard-shelled wrap," "cover reconstruction," and "spine replacement."

In April, 2001, Kris Klute volunteered to help me add the section on "supplies and resources," for her final project in Library Technical Services. Kris compiled lists of our tools and supplies, as well as a list of the vendors from whom we order these supplies. She and I found some good preservation sites to list, as well, and we jointly annotated these lists. Kris scanned some new pictures to illustrate this section and then coded the text, using Front Page, the Microsoft web page editor.

(Norma Linton, May, 2001)