1st Fridays @ 4 – Bookbinding workshop!

Several times a semester UCL’s Reference and Instructional Services department hosts 1st Fridays @4, a fun activity (with food!) that engages and educates students/patrons. When Pam Bach, the lead coordinator of 1st Fridays, asked the Preservation Lab if we would be interested instructing a simple, fun bookbinding workshop we jumped on the opportunity. Being in the basement of the library can be a bit isolating, so any chance we get to interact with the students and patrons is very appealing to us. We decided to show the participants how to make an adhesive-bound miniature book with a paper case. We chose this because it would be easy for people new to bookbinding to construct, we had all the supplies we needed to prep for the workshop, and we already had a little experience prepping and teaching the structure since we made these cute little books during our student and volunteer fun day in November.


With the help of our wonderful students Alex, DJ and Stephan we prepped 50 double-fanned AB textblocks with cloth hinges, 60pt boards, Bristol spine pieces, and an assortment of marbled papers and paste papers (almost all of which were made right here in the department). Holly started off the workshop by introducing us and talking about the Lab and how it came to be. Then Ashleigh discussed some of the history of bookbinding and showed a variety of structure examples she brought from the Lab.


About 20 people showed up to the event so Holly, Ashleigh, and myself floated between the tables demonstrating the various steps to making the miniature book. It turned out to be the best way to teach the entire group since people were working at different speeds and sharing supplies.


By the end of the workshop everyone walked away with their very own miniature book and most even took supplies to make another one (or two).


All those who participated seemed to have a great time! We even overheard people mentioning that they were going to give their book as a gift and that they couldn’t wait to try making more books. Holly, Ashleigh, and I really enjoyed ourselves and look forward to more opportunities like this for the Preservation Lab in the future.
A special thanks to Pam Bach and the Information Common’s students for the promotion, set up, and clean up of the event.
Jessica Ebert (UCL) — Conservation Technician