Eye of the Beholder, Part I

Preservation is ugly...

You see ...
...mold
...bugs
...rodents
...dirt
...dust
...goo

You find residue from ...
...gum
...food
...spills

You discover beautiful pages marred by ...
...foxing/mold
...tears
...water
...fire
...poor repairs

You identify useful text, charts, maps, photographs, etc. rendered almost unusable due to ...
...tears
...vandalism
...brittle pages/acidic paper

You think...
...if only we had caught this before
...if only we had known how to prevent this
...if only we had more security or a better emergency plan
...if only we had the money to attend to all we wanted to