Handling It with Gloves

  

    At least twice in recent weeks I have seen on TV someone handling an ancient book with bare hands, and both times I mentally chastised them for not wearing the cotton gloves I had become accustomed to when doing stories involving old books and documents.

Now, as the New York Times reports, the glove requirement is no more...and many never even have been:

“The best way to handle a rare book,” said Mark Dimunation, the longtime head of the rare books and special collections division at the Library of Congress, “is with clean hands and caution.”