Sticky backed plastic.

Hi all,

I've just got hold of (via ebay) three rare hardbacks each sold with what was described as a dust jacket cover, but turns out to be just sticky backed plastic covering the jacket and sealed on the reverse side. I'd really like to get this off and replace it with a proper brodart cover before it does any more harm.

Trying to peel it away from the reverse side caused it to take a layer of paper with it (only tried a v small area!). I've read the sticker thread, but guess the plastic will not be permeable and thus the recommended products may not work. Any tips or should I just put up with it?

Aaah,the horror. I also got some books from betterworld that were abused that way.

I tried to carefully warm the plastic with a hair-dryer to melt the glue. Afterwards I could remove the plastic. I cannot remember the name of the liquid I used to remove the remaining glue on the book.. it was some kind of Chinese brand.

yes warming works well
you can put a dish towel over it and iron it gently
the two things should come away from each other. whatever is left can be removed with heptane (bestine solvent) or Naphtha (lighter fluid)

I've had a lot of experience in this area lately. My FiL died back in January, and my wife and I got the lion's share of his almost-900 books. He loved books, but didn't treat them very well, I've come to learn.

Several paperback books were reinforced by gluing corrugated cardboard to the inside of the covers; masking tape covered the edges and reinforced the joint with the free endpapers; sometimes the book was covered in clear packing tape, or worse yet, sticky-backed felt material. Occasionally, he'd spray-paint them.

Hardbound books were generally treated better, but, if he had a book that he wanted to "preserve", and it had a dust jacket (hereafter referred to as DJ or DJs), he'd laminate it. As all three of his daughters taught in various schools, they had access to lamination machines. Eventually, he also bought a roll of clear, sticky-backed shelf paper, and used that instead.

As I added each of these books into my catalog on LibraryThing (and in a separate spreadsheet), I took the time to try to remove the lamination, mainly because, over the years, bubbles formed underneath the lamination.

In some cases, I was able to slip a microspatula between the lamination and the DJ at an edge and work the tool gently towards the other end. He always scotch-taped the laminated DJ to the paste-down endpaper. If I was careful (and lucky - not always), I could remove the tape from the endpaper, and lift the lamination away from the DJ. Sometimes, I'd use an X-acto knife and cut through the air bubbles to give me a starting point.

A lot of the newer books have DJs that are more plastic than paper, it seems, and you can be fairly brutal with them as far as the removal process. Older books, however, with true paper DJs are a crap-shoot more than anything. Some will come off easily, others will lift the ink off the DJ. I have several dozen books now with the lamination still on the DJ because I haven't found a way to remove it safely.

Dark blue and black and red ink seem to adhere to lamination more so than the other colors. I suspect that the absorb more heat -- he used a common iron to make sure he had good adherence.

I've used the hair-dryer with varying degrees of success. It's the ink colors mostly, combined with impatience on my part. You'll also want to use Goo-Gone (or a similar product) because the glue in the back of the lamination randomly opts to stay with the DJ.

Good luck!

Definitely try the hair-dryer approach.

> 4

Spray paint??? The mind boggles.

I second the use of Goo-Gone. It works when nothing else seems to.

I just received a hardcover with no dust jacket and it was thoroughly wrapped in sticky backed plastic wrapping - kind of like saran wrap with a sticky back to it. The sticky side was on the book. When removed the book is all sticky.
Would the goo-gone product be the best thing to try in this situation without harming the book?

What do you mean by "rare?" Do you mean rare like small number of known copies and can be sold for lots of money and you are very lucky to have them? If you do mean that, you may want to consult a conservator. If not, try what other folks have said.

wow this thread is still going.....

In then end I went down the iron route. Worked ok on two of the three, less well on the the third. Books are rare in the sense not many copies around but they're a very niche area and not worth anything except to geeks like me. And I'm totally uninterested in selling.