By

Mark Jensen

This is Part Three of our Six Part Series on Magic Book Collecting. Once again, when I refer to book, I mean books, lecture notes and periodicals unless I state otherwise.

Storage

So, now you have to decide where you are going to keep your magic library. You will need to consider accessibility, environment and growth.

Let’s start with accessibility. This means that your library needs to be located so you can easily get to it and don’t have to spend hours digging through boxes to find that book you are interested in. That means shelves and possibly filing cabinets.

Next you need to consider how much space you will need. How many books do you currently have? Based on your budget, what is your expected rate of growth? 5 books a year, 10, 50? This information will help you determine where you can physically keep your library.

Now that you have a few potential locations in mind you need to consider the environment. Your library should be in a climate controlled area. Temperature and humidity extremes can damage your books. Let’s say you were thinking about keeping your books in your garage. Unless your garage is climate controlled, here in Texas your books will be exposed to temperatures ranging from 40 - 100 degrees. This can cause your books to warp as well as the glue that holds the binding together to dry out. There are also bugs and excessive dust to consider. You should also avoid having your books exposed to direct sunlight as this will case the binding to fade. All of these will damage your books reducing their useful life and potential resale value. Finally, consider if there are any water pipes running through your potential location. Just imagine the damage to your library if the water pipe runs through the ceiling above your books and starts leaking.

So now you have the perfect place to keep your library it’s time to start putting your books on their shelves, right? Wrong…first there are a few things to consider with your shelves. I recommend using wood bookcases. Metal shelves will conduct moisture that could damage your books over time. With wood shelves, you want to avoid unfinished wood. The sap in the wood can leech into your books damaging them. With finished shelves, you want to ensure the finish is properly sealed. If they are just painted or stained you need to be concerned with the shelves giving off vapors and the paint/stain leeching into your books, both which will damage your books.

This doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot on your bookcases. I have both hard wood and inexpensive particle board bookcases that have worked well for me for several years.

You’ve now got a place to keep your books, but what about your periodicals, lecture notes and pamphlets? I currently use lateral filing cabinets for my lecture notes and pamphlets. I keep my periodicals in both binders and magazine boxes depending on the size of the periodical.

Now that you are ready to put your books on their shelves, you need to think about organization. I will discuss organization next month. Until then…Happy Collecting.

Part 4

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