The Barchas room has supplies, such as foam book cradles, weights, book snakes and blue cards that can be used in class sessions. These help to preserve collection materials as they are used and serve as visual cues that these items should be handled with a heightened level of care. See Guidelines for handling materials for additional information.

• Leave plenty of space around collection materials. 
• Do not exceed Four items per table.

​​​​​​​When working with books:

• Use foam book supports (book cradles) to support books as shown. These supports reduce strain on book spines and help to preserve the text block attachment and sewing structure. The cradle helps to prop the book open at an appropriate angle
• Do not force opening.  Add additional foam supports if a smaller angle better fits the natural opening.
• Use book snakes or weights to carefully to hold page openings. 
• Do not place book snakes or weights on top of text or illustrations as shown below.

When working with manuscript collections:

• Remove one no more than one folder from a box at a time.
• Use blue cards to mark the removed folder's place in a box.