I did the BL's Conservation Centre tour today, which was an absolute treat. A batch of conservators took our small group through aspects of their role, and we got a glimpse of several works in progress. One book had been taken part, each page washed (that's right, they wash paper), strengthened and painstakingly spot-healed with japanese tissue paper; after that the pages would be remounted and finally rebound. To get that one book stabilised, ready for next generations, would take about 250 hours.
The BL holds 14 million books.
Now, I'm not saying that all of them need looking at, yet, but you get the impression that there are no 'down' times where the staff twiddle their thumbs, waiting for paper to degenerate or a spine to break. We finished up, appropriately, in the Finishing Room. Book Finishers are the rock stars of the book conservation world - those who stamp lettering on spines in gold leaf. It's a thing that you're either excellent at or not, irrespective of training. By all accounts, scientists will identify a Finisher gene marker some decade.
Our guide asked us to pass around a sheet of gold leaf, which of course crumbled in our hands. And left several of us with sparkley fingers, which we perhaps delighted over while sitting out in the sunshine, eating popcorn with care :-)
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