Thanks, Paul!

In 2008, The Newport Public Library acquired a book called 30,000 Years of Art, which I called "a treasure trove for serendipitous flipping." It was true: magnificent full-color images of art from all over the world, printed on thick, creamy paper, arranged in chronological order so that you can compare what was happening in different parts of the world during the same historical period.

30,000 Years of Art was over three inches thick and heavy. It almost immediately began falling apart under its own weight.

The binding was not strong enough to hold all those high-quality glossy pages. The spine broke, was mended, broke again. The book was beautiful, but at only three years old it was falling to pieces. Would we have to get rid of it?

Paul Reed devised a solution. Paul is one of the library's many volunteers. His job is to mend damaged books, which he does with such skill that all our old irreplaceable books go to him for new bindings. He thought that even if he rebound the book, it would still be structurally unsound. He suggested that we break the book into two volumes and bind them separately.

So that's what he did. 30,000 Years of Art is now two handsome volumes, newly rebound and available to the public once again, thanks to Paul Reed.

The Newport Library relies on volunteers for numerous tasks. They work behind the scenes, and their reliability, talent, and hard work keeps the library functioning smoothly.