"Who do you think you Are " & White Glove Preservation

Just a reminder that the TV series "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE" , is airing again tonight.

The series seem to get better with each episode. I want to comment on the white glove situation.
I recently was handling a book and felt the white gloves were stressing the pages so this is what
I did. I put the gloved hand on the page that was holding the pages and gently used the end of my
finger (ungloved) to move the pages. I think it did the book much less harm.

Sometimes it's a common sense thing, if the book is not damaged you may be preventing it from
having more damage by protecting the hands from exposing it to the body elements. I have often
wondered if the oils from the body hasn't helped the paper from getting so brittle and falling
apart. I think the quality of paper has a lot to do with the preservation of the book. The proper handling of the book during it's life time helps. But I have to concur that not all books should
have a white glove treatment. Those in horrid shape should be filmed to be preserved.

The book I had was very fragile on the edge of the page near the bottom and it just made no sense to
make a harder impression or deeper indent than needed by just using the edge of my finger.
I want to take a paper sorter finger next time to see if it doesn't do less damage than bulky white gloves
Or the gloves need to be like the well fitted ones we used to wear to church.