The Iowa State University Library now has a book hospital. The new $300,000 Conservation Treatment Facility was dedicated Saturday at 10 a.m. on the fourth floor of the library.

The facility is intended for book preservation and maintenance including collection conservation, encapsulation and binding.

Collection conservation is a high tech form of book repair. Encapsulation is the process of covering the pages of a book with a seal to protect them from crumbling. Binding turns a paperback book into a hardback book.

Most of the funds raised for the preservation room were from private donors.

The remaining funds were taken from fines for damaged books and materials, said Ivan Hanthorn, the director of the library’s preservation department.

A reception on the first floor honoring the major donors to the library was held at 9:30 a.m. ISU President Martin Jischke and his wife Patty spoke at the event. Hanthorn led the reception.

Grover and Gladys Hertzberg and Deane and Marion Gunderson are a few of the donors who were honored on a plaque for the facility. The Hertzbergs helped to unveil the plaque in Saturday’s ceremony.

Carolyn Opsomer, director for donor development and donor relations at the ISU Foundation, said people tend to say they want to do something about different problems at ISU, but ” … it is gratifying to see some people actually put their money where their mouth is.”

Opsomer thanked the donors for their help.

“It’s satisfying that there are … donors we can recognize that are interested in enhancing the library.”

Iowa State started its preservation effort in the early 1980’s, Hanthorn said. Library officials established a small treatment facility for items in the department of special collections.

In 1986, a preservation planning self-assessment was completed to determine the library collection’s assets, conditions and needs. Iowa State’s library, he said, was one of the first in the country to use the self-assessment tool developed by the American Research Library Association.

Hanthorn said nearly one-third of the collection was brittle and more than 75 percent of it was acidic. The study indicated that 250,000 volumes of the collection needed immediate attention, Hanthorn said. Five thousand “immediate need” volumes are being handled by the preservation staff, he said. The volumes being preserved are chosen with the emphasis on those that get used the most.

“If a library is to maintain its excellence, it must have a preservation effort,” he said.