Edible Book Festival Coming Soon

We are less than two weeks away from the fifth annual Edible Book Festival. I hope everyone has their ideas ready and their chefs hats on. If you need inspiration, check out our past event photos or go to the International Edible Book Festival website.

EBF V will take place on April 1, 2010, from 2-3:30 p.m. in the Gothic Reading Room. Everyone is welcome to participate. There are two rules:

The book must be made out of food products.

All edible books must be "bookish" through the integration of text, literary inspiration or, quite simply, the form.

Bring your submissions to the Gothic Reading Room by 1:30 so we can get you checked in. Doors open at 2pm, there will be a silent auction to benefit the Library Memorial Fund, and voting for your favorite submissions in several categories.

See you there!

Image: Leaves of Grass by Judy Bailey

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Have you missed me? I've been out sick this past week and haven't been able to post. Maybe I need more Beef Wine in my diet. While I catch up on what's been happening around here, I thought I would give you a little luck charm for St. Patrick's Day in case you aren't wearing any green. We found this four leaf clover in Lloyd's War Losses: WWII. Fun, and a bit ironic. You can see more of what we find in books on our Flickr page.

What Good Is A Box?

A brittle book from the general collections came in today whose binding is holding on only by its spine lining. The paper and sewing are brittle and several pages are loose. It failed even a single fold of a (very very tiny) double-fold test, so it is too brittle to repair. No problem, we'll make a box and give the librarian the option of having a digital or paper surrogate made.

What caught my eye, however, was the note she wrote saying "Please repair spine, don't put in a box since that won't help." Until we decide to make a surrogate, boxing actually does help:

• It keeps a fragile book with loose pieces contained in one place
  
• It provides protection from wear and tear
  
• It reduces light exposure
  
• It alerts a reader that this is a fragile book
  
• It keeps a brittle book in the stacks and available for the next use (this book can still be used, as long as the patron is very careful...we trust that they will be)
  

We try to repair everything that comes to us but sometimes we just can't and we need to do something else. Creating a protective enclosure is one of those things we can do to keep a brittle book in the collections.