Horizontal storage of books damaging?

Is this true? ISTR from my record (vinyl) collecting youth that one
never stored LPs and singles horizontally because heat could warp the
vinyl, but hardback books? Can the 'boards' that form the cover warp
over time? I'm getting a little anal about this only after investing in
a £75 copy of Milton's Paradise Lost. It's leather bound with moiré
silk sides; it's huge, heavy, gorgeous and very precious (I even plan to
leave it as a keepsake for somebody special in my will). But it's too
tall to fit in any of my bookcases vertically, and its size is so unique
that it doesn't justify buying a new (awkwardly spaced) bookcase for.
What's more, the slipcase is illustrated with William Blake's "The
Temptation and Fall of Eve"...so I've got to think about protecting
that. Other books sliding against that image are surely going to damage
it. (It comes to something when you want to protect the protective
slipcase!)

Horizontal storage, perhaps in a transparent, acid-free cover seems
best. Or is it?
--
Lee J. Moore
"Life is short, art is long."

Is this true? ISTR from my record (vinyl) collecting youth that one
never stored LPs and singles horizontally because heat could warp the
vinyl, but hardback books? Can the 'boards' that form the cover warp
over time? I'm getting a little anal about this only after investing in
a £75 copy of Milton's Paradise Lost. It's leather bound with moiré
silk sides; it's huge, heavy, gorgeous and very precious (I even plan to
leave it as a keepsake for somebody special in my will). But it's too
tall to fit in any of my bookcases vertically, and its size is so unique
that it doesn't justify buying a new (awkwardly spaced) bookcase for.
What's more, the slipcase is illustrated with William Blake's "The
Temptation and Fall of Eve"...so I've got to think about protecting
that. Other books sliding against that image are surely going to damage
it. (It comes to something when you want to protect the protective
slipcase!)

My own opinion is that the best way to store a book is vertically
between other books of around the same size, so that its pages are
pressed together. There shouldn't be too much pressure, or you
risk damage to the book each time you withdraw it from the shelf.
The shelf should not be exposed to sunlight, or the spine of the
book will quickly fade. It should not be in a damp room, or foxing
will occur. The ideal course would be to turn the book upside down
in the shelf at regular intervals, so that the pages do not fall
from their own weight (although this is usually not a serious
problem). Turning the book regularly also inhibits the growth of
mould and bookworms.

["Followup-To:" header set to rec.arts.books.]
Friends, michael adams, countrymen, lend me your newsreaders:

"LJM" wrote in message
...

Is this true? ISTR from my record (vinyl) collecting youth that one
never stored LPs and singles horizontally because heat could warp the
vinyl,


Heat, plus the fact that the centre label area is slightly thicker than
the outside perimeter. And so being unsupported the outsides will
eventually sag slightly under their own weight. Whereas balanced
on their edges perpendicularly they won't. Allegedly.

Aha. This is really useful information - and not just for the book in
question given my weakness for leaving hardbacks lying around on
horizontal surfaces all over the house.

[..]

It's perfectly permissable to store single books horizontally. As
the book is already in a slip case, there's presumably no danger of the
lower edge of the spine being flattened underneath owing to the weight
of the book.

That's right. In fact so much attention has gone into the design of the
slipcase alone that a thick 'step' protrudes from both top and bottom,
clearly to support the spine.

And the slip case will prevent the text block from sagging
or slipping sideways, and imparting a slant to the book. Which is one of
the main problems when storing large numbers of books in this way.

Yes...I suppose there's a domino effect. If one's affected, they're all
affected. I'm suddenly rather concerned about the fifty-two 'Great
Reads' (Daily Express) hardbacks I bought last year now. I'm never
quite satisfied with the angle they're at, and the oldest copies are
already sagging slightly.

Horizontal storage, perhaps in a transparent, acid-free cover seems
best. Or is it?

Ideally you might want to protect the slipcase from UV light, to prevent
any possibility of fading. Which means using UV filtered transparent
Mylar or similar. Or protecting it from the light altogether, by keeping
it an archival quality box of some description. Buffered card, the
material of choice, is both acid-free and absorbs acid from adjacent
materials, allegedly. And can be cut to size, and made up into a box
to fit.

I have to strike the right balance I guess. The book is definitely
there to be read, and not to serve as a piece of furniture. It just
seems that my books suffer most whilst on shelves (either due to
questionable storage or visitors) than when they're being read. I think
I'll shop around for a replacement shelving unit which better
accomodates very large and small books (I'm sure I've seen something
with part of an upper shelf cut away to accomodate a small number of
unusually tall books), and I'm wondering if I can get a 'wallet' of
Mylar put together that will fit the slipcase of the book exactly. I'm
not sure where to start in that regard, but I have to protect the image
on the slipcase somehow.

Thanks Michael - for so many useful tips. :-)
--
Lee J. Moore
"Life is short, art is long."

["Followup-To:" header set to rec.arts.books.]
Friends, Al Smith, countrymen, lend me your newsreaders:
[..]
My own opinion is that the best way to store a book is vertically
between other books of around the same size, so that its pages are
pressed together. There shouldn't be too much pressure, or you
risk damage to the book each time you withdraw it from the shelf.

No risk of that regarding the book I'm getting paranoid about because
it's in a really strong slipcase. Only by clamping a vice around it and
crushing it would you put pressure on the pages inside. But it's
certainly good advice about storage in general. Between Michael and
yourself, I'm reevaluating the way I store my hardbacks around the
house. I don't care so much about the paperbacks unless they're rare.

The shelf should not be exposed to sunlight, or the spine of the
book will quickly fade.

Is some material more prone to fading than others? Looking at my
shelves now, I see spines of paper, silk, cloth and leather. I would
imagine that a flower print on silk is going to suffer far sooner than
gilt lettering on green leather for example.

It should not be in a damp room, or foxing
will occur. The ideal course would be to turn the book upside down
in the shelf at regular intervals, so that the pages do not fall
from their own weight (although this is usually not a serious
problem). Turning the book regularly also inhibits the growth of
mould and bookworms.

I'm sure a lot of this is common sense advice; I'm just amazed that so
much of it is new to me. I guess I have little common sense.

Thanks Al. :-)
--
Lee J. Moore
"Life is short, art is long."

LJM wrote:

Horizontal storage, perhaps in a transparent, acid-free cover seems
best. Or is it?

You're right. Sometimes horizontal storage really is the only option.
The ARC of Jonathan Strange came wrapped in brown paper and tied with
very thick twine. Standing it vertically would have ruined the bottom
edge, so as a temporary solution until I can have a box custom made,
it's laying on it's side supported between pieces of corrugated
cardboard.

It works for now.

John A. Stovall wrote:
On 19 Apr 2005 09:52:30 -0700, "

wrote:

You're right. Sometimes horizontal storage really is the only
option.
The ARC of Jonathan Strange came wrapped in brown paper and tied
with
very thick twine. Standing it vertically would have ruined the
bottom
edge, so as a temporary solution until I can have a box custom made,
it's laying on it's side supported between pieces of corrugated
cardboard.

Aren't you concerned with acid from the corrugated cardboard and
brown
paper?

I'm not worried about the cardboard for the couple of months I'll have
it like this, no. As to the brown paper, well, given the popularity of
the book, I can't imagine there being many copies left in the original
state. In order to remove it, I'd have to break a wax seal. And that
I refuse to do.

So basically, I have a fairly common, but collectible book in an
extremely rare and (I hope in the future) highly sought-after state.
To keep the rarity, I risk damaging the book. If anyone has ideas, I'm
welcome to them...

wrote:
....
If anyone has ideas, I'm
welcome to them...

Another data point:

When I needed to look something up in the rare book room of an
archive, I found that the books were archivally boxed and stored spine
down
to prevent sagging damage to the binding. Then I had to put on
gloves to handle the book.

I don't know if this is standard at all archives.

Brian

on Wed, 20 Apr 2005 08:03:46 -0500, John A. Stovall stated:

On 19 Apr 2005 15:33:13 -0700, "
wrote:


John A. Stovall wrote:
On 19 Apr 2005 09:52:30 -0700, "

wrote:

You're right. Sometimes horizontal storage really is the only
option.
The ARC of Jonathan Strange came wrapped in brown paper and tied
with
very thick twine. Standing it vertically would have ruined the
bottom
edge, so as a temporary solution until I can have a box custom made,
it's laying on it's side supported between pieces of corrugated
cardboard.

Aren't you concerned with acid from the corrugated cardboard and
brown
paper?

I'm not worried about the cardboard for the couple of months I'll have
it like this, no. As to the brown paper, well, given the popularity of
the book, I can't imagine there being many copies left in the original
state. In order to remove it, I'd have to break a wax seal. And that
I refuse to do.

So basically, I have a fairly common, but collectible book in an
extremely rare and (I hope in the future) highly sought-after state.
To keep the rarity, I risk damaging the book. If anyone has ideas, I'm
welcome to them...

You might want to look at a deacidification spray for the brown paper.

http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v15/bp15-17.html

The above article give both pros and cons of it in one test.

I gave my mother some old comics from her childhood (40s/50s);
she's been dusting them with baking soda to stop the acid burn.
Anyone have any comments on this? Would it be problematic for
any reason (aside from having to get all that white powder back
off of the papers)? I haven't checked the above link, yet; is
the deacidification spray superior?

-Allison

This thread makes me glad I buy mainly cheap used paperbacks. Even then
I often feel that I've paid too much for what I bother with books for,
i.e. the content.