The Boston Globe reports today on the "book hospital" at the Boston Public Library, where candidates for conservation and preservation work wait their turn. Due to a flat conservation budget line and a minimal conservation staff, books which need significant TLC are forced to languish in limbo.
The article includes a quote from historian David McCullough, who headlined a fundraiser for the preservation endowment last month and said of the necessary efforts "These books are a national treasure, which we of the Boston community are duty-bound to preserve. Yes, it will be very expensive to do that, but it's a fraction of what those treasures are worth. If we were the custodians of a great painting or an important building, or of the original text of a great dramatist's masterpiece, we would, of course, save them."
You can find out more about the David McCullough Conservation Fund or make a donation here.
