As with Book Repair, this Office processes materials from all the endowed libraries, with the exception of Law. Susie also supervises the Preparations unit which, staffed by Pat Teeter and Sherry Hubbard, deals with the binding and casing of the high volume of new unbound material entering the Library. The Preparations Unit prebinds by the stiffening process large numbers of paperbacks prior to first-time shelving, and must work productively to keep pace with the books processed by Central Technical Services. As the staff numbers only 1.5 FTE, the unit is often supplemented by other Department staff to keep pace and to produce more than 4,000 items per month. The unit also produces adhesive-bound books.
Every effort is made to process materials on a forty-eight hour basis.
The Conservation Liaison Specialist organizes surveys of the collection in order to identify preservation candidates, and with the help of the curators, selects groups of materials for treatment by the conservation treatment staff. Usually, the collected data is used to produce detailed treatment cost figures incorporated into grant proposals. All conservation treatment work for rare and unique materials is drawn from all the libraries of the University.