It’s a Thursday afternoon in January. Wool scarves pulled tight, students hurry by Showalter Fountain on their way to or from class.

On the sixth floor, in a room that is precisely 68 degrees Fahrenheit with 47 percent humidity, Jim Canary is bent over a book of hours — a type of prayer book — hand-written and illustrated in the 15th century, cleaning two 600-year-old pieces of leather.

As head of conservation at the Lilly Library, Canary has worked for 26 years fighting the decay of the 450,000 books and 7.5 million manuscripts stored at the Lilly.  

“It’s like your car,” Canary says. “You just have to keep up on it all the time.”

Here are just some of the techniques and tactics the Lilly Library takes to restore these books.

LIGHT

The UV component of light can cause books’ fibers to become brittle or their dyes and inks to fade over time. Five “foot-candles” is the ideal amount of lighting the Lilly uses for documents in iron gall ink or hand-colored illustrations, which are especially susceptible to fading. A foot-candle is a unit of measurement equal to the light produced by one candle from one foot away.  

RE-BINDING

Japanese tissue is a thin paper that is dyed using acrylics or watercolors and pasted on the outer and inner binding depending on what’s necessary. It can be used on leather, cloth, paper, or vellum.

“I wouldn’t want to throw this in the book drop, but it’s a perfectly adequate repair,” says Canary. 

Storage

Any books that seem loose or fragile are kept in a handmade box or “clam shell.” Anything less than half an inch thick is kept in an envelope.

PAGES

To clean stains, a book can be de-acidified, or alkalized, by either applying an alkaline solution to a dry page or submerging it in an alkaline solution bath. However, because these repairs change the chemical composition of the paper, they are a last resort.

WHEN IN USE

While anyone can use the books, they must be kept in the designated Reading Room. Inside, they are placed atop cushions that support each tome’s spine and binding. Instead of having patrons hold down a page with their hands, strings with weights on them are used. 

Preservation and access are two key values in the library’s functionality.

“We still are a functioning library,” Canary says. “Books are meant to be used.” 

BOOKMARKS: THE LILLY LIBRARY BY THE NUMBERS

450,000 number of books, plus 7.5 million manuscripts, stored at the Lilly Library.

6,400,000 number of bound volumes the Ruth Lilly Auxiliary Library Facility can hold.

16,000 number of miniature books housed in the Lilly’s collection.

24 maximum number of hours it takes for any book to be retrieved from the ALF.