A professional who cleans, preserves, restores, and repairs books, documents, maps, prints, photographs, and other paper objects of historic or artistic significance. Responsibilities include:

• Examines or tests objects to determine physical condition and chemical structure of paper, ink, paint, or other coating, in order to identify problem and plan safest and most effective method of treating material.
• Cleans objects by such methods as sprinkling crumbled art gum or draft powder over surface and rotating soft cloth over cleaning agent to absorb soil (dry cleaning), immersing objects in circulating bath of water or mild chemical solution (wet cleaning), or applying solvent to remove rust, fly specks, mildew, or other stains, basing choice of method on knowledge of physical and chemical structure of objects and effects of various kinds of treatment.
• Preserves or directs preservation of objects by such methods as immersing paper in deacidification baths to remove acidity from papers and ink to prevent deterioration, sealing documents or other papers in cellulose cases and passing sealed objects through heated rollers to laminate them, spraying objects, storage containers, or areas with fungicides, insecticides, or pesticides, and controlling temperature, humidity, and exposure to natural or artificial light in areas where objects are displayed or stored.
• Restores objects to original appearance by such methods as immersing papers in mild bleach solution to brighten faded backgrounds, removing old varnish from such art works as engravings and mezzotints, or strengthening papers by resizing in bath of gelatin solution.
• Repairs objects by such methods as mending tears with adhesive and tissue, patching and filling worm holes, torn corners, or large tears by chamfering, inserting, affixing, and staining paper of similar weight and weave to simulate original appearance, or retouching stained, faded, or blurred watercolors, prints, or documents, using colors and strokes to reproduce those of original artist or writer.