Methods have been developed for neutralising acidity in paper and leaving a protective buffer behind. While undoubtedly lengthening the life of the paper these methods do not unfortunately strengthen already weakened paper. An ideal solution would be to combine a neutralising process with one that strengthens weakened paper in a single operation. This would be a bulk treatment process in order to cope with the large backlog of essential conservation work. An approach to this problem has been under development for the British Library by the Industrial Chemistry group based at the University of Surrey. The techniques used and their application to whole book treatment are described. Some of the relevent points for a commercial-scale operation are also discussed. In situ polymerisation of monomers ethyl acrylate and methyl methacrylate is explained, the results obtained with different proportions of the monomers described and possible incorporation of a basic amino monomer as deacidificant considered.