Mixing dry paste with deionized water
Books often contain some amount and variety of adhesive in their original structure. Conservation treatment of Emory Libraries’ special collections, archives, and circulating books, whether ancient or hot off the press, begins with an assessment of original structure, current condition, and identification of the best treatment protocol. Our conservation staff has a broad knowledge of historical, contemporary, and regional book binding adhesives. We have an ability to recognize the imaginative ingredients of untrained home repairs with extensive experience in the choice and application of adhesives appropriate for book and paper conservation.
Cooking paste in a Cook-n-Stir
Forms of hot glue are used in commercial, inexpensively bound publications—think mass market paperbacks. Home repairs may involve Elmer’s Glue or Krazy Glue in addition to various kinds of adhesive tape. (For a glimpse of DIY tape repairs, see the blog Magic. Electrical. Duck, dated April 19, 2022.) Animal (or proteinaceous) adhesives have been used historically and are still in use in some regions in book binding. Collagen-based adhesives are widely used in many fields of conservation.
As a side note, that familiar cow of the household glue is not a reference to an animal hide or hoof ingredient but to an original formulation containing casein, a protein derived from milk. Today, household glue is a synthetic polymer adhesive akin to the purer professional grade adhesives, PVA (poly vinyl acetate) and EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate). These are both used frequently in our lab for the construction of protective enclosures, repair of circulating books, and the treatment of rare books in limited instances and applications.
Distributing cooked paste into sterilized syringes
For the treatment of cellulose-based materials, we use vegetable adhesives, predominately wheat or rice starch paste. We prepare these adhesives in our lab, pre-soaking the powder in deionized water, cooking in a saucepan, then distributing into sterilized syringes and petri dishes. Saul Chavira, conservation student assistant from 2023 until his 2025 graduation with a degree in art history and physics, became an expert at preparing paste, understanding its working properties, and perfecting the application of different kinds of adhesives.
Perfecting the application of paste
“I use paste when it comes to more sensitive and fragile materials. I prefer rice starch over wheat starch, because I find rice starch to be smoother and softer when applying it to the material I’m working with, compared to wheat starch which can get gummy or have a more ridged texture. I prefer rice starch paste and EVA to wheat starch paste and PVA; rice starch gives me more working time in case I need to reposition.”
Saul Chavira re-adhering a pastedown on the book cover
Please join the Emory Libraries Conservation team in thanking Saul Chavira for his successful position with us, congratulating him on his Emory graduation, and wishing Saul the best as a future conservator.
To learn more about adhesives in general: Sticking Together: The Science of Adhesion (2020, online). And in conservation, specifically: Adhesives, Coatings and Consolidants (2025, online); https://www.conservation-wiki.com/wiki/BPG_Adhesives
—by Julie Newton, assistant conservator, and
Saul Chavira, conservation student assistant
Emory Libraries