The British Library yesterday launched an appeal to the public to adopt the mouldiest, wormiest books among the 150m in its collection to plug a hole in its conservation budget.

Thousands of books are in danger of falling to pieces, with acid from the ink or paper eating away the pages, and decay, insects or sheer old age disintegrating bindings.

The library wants members of the public to commemorate a person's birth year or celebrate a birth, wedding anniversary or retirement by adopting a tome.

The expertise of Helen Shenton, director of conservation, and her team of 70 is internationally recognised, and they are frequently consulted on delicate book restorations. But they cannot afford to apply their skills fast enough to save many books in their own care.

"The job is expanding constantly beyond our means," Ms Shenton said. "The forecast death of the paper book with the coming of information technology was completely wrong. There have never been so many books being printed."

In the 1990s, in the scramble to get the library out of the British Museum and into the St Pancras building, all other budgets were slashed.

Under the adoption scheme, a donor's name will be inscribed in a book, the donor will receive a certificate and once a year will be invited to "meet your book" events.

The Blairs could have Leo's name inscribed on a book plate for £15. For £150 he could have the book plate to himself and for £1,000 choose the book to sponsor.

Messages of support were sent yesterday by the author Hanif Kureishi, biographer Amanda Foreman and actress Kathleen Turner, who said reading was a source of "company, comfort, challenges, joy".