LISNews: Librarian News

The Houston Chronicle Reports on Charles Arbore who binds books at the Houston Public Library's Julia Ideson Building. For 10 years, he has volunteered to revive and rehabilitate the precious and rare old books in the library's Texas Collection. M.B. Synge's Book of Discovery: The History of the World's Explorations, from the Earliest Times to the Finding of the South Pole was one of the latest to undergo Arbore's reconstructive surgery.

"I had a bit of a revelation," Arbore said. "I couldn't afford the $75 a book Williams was going to charge for fixing my books, but I could afford to pay to learn to bind books myself. I ended up spending a heck of a lot more than $75, but I got a skill that is a hobby I'm passionate about."