---
title: "Code ‘Read’: Inside the Triage Center for UMD’s Battered Books"
date: 2023-11-30T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/code-read-inside-the-triage-center-for-umds-battered-books"
section: Articles
---
# Code ‘Read’: Inside the Triage Center for UMD’s Battered Books

*November 30, 2023* — by [Maggie Haslam](/author/maggie-haslam)


> The Old, Bruised and Overused Can Find New Life in McKeldin Basement Lab

*Library Preservation 11142023 JC 46327948 1920x1080 — Special Collections Conservator Bryan Draper gently scrapes decades-old tape adhesive from the original blue prints for the Architecture Building, drawn in 1968. The library conservation team—which includes Mark Coulbourne, Paul Tung, Carla Montori and Kirsten Elliott—are the university's first response when a book falls into disrepair, but also rescue, rehabilitate and preserve the university's most prized archival materials.*

The case was critical. Beaten and battered, the subject was rushed in with bite marks and a mangled spine; its pallor deathlike under the room’s fluorescent lights. This was another grisly sight for members of Mark Coulbourne’s team, but they had seen worse—and like many of the subjects coming into their care, this one could be saved.

What sounds like a story from a Level I trauma center is actually a different kind of tale: one of a desecrated (and quite overdue) second-edition library book on Greek culture that was transported to the University of Maryland’s Conservation Lab to be rescued. Located deep under the stacks of McKeldin Library, the Conservation Lab is where the university’s seven libraries turn to heal broken bindings, restore torn pages and clean moldy covers.

“We are sort of the clearing house for damaged, old and precious things, but also a lot of everyday books,” said Coulbourne, interim head of [preservation for UMD Libraries](https://www.lib.umd.edu/about/org/css). “Sometimes stuff comes back and it’s in the same condition it was checked out in, but if it’s not, it comes to us.”

Created in the 1980s to preserve and repair the university’s vast literary catalog, the lab now works on everything from lowly paperbacks to periodicals, but primarily focuses on UMD’s special collections: rare and old books, archival slides, drawings, artifacts and other valuable items. Music scores, which it readies for use by students in the music program, contribute to 30% of the lab's workflow.

\[[](https://today.umd.edu/saving-sentiment-and-scholarship-too)*[Saving Sentiment (And Scholarship Too): McKeldin Library’s Memory Lab Provides Equipment to Preserve VHS Tapes, Cassettes, Slides](https://today.umd.edu/saving-sentiment-and-scholarship-too)*\]

Most of the books that come under the team’s care are merely victims of time or intense wear and tear; but the occasional burst pipe, earthquake or neglectful borrower also send books to the lab, like the Greek culture book, which was quietly left at McKeldin’s front desk with a dozen others by a retiring faculty member (who was stopped at the door—faculty, take note). The books, which showed evidence of mold, cockroach and mouse infestations, were analyzed for restoration and repair by the lab’s team to determine if they were worth saving.


*old books*


*A hand holding a small sponge wipes off an old book — Using a tiny sponge, Draper carefully cleans off a colonial-era copy of the “Laws of Maryland" from 1707.*



**Sidebar note:**

Want to keep the pages turning in your books at home? Coulbourne says that if a book is valuable to you, treat it as such: keep them out of basements and attics, where temperatures and humidity fluctuate wildly. “Keep it in a spot that you would feel comfortable being as well,” he said.





**Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)


**Tags:** [Libraries](https://today.umd.edu/topic/libraries), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [University Libraries](https://today.umd.edu/topic/university-libraries)