Some of my readers - and certainly my friends and family - will know I have a lot of books. Yes, some are now virtual. I love having a 'purseful' of books to choose from, but most of my books are on the bookshelves, on the tables, in those boxes, on that chair....
A few shelves hold only older books, ones that once belonged to grandmas, grandpas, great grandmas, a great uncle, cousins... These are my family book collection.
I remember my brother looking at the old Bibles searching to see if anyone had entered family information in them. (See he was paying attention to his big sister's research.)
But alas, that my mum had already noted. She thought there were almost a dozen Bibles, and was sure not one person had ever written on any of the 'Family Record' pages! During her later years, these were all boxed up and stored in a closet.
When I inherited them, I made a basic Excel list of these books (title/date/good or poor condition/whose books they were) and over the years, I've tried to keep them together on their own shelves. I've certainly read a few from time to time! As my family research prompts me, I've written about a few and taken photos, usually at least of the covers, title pages, and any dedications and written what I know of their history.
This spring, since time was a bit heavy on my hands, I decided to do an inventory of all the Bibles. I intended to put them away for safekeeping but first I wanted to check their condition and to make better notes about each one. So here is a little case study to show what I've been up to.
My first step was to EXAMINE & ASSESS the books for additional information and condition. In the future, I may have a conservator look at some.
World Bible Dictionary.
The first thing I remembered while doing this was that they aren't all Bibles! There are other religious books, one quite an extensive Bible Dictionary which I've used myself, so I may want to keep that handy, and a few hymnals. Those are in poor shape - meaning to me that they were used a lot, most by my Na who sang and her sister who played piano and organ.
One thing I had remembered was that several contain little treasures (like some of my older books) - clippings, notes, bookmarks. Or did - most of those I had previously made notes of with the page found, and tucked them into small acid free envelopes. In cases where bookmark ribbons are attached to a book, I've noted those page numbers too. They could have been significant. (No photographs were found in these books then or now.)
And some of the Bibles include nice old maps and even photographs which I may want to scan for my own use.
Next, I set up a pretty basic spreadsheet. But there is room to add extra detail. I may, for instance, later add the URL or title of any articles about these written either by me or someone else.
And if someone else lets me know about a Bible related to our families, or if I find a reference to one somewhere, I would certainly add that to my list with a bold note about who has it and where and how to reach them. I might use a separate section. So far I haven't had to worry :-)
Here are the columns I'm using:
Interested in learning about looking after your family treasures?
Watch for webinars and articles featuring Melissa Barker, who blogs at: A Genealogist In The Archives
The Canadian Conservation Institute has a wealth of information online: https://www.canada.ca/en/conservation-institute.html
As does the Library of Congress. Here is one of LOC's pages with guidelines about books: https://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/books.html
Some conservation supplies are available in scrapbooking stores and the like. And online. Read and compare product specifications carefully. In Canada, Carr Mclean has all kinds of conservation supplies: https://www.carrmclean.ca/
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