Dusting books

Any idea on how to dust books!

In the past, I've just blown the dust off the top, but it's time consuming, dusty & hard work!

Do you use a micro fibre cloth, or a small vacuum cleaner, or what?

Thank you.

When I was at college, they had a team that just vacuumed books. They started at one end of the stacks, pulled out books and vacuumed the books and the shelf, straightened the books, went on to the next, and when they got to the end they started over. I was always glad I was on the desk.

Those fluffy microfiber dusters that look like a raccoon's tail work pretty well, but my experience has been that vacuuming is most effective. Of course, bookcases with doors are the best solution - not that I've got any.

I use soft dust rags to wipe off most of the books. Ones that have a cover material that is coarse and not conducive to wiping, I vacuum, along with the text block tops and edges. The brush attachment to my vacuum is pretty soft and I only use it for books. I feel like wiping the top of the dust block might just be pushing dust into the pages.

Since I'm allergic to dust, I do dust my library fairly often. It's a chore but more enjoyable than most.

Sadly, because I'm allergic to dust also I don't dust often enough which turns it into a major allergy event when I do get around to it.

Thank you everyone who has replied so far.

I use my son and his girlfriend to dust my books. I find them very effective.

>7 pgmcc: I may have to borrow your duster at some stage. :)

>7 pgmcc: My experience has been that soon after you get a son to the size required, and properly trained to be quite useful around the house and garden, they start getting involved in things like studies and jobs - mostly on the other side of the world, and you are back to base one on those chores.

Now I use a soft brush to dust my books. I used to dust with a slightly damp cloth, but not any more – it can do some damage to books.

Dust and moisture makes mud.

We have added a Whirlpool hepa filter device to the library. Almost noiseless and takes up very little floor space. Always on, helps with possible mold problem as well.

You find household hints in the oddest places: In a Somerset Maugham short story the narrator, upon giving a new housekeeper instructions, tells her that on no account should she dust the books in his library. (He could happily live with the dust, he writes, but not with books being taken out to be dusted and then re-shelved in the wrong places.) I thought that if a old fuss-budget like Maugham didn't mind dusty books, why should I? The upshot is that I dust books only when I take down a book to read & find it rather cobwebby or when I'm putting one in box bound for charity or 2nd-hand shop. --Given that dust doesn't accumulate on a book that's taken from a shelf frequently and that it gathers mostly on tops & sides of pages rather than exposed spine on a book that isn't, not bothering with hidden dirt on a book rarely taken down from the shelf leaves one more time for watching the Giro/playing canasta/trail-blazing/reading. (I'm assuming you're not referring to fragile/special/very old books which would require special treatment beyond dusting.)

The publisher and bookbinder practice of adding gold to the top edge of pages in a book was meant to facilitate dusting them. The thicker material at the top of the page would make it harder for dust to fall between the pages. This is called "top edge gilt" or "teg" in library and bookseller abbreviations.

Some books, in an effort by their producers to make the volumes seem more opulent, might have used a gold-colored material on all three sides. This is "all edges gilt" or "aeg".

Especially in the 20th century, publishers found that mass-market books could have the same dust prevention (or at least a cheaper sense of the top edge gilt) by coloring the page edges along the top. Here, too, the material causing the coloring thickens the paper by a slight amount to discourage dust from entering the pages.

The usual advice I have seen on dusting books is to hold the book closed with the spine towards you in your less-dominant hand. Then use a soft brush (e.g. a broad sable artist's brush) to move any dust from the spine towards the foreedge.

It would seem that glass cases would prevent dust but unless they are sealed better than any I have seen, this is not likely. There is probably less dust but it is still a factor.

James

When one buys books via the internet, one quite frequently receives books with some dirt on the edges of the page blocks; I've found Swiffers to be pretty effective at removing that surface dirt/dust if it's not totally ground in.

Keeline,

I've been using Ikea Billy bookcases with the glass doors for 10 years now, and almost no dust makes it onto the books, so I highly recommend glass doors if pristine book condition is a priority.

P.S. Thanks for the gilt info, I wasn't aware of any of that.

If you're in Oxford, the wonderful shop Objects of Use does, among other brushes, a book-brush for just this purpose. I can't describe it to you off the top of my head, but the ship is worth visiting (it has a web-site too). I got my beard-brush there!

Oh, here we are:

Well, now I want one.

Just seen all these old replies. So, thank you all for helpful & some amusing replies. I've gone down the - blow dust off when I take a book down to look at or read; plus a more detailed brush every few years, when the shelves look bad too!!

Years ago, I would dust off my books with a book brush, one at a time, at least three times a year. I'd do the front edge of the shelf as well, but maybe every four dustings would entail removing all of the books and dusting off the entire shelf.
Then I met MrsHouseLibrary and a year later, we married, and married our book collections as well, after which we more than tripled our joint collection. Needless to say, I haven't dusted the books since, other than to blow off books I happen to remove from the shelves for whatever reason.
And after she died, I did a deep cleaning of our first floor prior to her memorial, and dust has piled up on most things since.
Vacuuming rather than dusting is the way to go at this point, and the hose on the floor vacuum wasn't going to reach nearly half of the places I need to reach, so I did a lot of research and bought a backpack style vacuum cleaner. It's lightweight, not terribly noisy, and I bought for it an extra brush attachment that I labeled "for books only."
Excellent suction power. I suspect that if I used it on an open book, I'd end up with a blank page.

I was buying a vintage book from the library bookstore once, and the volunteer took a toothbrush and gave a few vigorous scrubs to the top edge. I about had a heart attack, but no harm was done.

>20 maisiedotes: ...the volunteer took a toothbrush and gave a few vigorous scrubs to the top edge.

It must have been a toothbrush graded 'Soft' or possibly 'used till softened'. Hog/ boar bristle shaving brushes might be preferable though, on account of larger surface contact. ;)