Glue lickers anonymous

Stan Duchs at the Sacramento Family History Center showing his latest hymnbook repair with a press/binding job that is unequaled in creativity if not effectiveness.

Pat Bruno in his own bookbinding shop demonstrating the technique of resewing an 19th century pocket medical manual.

I don't think the settings, goals, methods, personnel, etc. could be any more different but I'll have to say that I thoroughly enjoy my two bookbinding "positions" which I routinely do every Monday.  Because Pat's back yard has had a bit of a drainage problem during the recent rains its been a while since I was down there but normally I'm there twice as much as at the Family History Center (FHC).

At the FHC the emphasis is getting the book back on the shelf.  Although there are general guidelines for repairing a book, creativity is allowed and even encouraged.  We are all amateurs in the sense of not getting paid and even in the sense of not knowing exactly what we're doing.  Stan is our latest volunteer addition and he is especially good at making us enjoy ourselves at our own expense.

Pat Bruno, on the other hard, has had years of experience rebinding books that are priceless or so valuable that I  wouldn't want to touch them let alone rebind them.  He knows the right way to do things and several near right shortcuts which he doesn't like to use or demonstrate.  His work is beautiful but often far exceeds the value of the book being repaired.