Tip #20: Don’t slouch on book arrangement

Written By Dmitri Schmidt

Tip #20: Don’t slouch on book arrangement.

How do you organize your books? By color? By title? Author? Believe it or not, there is a correct answer!

If your goal is to preserve the integrity of the collection, you’re going to want to store them by height.

Slouching isn’t just bad for our backs, it’s also bad for the backs of our books. Even when stored vertically, books have the tendency to wobble and lean over. Bookends help prevent this, but so does arranging your books by height. This way the books support each other and you don’t have a much shorter book trying to hold up a taller one.

Want to learn more about other threats facing your book collection? Check out our webinar on YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUZnW3sA-kI

#ArchivalTips #BacklogArchivists #Conservation #Preservation

Dmitri Schmidt

Dmitri plays a pivotal role in coordinating Backlog’s outreach efforts. They curate our weekly #FridayFinds and #ArchivalTips social media posts, shedding light on items discovered in our genealogy work and providing tips and tricks to approaching problems in the archives.

Dmitri holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and German Studies from Saint Louis University. During their university years, they dedicated over 1000 hours to interning and volunteering at local St. Louis institutions, including the St. Louis Science Center and the St. Louis University Museum of Art. As the Collections Intern at the Science Center, Dmitri assisted in developing and installing the "Into the Vault" exhibit.

Before joining Backlog, Dmitri served as a Fulbright Grantee, teaching English as a second language in former East Germany. From guiding 11th graders in analyzing pop albums as poetry to discussing the significance of the civil rights movement with 8th graders, they covered a broad spectrum of subjects. While reveling in connecting with students and injecting fun into grammar lessons, Dmitri's deep passion for all things archival eventually drew them back home.

Today, Dmitri works as a Herbarium Assistant at the Missouri Botanical Garden, helping digitize the millions of preserved plant specimens. After being scanned and transcribed, these images aid scholars around the globe in furthering botanical research. Dmitri also serves as the archivist for the Kirkwood Historical Society. They are currently overseeing the “Journeys into Kirkwood’s History” project, which aims to digitize documents related to Kirkwood’s early Black settlements.

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Tip #21: Handle books gently.
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Tip #19: Red rot is preventable, but not reversible