Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Librarians give new life to torn, tattered books

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

Bosque Farms Books are one of humankind's most marvelous inventions. An incredibly portable storehouse of knowledge and information, books, in their many forms, has been around for the last 5000 years.

But when these tangible treasures of wisdom become damaged, it's heartbreaking for those who cherish the written word and its surroundings. With broken spines and covers coming loose from pages, there is new hope, thanks to the Bosque Farms library.

Library Director Sophita Kyhnsen and library technician Maggi Geddes have, for the past three years, been learning and practicing the art of bookbinding and repair and restoration. Not only is the duo using their newfound skills on rescuing the library's own collection, but they have been restoring books for private owners — all to benefit the library.

"Why throw a book in the garbage if I can put it back together and we can have it for another generation or two and pass it on to somebody?" Kyhnsen said.

Even though the Bosque Farms Library is the smallest in the county, Kyhnsen says that they are dedicated to saving their collection and making sure that the library can save money whenever and wherever they can. With an annual state grant for continuing education, Kyhnsen uses the nearly $1,000 on book restoration and repair classes they take twice a month.

"We really enjoy it," Kyhnsen says of the classes. "It takes such concentration, and we really enjoy it because you just focus on one thing. Restoring books to the best possible condition, for yourself or a customer, is so rewarding."

Both Kyhnsen and Geddes says while most of the older books in the library are in good shape, it's those that have come out in the last four or five years that are falling apart and in the most need of repair. She said there have been occasions when a book has been checked out only once and has fallen apart.

"They don't make books like they used to," Geddes said. "We can't keep buying books that are falling apart."

Kyhnsen said she got the idea to take classes in bookbinding and repair after reading an article in the Albuquerque Journal several years ago about a woman who teaches others the craft. She saved the article for years before she finally contacted the woman — Mita Saldana — and began taking classes.

Saldana, who owns Against the Grain: Book Restoration and Repair in Edgewood comes to the Bosque Farms Library twice a month teaching Kyhnsen and Geddes techniques needed for repairing books. She says educating others about book repair is very fulfilling.

"As a child, my mom used to pick up antique books for me a lot," Saldana says. "I'm a big book collector — I can't go into a bookstore without spending money."

Growing up, Saldana said, she'd always wanted to be an archeologist, but as time went on, she changed her mind and turned to art and began her book repair business. But in some ways, restoring old and even new books is a form of archeology in that she's rediscovering and restoring history.

"I get to work with books from the 1600s," she says with a smile. "For me, that's just awesome. For me, they have a lot of character, they've been through a life and there is so much family history attached to these books, especially family Bibles.

"What fascinates me is that when you get things like family Bibles and heirlooms and the paper is like tissue thin, there are methods with Japanese papers, you can restore that page where you can't tell the difference," Kyhnsen said. "It just blows my mind, and the people are so happy to have something restored that they can continue to pass down to family."

Geddes agrees, saying that since she's been able to learn the craft of repairing books, she's been able to use her skills on one especially special book she's had since she was a small child.

"It's just a book of poems that I had when I was a little girl," Geddes said. "It has fantastic photographs, and it was totally falling apart. It had no case for it so I just put it all back together."

Before anyone can learn how to repair a book, Saldana teaches him or her how to make a book. She says she begins teaching her students to make a stitched volume.

The reason, she says, is because you have to take the book apart when you're repairing it and you have to put it back together again.

"You need to know how to do it correctly, so when you're looking at it, you know what all the pieces are for and what to do with them," she said.

There's a right way and a wrong way to repair books, Saldana said. And if you don't know how to correctly repair a book, you can actually mess with the functionality of the structure.

Saldana said there are a lot of similarities in how books are made, but each one could be different here and there because binders use their own techniques, especially when it comes to older books.

"We have so much fun learning," Kyhnsen says. "Each time we learned something new, it just got better and better and better. The whole point of it is that we'll never finish learning."

The Bosque Farms bookbinding and repair project has become so successful that Kyhnsen and Geddes have taken home four blue ribbons for their work — two from the Bosque Farms Community Fair and another two from the New Mexico State Fair in 2008.

"It has provided a win-win solution for us," Kyhnsen said. "Monday through Saturday, we repair the library editions and we donate our time on weekends to outside projects that we charge for. The money goes directly to the Friends of the Library for special projects not covered by the annual budget."

So far, Kyhnsen and Geddes' work has contributed more than $200 to the Friends of the Library, and they have completed seven outside projects.

"I would encourage other small libraries to look into classes that benefit the library and the employees with continuing education monies," Kyhnsen said.

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