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Comment by ggm | Hacker News Reader

I've noticed recently historical works being handled differently depending on the materials. I think there's been a revision in the protocols: Maybe the white cotton gloves are mechanically harmful sometimes? I doubt they let somebody do it who just fixed their bike chain, but if you wash your hands before touching it's possible for parchment, it's not that big a deal.

https://library.pdx.edu/news/the-proper-handling-of-rare-boo...

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I think some of the harm of wearing gloves is in the loss of sense. Fingertips are very sensitive, which must be helpful when handling something delicate. They mention tearing in the link. I guess they just found you're more likely to accidentally tear the pages when wearing gloves.

can confirm that this is the logic. odd source of confirmation, but nonetheless:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxZDx8dmCXM&pp

Oh, interesting. Makes sense, I suppose. The article you linked doesn't recommend it but if you wash your hands with detergent (e.g. a drop or two of liquid Tide) you'll pull all the oil right out of your skin. No fingerprints! It only lasts for a few minutes however and I doubt that removing the oil from your skin is really doing you any favors, long term but maybe there's some extremely narrow Venn diagram intersection where you need to commit the perfect crime but are unwilling to carry nitrile gloves but are willing to carry around a bottle of laundry detergent and wash your hands every few minutes. ;-)

Anyway, thanks for the link.

In the highly educational show Cunk on Shakespeare, she's told not to wear gloves when looking at an early book since doing so tends to result in people being more heavy handed with the pages.

It's important to note that Cunk, whilst highly informative in many domains, is essentially winging it when it comes to Shakespeare.

yes true!

link for anyone curious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxZDx8dmCXM&pp

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