What Library and Archives Canada and the CCI expect from a handmade book

What to take away

What Library and Archives Canada expects of a handmade book entering a collection

Under the Library and Archives of Canada Act, Library and Archives Canada acquires and preserves the documentary heritage of Canada. Its mandate covers published Canadiana, government records and private fonds of national significance. An item is acquired because it is rare, or because it documents a person or organization of national significance.

Legal deposit requires a publisher in Canada to send two copies of a published book to LAC, with title, author, publisher, place and date of publication, and ISBN. A unique handmade book is not a published edition, so it usually enters by donation or purchase.

It arrives with a signed transfer of title, provenance notes, a materials list and a condition report.

A book arrives with questions attached. Who bound it, when, in what edition or unique state, and from what materials. Legal deposit, donation and purchase each ask for a paper trail before the item reaches a shelf.

A plastic spiral or a self-adhesive photo album is not refused outright. It is flagged for conservation review, and that review costs staff time and shapes how the item is stored for decades.

The expectation on a binder is narrow. Build the book so its parts separate later. Use materials whose ageing is known. Hand over a written account of what you used, with brand names where you have them.

A book that documents a national figure gets consulted, photographed and loaned. Structure that fails at the hinge is repaired, and every repair alters the object.

Provincial archives, university special collections and museum libraries apply the same reasoning at a smaller scale. The wording differs; the tests do not.

Binders repeat the same failures, and centuries-old bindings reveal them as clearly as any modern treatment file: rigid spines, thin adhesive, repairs that cannot be undone.

Ask early whether a regional institution will treat your work as an artist's book or as a copy of a published text. The answer decides which standards apply and how the item is described.

CGSB paper and board standards that govern material choice

The Canadian General Standards Board publishes the standards Canadian institutions cite when they specify paper and board.

The relevant standards are CAN/CGSB-9.70, Paper for Permanent Records, and CAN/CGSB-9.60, Board for the Storage of Documents and Artifacts. CAN/CGSB-9.70 sets pH at 7.5 to 10.0, alkaline reserve at 2 percent or more, and lignin content below 1 percent. CAN/CGSB-9.60 applies comparable pH and alkaline reserve limits to board.

Permanent paper is defined by measurable limits, not adjectives: pH, alkaline reserve, lignin content and fibre furnish. A paper is permanent when it has been tested against those limits, not when a supplier calls it acid-free.

Lignin does the damage most binders underestimate. Groundwood and other high-lignin pulps yellow and embrittle with age, and alkaline buffering does not stop it. Text paper meant to last should be lignin-free.

Alkaline reserve is the calcium carbonate buffer that absorbs acids as paper ages. It also tolerates acid migrating in from adjacent board and adhesive.

Board follows the same logic. A dense, alkaline, lignin-free board holds a cover flat and feeds nothing into the endpapers. Cheaper board does the opposite, and the damage shows at the joint years later.

When you compare suppliers, ask for pH, lignin and grain direction on the technical data sheet rather than the marketing copy, and file it with your project notes.

For covers, density and workability pull against each other. Davey Board vs Chipboard sets out the trade-off when you are deciding whether a cheaper board is good enough for a book headed to a permanent collection.

CCI notes on adhesive selection and reversibility

The Canadian Conservation Institute publishes the notes and technical bulletins that conservators and binders treat as the working reference. Bookbinders consult CCI Notes 11/1, Adhesives for Paper, and CCI Notes 11/2, Removal of Pressure-Sensitive Tapes from Paper, most.

Reversibility governs. An adhesive should come off later, with solvent or with moisture, without lifting paper or loosening sewing. That single test excludes several strong, convenient products.

Wheat or rice starch paste is still the default for paper repair and lining. It holds, ages predictably, and reverses with moisture. Methyl cellulose is often blended in to slow drying and improve workability.

Polyvinyl acetate emulsions, sold as white glue or as Jade-type adhesives, are common in book work. How reversible they are depends on the formulation and on how far the glue has soaked into the paper, so thin application matters as much as brand.

Pressure-sensitive tape is excluded from heritage work. Carrier, adhesive and plasticiser all migrate, and removal takes fibres with them. A taped repair becomes a conservation problem the moment the book is acquired.

Contact cement, epoxy and cyanoacrylate have no place in a binding meant to be kept. They are difficult or impossible to reverse, and some release acids or solvents as they cure.

Adhesive choice is structural, not just chemical. A spine lined with a stiff, irreversible glue will not open flat, and the text block cracks at the first section. Paste and thin emulsion let the sections move.

Binding structure choices that survive preservation review

Structure decides whether a binding passes review or becomes a treatment file. The reviewer is asking one thing: can this book be opened, stored and repaired without loss?

A flat-opening spine comes first. Tight-back case bindings and heavily glued perfect bindings restrict opening and stress the gutter. Hollow-back and Bradel structures open further and strain the sections less.

Sewing should be the primary source of strength. Supported sewing on cords, tapes or linen thread holds the text block whether or not the lining survives. Adhesive supports that structure; it does not replace it.

Linen is the usual thread for heritage work because of how it ages under load. Linen Thread vs Cotton Thread is worth reading before you buy a spool, since cotton loses strength faster and behaves less predictably.

Endpaper attachment deserves the same care. A narrow paste strip at the joint reverses more easily than a fully pasted endpaper, and it leaves the spine lining reachable if the book needs treatment.

Boards should be removable. Laced-on boards, or boards attached with paste and linen, separate without cutting into the text block. Boards glued flush to the spine do not.

Spine linings and hollow tubes should flex with the sections. A stiff lining passes stress into the paper and cracks it.

Structure also decides whether a mistake is recoverable. Choosing recoverable materials keeps an error from becoming permanent, which is the argument a preservation reviewer is making.

Work through this order before the book leaves your bench.

Collections documentation standards and describing a handmade book

Documentation is not paperwork added afterwards. It is the record that lets a collection manage, insure, loan and preserve the item, and it starts with the binder's notes.

CHIN's Collections documentation standards, based on the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model, list the fields a record carries: Object Name, Object Number, Artist or Maker, Date, Medium, Dimensions, Provenance, Condition and Rights. A handmade book needs custom wording in several of them.

The physical description should name the structure, not just the format. Hollow-back, laced-on boards, coptic and long-stitch tell a conservator how the book is built and what can be done to it.

The materials statement lists paper, board, thread, adhesive and covering material, with maker and product name where known. This is the field that makes future treatment decisions possible.

Write the condition report at acquisition and photograph it. Note existing damage, earlier repairs and any adhesive you can identify. A dated baseline settles later disputes about what was original.

Provenance matters for artist's books and unique bindings. Record the binder, the date of binding, the edition or state, and how the item arrived. An artist's statement belongs here too.

Settle rights and reproduction permissions before cataloguing. A collection holding a handmade book with original content needs to know what it may photograph and publish.

If you are supplying a small museum or archive, ask which documentation standard they follow and prepare your notes to match. It saves correspondence and speeds approval.

Use this checklist before handover.

CCI notes on housing and storage for a handmade book

Once a book is accepted, storage decides how long it lasts. Canadian collections deal with wide seasonal swings in relative humidity, and that shapes the advice they give. CCI Notes 11/4, Storage and Display of Works of Art on Paper, and CCI Notes 11/5, Matting and Framing Works of Art on Paper, set the enclosure and storage expectations.

Stable humidity matters more than any single target figure. Paper expands and contracts with the swing, and a binding restrained by adhesive or a tight case cracks at the joint.

Ontario and Quebec collections face humid summers and dry winter interiors. Prairie and northern collections face very dry winters. Coastal British Columbia and the Atlantic provinces face high humidity and mould risk. Housing answers the local pattern, not a national average.

Enclosures should be the same permanence class as the book. An acidic box or a PVC sleeve damages the item it was bought to protect. Use inert or buffered board and avoid plastics that off-gas.

Shelving should support the book rather than compress it. Oversize volumes lie flat; small ones stand upright and are not packed tight. A slipcase or phase box protects a fragile binding during handling.

Handling rules are part of collections management: clean hands, a support cushion, no photocopier platen pressed onto a spine, no tape. Those few failures account for most of the damage reported in small collections.

Record environmental monitoring rather than assuming it. Data loggers are inexpensive, and a temperature and humidity record explains condition changes at the next review.

The broader collections management guidance published for Canadian museums covers acquisition, documentation, access and care. It is the framework an archive will apply to your book.

CCI notes and advice that define the standard

The Canadian Conservation Institute is the federal body behind much of the practical conservation expectation in Canada. Its notes and bulletins are what binders cite in treatment reports.

For a working binder the notes beat any general guide. They are short and specific. They are aimed at people handling objects. They address adhesives, storage, enclosures and exhibition conditions.

Specialised advice is available to institutions and, in some cases, to individuals with a specific problem. Start at the Canadian Conservation Institute contact page if you need to ask about a material or a treatment.

The institute's learning activities are listed by topic, so you can work through paper and book care before committing to an approach.

CHIN, the Canadian Heritage Information Network, publishes heritage research tools alongside the documentation standards. They help with terminology, cataloguing fields and research on materials and makers.

Provincial arts councils and the Canada Council fund some training and residency work; ask the program officer, not a colleague, about eligibility and deadlines.

Before you commit to a new paper, board or adhesive, check the standard, then the CCI note, then the documentation requirement. That sequence answers most of what a collection will ask.

Common questions

Does Library and Archives Canada accept handmade books at all?

Yes, where the item fits the acquisition mandate and documents something of national or regional significance. Your documentation and material choices affect whether it is kept and how it is stored.

Do I have to use CGSB-certified paper?

No, but a standard gives you a defensible way to specify permanence. CAN/CGSB-9.70 sets pH at 7.5 to 10.0, alkaline reserve at 2 percent or more, and lignin below 1 percent. Ask suppliers for pH, lignin and alkaline reserve data and keep the test sheets with your project notes.

Which adhesives should I avoid in heritage work?

Pressure-sensitive tape, contact cement, epoxy and cyanoacrylate. They are difficult or impossible to reverse, and some release acids or solvents as they cure.

Can I get advice from the CCI as an individual binder?

The CCI's published notes and learning activities are open to anyone. For a specific treatment question, use the institute's contact page and describe the object and its materials clearly.