The Boston Public Library Has a ‘Car Wash’ for Books
And it’s very satisfying to watch in action.
A behind-the-scenes look at how we remove dust from our #books. It’s like a mini car wash for books, minus the water! #libraries #booklovers pic.twitter.com/3xGI6ZEHVJ
— BostonPublicLibrary (@BPLBoston) April 20, 2017
Library books change hands all the time, and in the process, they end up getting pretty dirty, hence: the Boston Public Library’s book-sized “car wash,” which gets rid of dust and grime.
In a video the library recently posted to Twitter, the automated system, called a Depulvera, pulls books through a familiar looking series of stations to get their books clean. In the video, a book can be seen being pulled down the line by a conveyor system that drags it through a couple of steps, reorienting the book past a series of spinning brush bars, and finally out the other end, through a curtain of hanging plastic strips, just like in a full size car wash.
According to HuffPost, the machine, which can clean and dust around 12 books a minute, is not used on the library’s rare books, but is instead employed to take care of their closed stacks, most of which don’t have dust jackets.
The video is a nice peek behind the scenes at what keeps libraries running, but if you just can’t get enough of satisfying videos of books getting a wash, there are even more videos on Depulvera’s website.
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