Beautiful Hardwood Bookshelves

Metal shelves are fine for the bulk of collections storage – for all those items you want to keep but don’t need to be immediately accessible.  In our house, our books need to be accessible and therefore we need bookcases.  Personally, I love the look of a finely made bookcase.

Our 2008 flood experience (toilet supply line break on second floor resulting in water damage in 12 rooms) threatened our books but, miraculously, we only suffered one loss – a Mennonite hymnal left on the ruined piano.  So I guess we owe a debt of gratitude to our cheap particle board bookcases (IKEA and the equivalent) which took the brunt of the water onslaught while effectively sheltering the books.  In assessing the damage, the water-damaged bookcases were labeled trash.

Thanks to my wife’s impressive skills at working Craigslist, we were able to upgrade to some nice hardwood bookcases.  When we moved back into the house, our family room featured a set of new (secondhand) bookcases nestled on the new carpet.

Discussing my preservation concerns with Laura Hortz Stanton, Director of Preservation Services at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, I take the opportunity to boast about our handsome new family room.  She isn’t as impressed as I had hoped.  “You have to be careful with offgassing,” she says.  “The bookcases can offgas and so does a new carpet.  After installing a carpet, it’s best to give it time to settle down and offgas before bringing in collection items.”

Offgassing is the release of acid chemicals into the air.  “That beautiful fragrant smell of a cedar bookcase is really offgassing,” Laura says.  “So is the smell of a new carpet.”  The acid chemicals can migrate into the items, especially paper-based objects like books.  This interior pollution can accelerate processes of discoloration and brittleness.

Laura recommends that hardwood bookcases should always be finished and treated with a sealant.  This significantly reduces the amount of offgassing.  In addition, she suggests laying sheets of mylar on the shelves that can act as an inert barrier between the books and the wood.

As for our old particle board bookcases, Laura says they really weren’t so bad.  “The particle board and exterior grade plywood bookcases offgas some but tend to be less of a concern than many of the hardwoods.”

© 2011 Lee Price

Practical Shelving Advice

Whether your family collection is stored in an unfinished basement or in a palatial library setting (my favorite is the Beast’s library in the Disney Beauty and the Beast), your collection should not be stored on the floor.  This is a standing order from Laura Hortz Stanton, Director of Preservation Services at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts.  Laura says:  “Get it off the floor.”

According to Laura, boxes or collection items that are stored on the floor:

1.      Are easy to stumble over, potentially causing damage to the items and to the stumbler.

2.      Are directly in the line of pests, such as silverfish, cockroaches, termites, mice, squirrels, and other collection-devouring vermin.

3.      Are vulnerable to flooding.

The last point particularly hits home with me.  Three years ago, a toilet supply line broke in our second-floor bathroom, causing water damage throughout the house, including rooms on the second floor.  Therefore, I can vouch from personal experience that items on the second floor are no less vulnerable to water damage than items in the basement.  You don’t need three inches of water to cause trouble.  A cardboard box on the floor will happily soak up a drink from a water-logged carpet with potentially ruinous results.

Laura’s standard advice for museums, libraries, archives, and historic sites applies to owners of family collections as well.  Boxes and items should be stored at least four inches off the floor.  This is practical advice, too, because placing the items on shelves decreases the amount of collection space needed in the house.

Sophisticated collecting institutions like large museums and academic libraries often use mobile compact shelving systems that are masterpieces of efficiency.  They look great.  Unfortunately, they’re also beyond the budgets of most family collections…

Prestigious art and history museums often use powder-coated metal shelving, a widely-recognized industry standard for preservation.  It’s a smart investment.  Unfortunately, it’s also an investment beyond the budgets of most family collections…

So here’s what Laura suggests:  Go ahead and use commercial grade shelving.  But since these shelves can get a little tacky, cover the surface of each shelf with a layer of acid-free board or mylar.  Wire shelving is okay for boxes, but be careful not to place objects directly on it.  The wire surface can cause long-term damage.

For larger items that don’t fit neatly on the shelves, Laura still insists they should be elevated off the floor by at least

four inches.  “At the very least, put it on a palette or a riser,”

Laura says.

© 2011 Lee Price