We’ve prepared a treat for you today using our own private book collections, being estranged from the Library. Conservators, book historians, and bookish nerds of all sorts are often avid collectors of images showing books. Today we present to you: #booksinchildrensbooks

You can participate by a) (easy option) sharing your own, b) identifying the illustrator, or c) (trickiest option) providing binding descriptions for the books depicted! Or you can just enjoy the pictures #booksinchildrensbooks

The beginning: how about depictions of paper-making in children’s books? @FrogmoreMill’s Tale of Old Froggy More shows the early days of paper-making, also including a fine paper hat #booksinchildrensbooks

Here’s another example of hand-paper making, by a rather serious young lad. Shouldn’t he be out enjoying his teenage years?! But instead he’s experimenting with a wove mold. Oh well. Probably made his own personalised watermark too. #booksinchildrensbooks

Kindly someone invented machine-made paper, so that young lads like him could get out more. Look at this beauty of a book from one of our colleagues’ collections! #booksinchildrensbooks

But now: a stunning depiction of a paper-making factory, flawless in it’s realism and attention to detail. @FrogmoreMill can you confirm that this is what the inside of a papermill looks like? #booksinchildrensbooks

Excuse any typos, we’re over-excited

And once the paper is made.... it might be printed on, to make a printed book #booksinchildrensbooks

Or it could be written on and even illustrated, to make a manuscript #booksinchildrensbooks

The finished pages, whether printed or manuscript, can then be bound in an almost infinite variety of ways (as the collections of @bodleianlibs can testify to). This one is staple-bound:

And here is another simple binding technique, a single section pamphlet with two sewing stations. @Ligatus_UAL we invite you to critique our binding description.

Other bindings are much more fancy: binding descriptions invited for this hefty number please!

Other books use blank paper so that they can be used for account books..... #booksinchildrensbooks

...or notebooks... #booksinchildrensbooks

And now, in time-honoured tradition of the Bodleian Conservation department, we have our tea break and elevenses (ie. an excuse to include some illustrations we really like but don’t depict books)

Coffee break is over! Next: where might books go after they are made? One option is a library (obviously). Libraries range from the grand... #booksinchildrensbooks

....to the small, but we love them all #booksinchildrensbooks #lovelibraries

Some books might end up in schools, to be very thoroughly used and loved and remembered for a lifetime #booksinchildrensbooks

Books can be borrowed from libraries or bought in shops and then taken home to read from the comfort of your favourite chair... keen readers should probably use bags for this purpose. Also is this a Babar book amongst our little friend’s library haul? #booksinchildrensbooks

This keen reader should perhaps have found a book trolley for transportation of his collection #safetyfirsr #booksinchildrensbooks

And now, lunch break! Move all the books aside whilst we tuck into this feast...

Where might books end up once they are taking home? Some may end up as Modernist room dressing, like this one #booksinchildrensbooks

...or neatly and carefully shelved like these books #booksinchildrensbooks

Some books end up amongst piles of bits and bobs that require “sorting” on side-tables in houses all across the land #booksinchildrensbooks

Other books mingled amongst children’s toys on coffee tables... #booksinchildrensbooks

Whilst for the serious book-lover/book-hoarder/impoverished city dweller, the overspill of books often results in towering stacks dotted across the floor #booksinchildrensbooks

...and now! Tea break! Pancakes for everyone...

How are books read and enjoyed? Sometimes calmly, at home #booksinchildrensbooks

...sometimes used for education, to teach with... #booksinchildrensbooks

Books are sometimes used by serious scholars in the instruction of their pupils... #booksinchildrensbooks

Or books can be enjoyed for relaxation, on holiday at the beach (sigh...if only). #booksinchildrensbooks

Book-reading can be a solo activity, or a book can be shared in a group. #booksinchildrensbooks

However as conservators we do feel that books should be cared for, so this is perhaps inadvisable... especially as it seems to have a library label on the spine #booksinchildrensbooks

...and we really cannot condone this treatment of books, even in the name of fun #booksinchildrensbooks

Just look at the aftermath of playing “up up the fish”! Shocking. @CCG_ICON I expect you’d have something to say about the risks to the book in this picture. Can anyone else spot the number of threats to its long-term preservation? #booksinchildrensbooks

Once you’ve tired of your books or outgrown them, why not pass them on for someone else to enjoy? #booksinchildrensbooks

Supper time now! To be followed by bed-time reading...

Ahhhh now to settle down with hot milk and a good book. Don’t let any existential ennui disturb your repose #booksinchildrensbooks

Tuck yourself up, pull your book close but push your phone away to avoid disturbance... #booksinchildrensbooks

Hopefully any night apparitions will be benign ones, willing to read with you by candlelight #booksinchildrensbooks

And when you snuggle down your book will be waiting for you until tomorrow, your place marked using whatever comes to hand. Sweet reading and sweet dreams (yes we keep toddler hours here). End of thread! Feel free to add your own images #booksinchildrensbooks