BibliophileBullpen

Dear Bibliobull:

Do you have a product that would remove or diminish rust stains on paper from metal paperclips? Would one of your erasers help? If so, which one?

Rusty Clipper

Depends on what type of paper…how thick, what kind of finish etc…

Generally rust doesn’t seep as far as ink, so you can get away with a little light surface abrasion. Any of my Inkredibles will work, the white/coarse one is more abrasive and the black one less so. If it is a large dark stain you may want to start with the coarse grade for a smidgen then move to the finer grains after the worst is gone.

If it is highly calendared like onion skin, only the lightest touch will do the trick. If it is bristol finish card stock you can put more torque behind it, but then the rust will not have gone too deep.

There are also different finishes of book paper…very open pored paper responds easily but late 19th c. very smooth surface is more delicate (it depends on how much cloth is in the paper) something with a cardstock back and a printed paper surface is much more delicate as the printed paper is thin and you can’t apply the coarse inkredible for more than a few swipes before you have to switch to fine.

For those who never clicked the button on the right column:

As always please forward changes or additions.

123-pix.com 800-747-2699
Abebooks.com USA and Canada 800-315-5335 / other 250-475-6013 / 250-475-7575 / UK 44-211-7117069-40 sellertech@abebooks.com
ABooksearch.com 831-728-4881
Alibris.com 877-254-2747 / 510-594-4573 / 510-652-2403 / 510-594-4500 / 207-894-8460 / seller services 510-594-4509
Amazon.com seller support • 1-877-251-0696/US and Canada: (800) 201-7575/206-346-2992 / 206-266-2992/ 206-266-2335 / 206-266-1000 reports@amazon.com stop-spoofing@amazon.com
Biblio.com 800-813-9432/828-350-0744
Bibliophile Mailing List/ Bibliophilegroup.com (MX)(52-664)609-6667
Barnes & Noble Seller Relations 866.897.1763 / sellerrelations@bookquest.com
Chrislands.com 703-989-1557
Choosebooks.com 1-888-896-2087/1-607-277-8055 info@choosebooks.com
eBay.com 408-558-7400 / 408-376-7400 800-322-9266 888-749-3229 / spam@ebay.com/spoof@ebay.com
Endicia 1-800-576-3279 x140
Half.com 800-545-9857 / 888-TRY-HALF ext.1 sellerpayment@half.com service@half.com
Paypal.com 888-221-1161 / 4am-10pm PST -UK 08707307191 spoof@paypal.com 1-402-935-2050
Propay, Inc (801) 852-4100
Scoutpal 425-222-0581 support@scoutpal.com
Tomfolio 301-926-2095
Usedbookcentral.com 800-290-8365/541-476-3132.
UPS claims department: 877-524-4498
Wantedbooks.com 301-926-2198
CAN PS 800-267-1177
FEDEX 800-GO-FEDEX Ground 877-244-7333
UPS 1-800-PICK-UPS (742-5877)
UPS online 800-344-7779
USPS 800-222-1811 icustomercare@usps.com Shipping Assistant 800-344-7779 800-275-8777 Do Not Call Registry https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

If you find this list on another website, you’re are welcome.

Someone asked me today about setting up a book to be photographed. ..and I am not a very good person to ask about this..my images always have shadows in the wrong place etc.. .not that I CAN’T do a kick ass image, but usually the books I am shooting aren’t worth the time and trouble – and if i do set up the perfect place to shoot, I have to take it own before something with 4 feet wanders through the zone. I did find that you can troll the internet for some really fabboo ideas on setting up a well lighted place.

For example this is soo wicked cool, I am jealous I didn’t think of it. From Foxhollow Jewelry and ostensibly to shoot jewelry but hell I have TON of translucent containers around the joint. I am so gonna try this today.

And from Flickr there is a wicked simple DIY Light Box-Macro Photo Studio from Jean Labelle, worth checking out.

These ideas are all well and good, but books are even more difficult, if you google “photographing books” everyone is offering helpful advice from Book Think to the Conservation Online archives. What I was really cruising for is an image of set up. Perhaps that is the super secret unsharable. I will keep looking.

Perhaps a shallow lectern or picture frame holder inside the light box is the key. Personally I am gonna just try a bean bag – I still have those lentil book weights which should work nicely. As for an OPEN book photograph, polyethylene strapping is the way to go, if you can adjust for glare. It comes on rolls and isn’t cheap. But it can be easily made from slicing up polyester dust jacket protectors into strips.

Anyone have anything better they would like to toss in the mix, I am all ears…well all fingers.

First editions: a guide to indentification. Edward N Zempel and Linda Verkler. Peoria:Spoon River Press, 1995, 8vo, red cloth hardcover, 515pps.

Another one of my take to my grave volumes. Alas the 1995 edition, seems to be the last time this lovely book was revised. Inexplicably it has lost ground to Bill McBride’s First edition Identifier. The popularity of the latter doesn’t surprise me as it is a terrific tool, especially now in the digital edition. But the lack of mention about Zempel’s disappoints me. It’s like comparing the text book and the cliff notes version. McBride’s may help you identify a books’ first occurrence, but Zempel’s tells you how it got that way. Documenting the long winding parentage of publisher’s imprints – when Boni met Liveright or John Farrar’s migration from Farrar and Rinehart to Farrar Strauss and Giroux gives one a better sense of publishing history. Maybe I’m just a geek, I like knowing the WHY of things. In the age of bookselling by consensus – where folks only know what they learn on the internet has encouraged lazy minded booksellers. How do YOU know the folks your are cribbing from know their ass from a hot rock? You don’t. You are taking it on faith that the information you are gleaning from online listings is for the most part correct. I was both enraged and amused the other day when a newbie online sellers asked for directions to websites where they could learn bookselling. It’s the kind of question that makes me grind my back teeth. How sad it is to expect to learn about books from computers. The place to truly learn the trade of bookselling is from other books.

Short answer is no: “Books aren’t alive, they don’t breathe.”
Long answer is no: “Books don’t breathe, they SUCK.”

Generally books are made of paper and cardboard – and these materials are highly desiccated (go look it up, I’ll wait.) So, from the moment a book is born its main goal is to absorb as many moisture molecules as it can. Specifically from the air at hand, but if a book is kept near water it will take those evaporating molecules too. That’s why books kept in Seattle and in bathrooms go all mildewy, not to mention books in the bathrooms of Seattle. Many of us working with these sponges end up with dry cracked fingers – and god forbid one works in a warehouse of the buggers in cardboard boxes, you may never breathe right again. Think of books like wine, you are always trying to find a consistent and balanced level of heat and moisture. When and where it is hot and humid you find yourself installing a dehumidifier and when it is overly and prolongedly (hey it’s my language i can make up words if i want to) dry you plug in the humidifier. If you find yourself indecisive you can find machines that do both. Boy, don’t I wish I invented THAT!

So to answer the question, you put dust jacket protectors (and THAT’S what they are called. . . they aren’t called ‘Brodarts’ ever.) on to protect the books from dirty fingered customers, transit damage, shelf rubbing, edge wear, dust, moisture, klutzy employees and spraying cats (is that last one just me?)

fet·ish – noun
1. an object regarded with awe as being the embodiment or habitation of a potent spirit or as having magical potency.
2. any object, idea, etc., eliciting unquestioning reverence, respect, or devotion: to make a fetish of high grades.

Long time readers know about my fetish for erasers. Whenever a new one is introduced, I must immediately get one and play with it - remember the little electic rubout? Well, it seems that Papermate has introduced a new toy for my toolbox, their Latex Free White Pearl. As lovely as the Sanford Magic Rub erasers – I cannot wait to try the White Pearl.

In the interest of trying to keep the lights on here, I have put this lovely custom made book repair kit up on ebay :
GIANT PRO BOOK REPAIR & CLEANING KIT

Retailing for $200 bucks not including all the shipping fees. It includes all my favorite things as well as all the super nifty deluxe professional supplies you need to give a dandy facelift to any used book. All inside this dandy case. Thanks for looking.

Keynote notetaking opensource freeware – I just started playing with this, but it has great potential for sorting disparate items into cohesive thoughts.

Editpad pro and Editpad lite, an amazing text editor for windows. (the Lite is freeware) I have used the Pro version everyday.

I wanted to recommend Fineprint Software, which is a printer driver that allows you to multi-page print your documents, 2 up, 4 up, 8 and other things. This saves incredible amounts of ink and paper. I have used it for many years. However it has since been swallowed by a major corp and is now $49 bucks. Which makes it pricey for anyone who can’t quickly offset the savings in paper.

Mozilla Thunderbird, Firefox and Seamonkey. – how can you beat free? Thunderbird email program works as well as Eudora ever did. Firefox kicks Netscape’s ass, and I have started using Seamonkey not only as a browser but to create webpages. Open source software allows end users to develop plugins and addons for specific purposes, not all of them may be useful, but that’s a cool thing. You need only download the ones you NEED. Another nice thing about Open source is with so many people working on the programs all the time, any bugs and errors are quickly found fixed and update available.

Filezilla – A sweet FTP program, that looks similar to any other filemanager program and works with drag and drop ease.

Open Office - More open source freeware, ” a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project ” yeah right – it emulates MS office and is free and flexible. So far I haven’t found a document or file I couldn’t work on using it.

Open Office, Firefox, Thunderbird, Filezilla and many other programs also come in portable size for loading on your flash drive at PortableApps.com

	Writer – a word processor you can use for anything from writing a quick letter to producing an entire book.
	Calc – a powerful spreadsheet with all the tools you need to calculate, analyse, and present your data in numerical reports or sizzling graphics.
	Impress – the fastest, most powerful way to create effective multimedia presentations.
	Draw – lets you produce everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations.
	Base – lets you manipulate databases seamlessly. Create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports, all from within OpenOffice.org
	Math – lets you create mathematical equations with a graphic user interface or by directly typing your formulas into the equation editor.

I needn’t tell you I like Google’s suite of free applications. When they introduced some of them like Google Documents (which used to be Writely) I didn’t have any immediate use for them. But slowly I have found uses. I have a PC and a Laptop (which don’t always communicate with each other) and there are times when I am using a PC at another location. Using Gmail and Goggle documents, I can be sure the files I am working on are accessible from wherever I am.

btw here’s a link to more free stuff . . . i just discovered it, so it will be a fun place for a while.

and a few i forgot:

Azz cardfile is Windows program that helps manage any personal information like addresses, phone numbers, references, notes, recipes. I adore this tiny program. 1001 uses – I have used it to create my glossary of terms and fixes.

Allchars - mentioned this before, but it’s delightful. Ctlr plus 2 key combinations gives you tons of special characters.

Hence:
ñ = ctrl + ~ + n
ü = ctrl + ” + u
ø = ctrl + / + o
å = ctrl + o + a
ß = ctrl + s + s
œ = ctrl + o + e
æ = ctrl + a + e
¢ = ctrl + / + c
ƒ = ctrl + f + f
¥ = ctrl + – + Y
£ = ctrl + – + L
€ = ctrl + = + e
© = ctrl + o + c
® = ctrl + o + r

Whether you are removing self-adhesive stickers, pre-gummed bookplates or other book fixes, even using my book deodorizer product, a MAJOR factor in a successful fix is time and patience. I didn’t video this bookplate removal today, because it was 20 minutes of very boring, very minute work with a Q-tip and naphtha. If you scroll back far enough in the Bullpen, you will find many more mentions of naphtha (lighter fluid) and its wonderful property of dissolving acrylic sticker adhesive then evaporating harmlessly. Obviously some incredible idiot felt that his signature was nicer to look at than President Ford’s, so he slapped a bookplate over it. The odds were that the plate was gummed (water soluble) or acrylic adhesive (heat or chemical release) – and the signature was indelible Sharpie marker and the paper was coated – so 20 minutes of patience successfully restored Jerry’s hand. Heat or water may have created a ripple in the paper. So, like with all fixes you need to analyze the situation and test your fixes on similar papers and sacrificial books. Which is a step many people skip. Yesterday, I got a panicked phone call from a high end seller who was worried that the book deodorizer hadn’t worked on the text blocks yet. He had only used it for 4 days – and the product is a passive 14+ days fix. Impatience gets people in a lot of tight spots and makes for sloppy results.

• Group repairs together by difficulty. Do small repairs in batches, and big repairs alone.
• Be PATIENT – set repair projects aside for quiet time, late night or early morning, weekends, holidays, times when nothing else is demanding your attention.
• Clear the work area of everything else.
• Assemble your tools, even ones you may not need.
• Don’t use household tools, have TWO sets, and keep your repair tools in a special box, drawer or tool box.
• Turn on music – not talk. Personally I yell at talk radio, so it’s not calming.
• Don’t have a cup at hand. You’d be surprised at this one, but trust me.
• If you have pets, secure your work area when you walk away. Close liquids, cover papers.
• Let things dry at their own pace, which means overnight if need be.
• When you are finished, clean your tools and put them away.