Introducing The Book-Trouser Project - Where there is a will there’s a way!

The Book-Trouser Project is first and foremost a community engagement initiative directly linked to the business objective of the Parliamentary Archives to prepare and move the collections ahead of the restoration of the Palace of Westminster.

With the pandemic restrictions in place between 2020-2021, the Archives’ Collection Care team collaborated with the Arts Society, and proposed an innovative and creative working from home project, which brought together 150 volunteers from across the country to achieve one simple, but large task - to prepare 16,000 historic volumes for barcoding, making them ready to move.

The project was shortlisted for the House of Lords staff awards 2022 in the category of Breaking New Ground, as an example of problem solving and creativity, having the confidence to suggest new ideas and the ability to adapt to new challenges and demands.

Background - What is a Book-Trouser?

The Parliamentary Archive is the world’s oldest parliamentary archive with a continuous existence and the collection constitutes 13km of physical records dating back to 1497, stored on 12 floors of the Victoria Tower in the Palace of Westminster. All the unboxed volumes in the Tower require clearly labelling and barcoding ahead of the move for tracking and identification purposes.

As is often the case with historic collections, the spines of books cannot be labelled and barcoded directly due to their value, fragility and age. Something had to be constructed to create a barrier between barcode label and volume, something that is easy to make, robust enough to last handling and at a reasonable cost.

The book-trouser is a nifty invention, created out of high quality, conservation-grade paper which was cut into a specific shape. The shape resembles a pair of trousers hence the name. The Book-Trousers are wrapped around the spine of the book and the two edges of the ‘trouser’ are tucked-in to the front and back cover of the book, securing them in place.

The making of 16,000 book-trousers

Working with volunteers

The Parliamentary Archives Collection Care team have collaborated with the Arts Society for a number of years and the volunteers make a valuable contribution to the work we do. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the safety measures in place, access to the Archives was restricted, meaning the regular volunteers could not come onsite and the projects they were working on were paused.

That, however, did not stop us from finding new and creative ways to engage with our volunteers and to widen out our engagement to a wider pool of volunteers from across the UK. We were able to do this by designing a project that could be undertaken from home in alignment with government’s restrictions.

We designed and wrote up a project description and worked with the Arts Society management to advertise for volunteers who were interested in participating in a work from home task, to help us create approximately 16,000 Book-Trousers. 

We needed volunteers who were willing to receive supplies and templates, do the task of cutting out the book-trousers in the comfort and safety of their own home and then post them back to Parliament.

Some additional requirements were desirable such as hand skills and manual dexterity, ability to follow instructions and accurately using template as well as ability to use a ruler and Stanley knife. 

We received a great deal of interest and were overwhelmed with volunteers! Their time and devotion to contribute to such a project offered them an escape to staying at home and developed their skills and enthusiasm to crafts.

How was it done?

Running the project had challenges as the lockdown restrictions applied to the staff too. We created processes, guidance and a list of the tools which would be required. Managing the logistics and delivering supplies led us to adapt processes and use technology in different ways.

With email and written correspondence and online tutorials, we were able to train the volunteers to produce high quality book-trousers. To help our volunteers make Book Trousers, we created templates and written instructions that we sent by post.

We also made YouTube videos to demonstrate how to make book trousers and also how we fit the completed book trousers onto our collections. The YouTube videos were a hit and received more than 1,600 views!

We used postal services to send and receive packages that we weighed in advance, to make sure that correct envelopes and stamps were sent for return. We included instructions on how to pack and return the completed Book Trousers in certain ways to protect their physical integrity, minimise the risk of damage in the return post and ensure that the end product was useable.

Extra care was taken to make sure there was no cost to the volunteers for paper supplies, postage and packing. Volunteers had the option of ordering their own tools and we helped in choosing the best most cost-effective products in the market. For volunteers that did not have the means to purchase, the Parliamentary Archives supplied all necessary tools.

The Impact and reflections

The project has been successful for both the Parliamentary Archives and the Arts Society.

For the Parliamentary Archives

• The target number of book trousers was met and exceeded with 17,000 plus book-trousers now received back, being put on our books and kept as spares in our studio
• We increased our pool of Arts Society volunteers from our original 3 London-based volunteers who came onsite, to 150 volunteers working from home, spread across the UK
• We have helped to join up numerous regional Arts Society groups under one project
• The project has built a reputation - we have been approached by other libraries seeking information and permission to use the book-trouser design, and assist them with their own book-trouser project set up
• We have a great sense of achievement, having worked hard to make the project happen whilst dealing with the pandemic and figuring out how to work from home ourselves
• It has inspired us and opened our minds to possibilities and options beyond the known and established. We’ll be considering what other projects we could run with remote volunteers in future!

For the Arts Society

Many of the volunteers included thank you notes with the complete packages they returned. In their notes, they talked about their families, their pets, their gardens, and their experiences during the pandemic, but they kept going and carried on making and sending the book-trousers that are now featuring in many aisles and shelves across Victoria Tower.

Hilary Olleson, Head of the Arts Society Home Volunteers team wrote:

This book trousers project has really caught the imagination of our members, they all seem to have heard of it and, of course, being done at home, it is perfect for these uncertain times. It has also become our first country-wide project with volunteers from Scotland down to the Isle of Wight, a thing we hoped for but were not certain would happen. 

Katerina Laina is an Accredited Conservator of the Institute of Conservator-Restorers in Ireland (ICRI), specialising in the conservation of paper and parchment, with over 25 years of experience in the field.

She currently works at the Parliamentary Archives as Collection Care Manager. Prior to this role Katerina has worked for Tate Galleries, responsible for the loans-out programme and for exhibitions and displays at Tate St Ives.

Katerina has also worked over the years for various notable institutions and commercial companies across the United Kingdom, Ireland and Greece, including St. Paul’s Cathedral, Trinity College Library Dublin and The Greek Ministry of Culture. Katerina also has experience in disaster management and recovery consultation for private companies.