Working with the Three-Dimensional and Functional Book: An Interview with Dan Paterson

(The following is a post by Charlotte Giles, South Asian Reference Librarian, Asian Division)

The Library of Congress is well known for its unique and rich collections. What is often hidden are those who share their expertise and knowledge with the institution to make these holdings visible to the larger world. This blog, 4 Corners of the World, hopes to highlight the background and work of some of these individuals. This post is part of a short series of interviews (listed in the “Further Reading” section), which allows us to capture a piece of the institutional knowledge and history of Library employees who contribute to the International Collections, especially those who often work beyond the public eye. While staff work is what allows researchers to conduct research, their presence in the Library is also foundational to the creation of the culture at the Library. The Library of Congress’ story and history is comprised of those from within and beyond North America.

Dan Paterson is one such individual. Dan has worked for the Library since 2003, first as an intern out of graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, then for a not-to-exceed contract position in the Preservation Division, and now as a book conservator with the Conservation Division. Dan’s extensive knowledge of and experience in the conservation of various styles of books ensures the long-term accessibility of the Library’s collections for generations to come. His passion for and interest in the book as a material object and source of information results in a thoughtful approach to repairs and preservation. My interview with Dan gives a glimpse into the exciting work done by the Library’s conservators to ensure our collections will be accessible for future researchers.

Charlotte: Let’s start our discussion with how you got started on this path and what led you here.

Dan: After I graduated from college, I tried to figure out what I was interested in. I lived in Hungary for three years teaching English. I ultimately decided that I wasn’t interested in pursuing teaching. My entry into libraries happened when I got a job at the Newberry Library in Chicago. I worked in the reading room as a page [a page is responsible for the organization and shelving of materials].

While I was there, I went to a talk by the conservator who had just returned from a fellowship at the Bibliothèque Nationale in France. I was amazed by their work. At that point, I wasn’t aware that book conservation was something one could do. I reached out to that person to get as much information as I could and to learn about how to get into the field.

I started taking prerequisite courses at night like chemistry. I was not inclined towards science, but these classes were necessary for the graduate programs I was interested in. I also took several bookbinding classes to build up a portfolio for graduate school.

Charlotte: What led you to working with books in particular?

Dan: I was immediately intrigued with book conservation. But one of the things I liked immediately about books was the three dimensionality and the functionality of it. And the fact that you would treat an object [e.g., a book or manuscript] and then send it back to a reading room or the stacks for somebody to use. I liked this as an added layer of challenge. It had to withstand some kind of use afterwards.

Charlotte: Were most of the materials you were working with at the Newberry Library traditional Western style books or were you also looking at some Asian book formats?

Dan: They were all Western materials. I think they were all Western materials in graduate school as well.

Charlotte: Turning to your time in graduate school, please tell me about the program you did and the types of required coursework.

Dan: I went to the University of Texas at Austin for a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science, with an advanced certificate in preservation and conservation studies. You had to take all of the preservation and conservation classes for the certificate and then the library classes as well to graduate. The University of Texas program was only for books and paper. Unfortunately, this program no longer exists.

For the certificate program, the core classes were very specific to us. We had three “book labs”. One was learning different structures and making models of them. Book lab two was a continuation of that. In book lab three we began to do repairs on rare materials and to make more complex models of Western materials. The European book was a big component of that class.

Charlotte: It sounds like the program was Western-centric? Has this changed?

Dan: There is more emphasis on exposing students to other book traditions. But in practice I don’t think there is usually the opportunity to study non-Western books in-depth. People I know or have met coming out of American graduate programs in the last 10-20 years who are interested in non-Western materials, have been good at seeking out specific training opportunities. They’re tailoring their education towards being able to work on those materials. It wasn’t until I came to the Library that I worked with non-Western materials. The very first project I was given was a Tibetan book, which influenced me greatly.

Charlotte: After graduate school, what led you to the Library of Congress?

Dan: Graduate programs in conservation require you to do a nine to 12-month internship. The Library was my first choice. A mentor from the Newberry Library came here for her internship so I was always interested in doing something similar. I applied and was accepted. At the end of the internship in 2003, the directorate was hiring a three-year “not-to-exceed” contract position to work in conservation. It was good timing. After that, I’ve stayed ever since.

I wanted to come here because I wanted to see the variety of collections and to be exposed to as many different materials as possible. I didn’t want to leave.

I transitioned to a permanent conservator position. This was a chance to do more of what we would call single item treatment. Items are selected by curators and reference staff because they can’t be handled, or maybe they’re going to be digitized. This type of treatment has a different set of concerns and circumstances, and is a little more treatment intensive. This kind of position was always the goal.

Charlotte: What does a typical day look like for you? How much time do you spend researching potential treatments?

Dan: My days are usually somewhat predictable in the sense that I know what I’ll be working on, especially if something has to be returned by a particular date. But beyond that there is a lot that I have to determine or decide as far as what I think the best course of action will be for each treatment. For example, right now, I am working on a book of hours [a Christian prayer book] in preparation for an exhibit. I know that this has to be done by a certain period of time. I am coming in and starting my day working on that for at least a couple of hours. At the moment, this involves cleaning parts of the book and preparing it for sewing.

The research aspect is trying to figure out what the best binding structure is going to be. This includes researching how books of hours were typically bound originally. I’ve also been doing a lot of reading about recent treatments, recent rebinds of books from similar time periods, how to increase the flexibility of the opening of the book, thinking about what I can take from that research and how those other cases may or may not work for this book. Most of the things that I work on are not tied to hard deadlines.

There’s always a certain level of thinking about what this will look like and how this will function at the end of the treatment, and how to get to that point. You’re making sure you have all your ducks in a row before you get too far down a certain road and then maybe having to backtrack.

I have a Tibetan book that I haven’t started yet. I’ve taken a lot of photographs of it and talked to people at other institutions about how they might approach this book.

There are also a lot of projects that are the bread and butter of book conservation, mostly Western books that are somewhat similar to each other. For example, we do a lot of board attachments because it’s a common problem when, with the deterioration of the materials, the front board falls off a book after 300 years of use. There are multiple strategies for how to reattach those depending on the size of the book, the condition of the leather, how much intervention you’re willing to do, and the desired aesthetics at the end.

All conservators have multiple projects that we’re working on at one time. This is in part because sometimes you need to step away from things in the short term, for drying time or things like that. You can’t work all day long on the same project because there would be big gaps in your time and it’s better to fill those in with other things.

There are nine staff in the book lab, plus a few interns. Some are designated as liaisons to different divisions, and some who work full time on digitization. For me, I cover the Asian Division and Rare Books and Special Collections Division.

Charlotte: Getting into some more specific questions regarding some of the common repairs that you do, could you talk about some of the fibers and threads you use when repairing binding?

Dan: For Western books, we use almost exclusively an unbleached linen thread, and it comes in different weights, different thicknesses, and different numbers of strands. We make that determination based on the condition of the object. We also talk about swell. It’s the thickness of the spine after you treat the book, and the spine gets thicker because of the sewing; [e.g.] how much swell you’re going to get from different kinds of thread. Historically Western books were also often sewn on cord supports which give that distinctive look of raised bands on the spine. Those cords are then usually attached to the cover boards, underneath the leather and form the basis of the attachment between the text block and the cover.  Another factor is if the paper is brittle. If so, we might consider different options that don’t involve thread at all.

East Asian books, particularly Chinese and Japanese books, would have been sewn with a softer thread, such as silk. We do keep threads like these on reserve. We also use a lot of cotton floss since that tends to be softer. If we use the unbleached linen that we use for Western bindings, it’s too stiff and too hard for items with something like paper covers.

Charlotte: Earlier, you mentioned a Tibetan item as one of the first Asian books you worked on. Could you tell me a bit about that?

Dan: It was from the Rockhill Tibetan Collection of Rare Materials. It was loose-leaf. It did not have any boards that went with it. I made new covers for which there is already an established method. I was somewhat following what had been done for other volumes from [the] Rockhill [collection]. I did a bit of cleaning and a bit of mending. I also made a box for it. The fact that it was [in] a loose-leaf format, and was always intended to be a loose-leaf format, was eye opening for me. It made a very strong impression.

Charlotte: Does the Library tend to be conservative in our treatment plans? Are we creative? Are we leaders in the field?

Dan: I feel like we’re given a lot of latitude to develop a treatment plan that is best for the object and to think creatively. I think we’re leaders in the field. From my experience, conservators from outside institutions are usually interested in what we’re working on. We do a lot of information sharing. That comes from being encouraged to do that sort of thing, and I think that sharing is very much valued here.

Charlotte: You’ve spoken about the Rockhill Tibetan Collection. Beyond this, could you give an example of an Asian book project you have worked with and one you are currently engaged in?

Dan: For the first one – the Yongle encyclopedia in the Chinese Collection – it was significant for me to work with all those volumes. This project was challenging because of the size of the collection, binding, and the historical significance of the collection The volumes are in a unique and specific binding style, a “wrapped-back structure”, of which there are very few examples that have survived. Often, as with Western books, it was common for books to be rebound over the centuries. Some of those were not rebound, or they were rebound in that same style. That was a large project that required a lot of preparation and background research. There were four of us doing treatment. The last volume was the hardest one.

Charlotte: What was one particular issue that needed treatment?

Dan: On major issue was that the covers of every single volume were detached. There was a lot of historic damage that occurred to the books. They were involved in a fire during the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901). Some damage was related to that, and some was simply due to the inherent vice of the silk covers weakening through use and age. Many volumes had gotten wet causing losses in the text block. Once we got a working method down, it became a lot more manageable. The push to complete the conservation was the need to get the items ready for digitization.

Charlotte: What about an example of an item that you are currently working on?

Dan: I have two Tibetan books that I’m still thinking about for the treatment. They’re very unusual because most of the time, the Tibetan book structure is unbound and it’s a loose-leaf format. Both are in sections, and they have a specific sewing structured that I need to learn more about. And generally, they’ve been through a lot. Their condition is not great.
As I mentioned earlier, there are people that you can reach out to for insight and ideas. In this case, I’ve talked to a conservator who’s at Indiana University, who’s worked extensively with Tibetan materials. He has a wealth of experience, and he’s been really helpful. He’s the first person that I’ve talked to who has seen other examples of this style.

Charlotte: Could you give an example of a South Asian item – past or present?

Dan: I worked on a number of textbooks bound in a Western style that involved a lot of paper repair. They were very brittle. The insect damage on them is due to the humid environment they came from, leading to the deterioration of the paper.

Charlotte: Given that you do such specialized work that requires researching, testing, and planning, could you talk about tools? Do you have to make your tools?

Dan: We do, or if we don’t make them, we modify them. But we do make a lot. Right now, I’m working with buffalo horn. I’m shaping it and trying to make it really thin and flexible. The rough piece of horn was given to me by a colleague in Hong Kong. I’m following the design and shape of her tool to make mine. Tool “copying” like that is also very common in conservation.

Charlotte: I have so many more questions I could ask, but I’ve taken enough of your time. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me.

Want to learn more about the Asian Collections, which staff like Dan Paterson contribute to every day? Please contact a reference librarian via the Ask-a-Librarian service. Please also check out the blog dedicated to Preservation at the Library, “Guardians of Memory: Preserving the National Collection.”

Further Reading

The following are other interviews conducted by Charlotte Giles in this series.

“A Long and Dedicated Journey Through Libraries: An Interview With Phong Tran” (May 8, 2023)

“Thirty Years of Cataloging the South Asia Collection: An Interview with Shantha Murthy” (November 29, 2022)

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