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Mita Saldano holds a book together while she repairs its binding. Salda¤o owns Against the Grain, a bookbinding business, in Albuquerque.

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Mita Saldano has a passion, and it lies between the covers.

"The first time I did it, it was so great," she said. "I was like, `Am I doing drugs? This can't be natural.' "

Saldano's passion is bookbinding, the craft of making new books and restoring or preserving old ones. She owns Against the Grain, one of several bookbinding businesses in Albuquerque.

Bookbinders say they enjoy their jobs and get satisfaction from working with fine materials, using their hands and helping preserve important texts.

The profession has seen a renaissance in the past 30 years, said James Reid-Cunningham, president of the Guild of Book Workers.

Despite its growing popularity, it's a job that doesn't pay too well.

The upper limit of the pay scale is around $70,000 a year, mostly at institutions such as universities and libraries, he said.

"People don't get into this for the money," he said. "It's more of a calling than a profession."

The learning curve

Saldano learned her craft at Columbia College Chicago in the early '90s.

She paid her way through school as a body piercer, a job she says has little in common with bookbinding, except for taking a lot of measurements.

She took classes at the college's Center for Book and Paper Arts, and found a mentor to teach her the techniques of the trade before opening her business in Albuquerque.

Reid-Cunningham said some schools, such as the University of Texas-Austin, have bookbinding programs.

People who graduate from a bookbinding program have a better chance of getting a job.

Other people learn just by working with an expert, Reid-Cunningham said.

Either way, some education is essential, Salda¤o said.

"I don't recommend that people just start tearing apart books and trying to repair them," she said. "I've seen some awful things done to books."

Judith Murphy, a conservator of rare books and manuscripts for the University of New Mexico's libraries, learned by taking classes and "doing the wrong things and learning from it."

Phillip Lujan, owner of Esperanza Bookbindery at 2276 Don Felipe Road S.W., has been in the business for more than 30 years. He began working with a local bookbinder when he was 18.

He said it takes at least five years, probably closer to 10, to acquire any mastery of the craft.

"This isn't some kind of job you can just jump into, like working at a grocery store," he said. "You really have to hone your skills and understand how books are made."

But whatever the education level of a starting bookbinder, there is always more to learn, Reid-Cunningham said.

"It's really a lifelong thing," he said. "There's always some technique or some material you don't know about."

Tools of the trade

On a Tuesday afternoon, Saldano sits in front of a worktable full of paper, glue, thread and scissors, some of the many tools of the trade.

She carefully lines up a stack of pages from a medical journal - she rebinds each issue for a local doctor - and glues the edges.

Then she drills several carefully spaced holes in the emerging book, which she later will run thread through to hold the pages together.

This is one of many types of jobs she does. Most of her work is restoring old, tattered books, usually Bibles. She also makes "luxury" books with fine leather and premium paper.

She says she enjoys the process of making and restoring books.

"It's very satisfying to make something with your hands from beginning to end," she said.

Lujan said his favorite task is restoring Bibles.

"A lot of the other things can get repetitious," he said. "But with restoration, each Bible presents its own unique challenge."

The three "arts"

Because there is no licensing for book workers, it is difficult to tell the size of the business, Reid-Cunningham said.

There are about 900 people in the national guild, but Reid-Cunningham said there are probably several thousand who are not members.

The Albuquerque phone book lists six businesses under "bookbinders."

The business has three distinct fields: binding, restoration and book art.

The first is binding new books, often with premium leather and paper. These are almost always small runs - the number of books in one printing - because hand binding large amounts of books is impractically expensive, Reid-Cunningham said.

The second is restoration, which is the biggest part of the business. Many of those jobs are at universities, museums and libraries, but private businesses also do restoration on personal collections.

Restoration has split off from traditional binding, as emphasis has been placed on preserving books rather than putting them in new bindings.

It is also the most technical branch of bookbinding, and its practitioners struggle to keep up with new techniques and materials, Reid-Cunningham said.

The third field is book art, which Reid-Cunningham said has grown tremendously in the past 15 years. Many of the people who make book art have training as artists, and got hooked when they took a binding class in art school.

But, like other arts, making book art is a difficult way to make a living, Reid-Cunningham said.

Not for the money

Getting a job in any of the fields can be difficult, especially for people who didn't graduate from a book working program.

And this shortage of jobs also translates to a shortage of high-paying jobs, Reid-Cunningham said.

For people who do get jobs, there is often little room for advancement, Reid-Cunningham said.

"There are a lot of jobs at the bottom, and not that many at the top," he said. "It's a short pyramid."

The most bookbinders can expect to make is $60,000-$70,000, but that is usually once they have moved into administration.

"The people who are actually doing the work aren't making very much," he said.

Salda¤o said her shop makes about $20,000 a year.

Murphy did not want to say how much she makes, but said it's not very much.

"That's a real sore spot with me," she said. "If someone's heart is in this, they should do it, but not for the money."