Iona Abbey Library
Preserving Iona Abbey Library
In March 2017 we were invited to the Isle of Iona to visit the Iona Abbey Library. There John and Lesley Anne appraised hundreds of books on their two day trip and we, along with two other conservators, were awarded the tender.
Iona Abbey Library is one of the most important libraries in Western Europe and attracts over 130,000 visitors a year. It is where St Columba's monks sat down to write and illustrate the Book of Kells before being rudely interrupted by the vikings!
In September 2016 the tiny library, hidden above the cloisters of the abbey, received a grant of £100,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This is being used to support the two year restoration and conservation project preserving the unique works held in the library for future generations.
Shortly after receiving several boxes containing books and manuscripts which delve into the history of Scotland and its Gaelic ancestry we set to work. Where possible the books were restored as similarly to their original bindings as possible. In many cases this involved paper repair work and conservation binding, and where pamphlets and manuscripts had been previously unprotected, they were now secured in new cases so that the internal pages will stay preserved for many more years to come.
In December 2017 we safely returned the precious works to the Iona Abbey Cathedral Trust who will look after them until the Abbey Library restoration project has been completed. We hope to be involved in the public exhibition to be created on Iona; in this it's final year; to showcase all the hard work put into this venture before its expected completion in October.
"Thank you very much to DAD Bookbinders for all your hard work and attention to our books. They have been in good hands"
Sue Clutterbuck, Project Manager, Iona Abbey Library Project
Adventures in London
Road Trip!
Every 4 weeks a couple of "lucky" bookbinders get to drive our wee van down to London and back on a two day road trip. Last week it was the turn of Gail and I.
We left at 7am on Monday morning and with just a few stops for coffee on the way we had a thankfully uneventful journey to the capital. We blethered all the way and arrived at our first stop, The British Library, at about 3:30pm. After making our delivery there we headed to pick up a little box of books in need of repair from the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths'.
We also needed to deliver an order to the London Library and collect another even bigger one to take home. The London Library give us lots of interesting rebinding work as they are such an eclectic organisation and a beautiful library - I encourage everyone to visit. They run tours!
All this before we even get to check into our hotel!
But, not a minute is wasted as we head out to enjoy the small amount of free time we have to explore the city. Gail and I love a walk to Covent Garden and a look around the quirky stalls and shops. Although we had to cut our wanderings short as we had a dinner date with our bosses!
Robin and Lesley-Anne are currently looking after a huge library cleaning job for the Royal College of Surgeons and kindly offered to take us out for our evening meal. We had a lovely time, a couple of cocktails and tried to keep the work chat to a minimum.
The following morning, Gail and I were up early to get back to the British Library. As we are not allowed to remove any of the materials from the library we need to go and measure up all the items to then create a bespoke box for each back in our workshop. The process can be fairly time consuming but they require such an accurate fit that it is the only way we can do their order effectively.
The British Library is another amazing place. It is like an iceberg as it has more levels under the city as it does above, with the vast majority of their items being stored in temperature and humidity controlled, airless environments below street level. The main areas of the library are littered with people working from notepads and laptops with the reading rooms being completely and eerily silent.
With only one more small collection to do on our way out of London we drove our laden van back, through the rain, to Glasgow. Our highlight of the drive home was meeting these two cheeky chaps at Tebay service station!
It is a long trip to do every month but we need to take care of our customers in London in the same way as we do our lovely Scottish clients!