Binding and mending
Binding a book means not only covering it, but preserving it. Good
binding, even at a high price, educates the public taste and promotes
a desire to protect the library from injury and loss. Cheap binding
degrades books and costs more in the end than good work.
Keep in a bindery-book, which may be any simple blank book, or one
especially made for the purpose (see Library Bureau catalog), a record
of each volume that the library binds or rebinds.
Enter in the bindery-book consecutive bindery number, book-number,
author, title, binding to be used, date sent to bindery, date returned
from bindery, and cost of binding.
Books subject to much wear should be sewn on tapes, not on strings;
should have cloth joints, tight backs, and a tough, flexible leather,
or a good, smooth cloth of cotton or linen such as is now much used
by good binders. Most of the expensive leather, and all cheap leather,
rots in a short time; good cloth does not. Very few libraries can
afford luxurious binding. Good material, strong sewing, and a moderate
degree of skill and taste in finishing are all they can pay for. Learn
to tell a substantial piece of work when you see it, and insist that
you get such from your binder. The beginners' first business is to
inform himself carefully as to character, value, cost and strength of
all common binding materials.
From binders, or from dealers in binding material, you can get samples
of cloth, leather, tapes, string, thread, etc., which will help you to
learn what to ask for from your local binder.
The following notes are from a lecture by John H.H. McNamee before
the Massachussets library club in 1896, on the Essentials of good
binding:
"Had I the ordering of bindings for any public or circulating library
where books are given out to all classes of people, and subjected
to the handling which such books must receive, I should, from my
experience as a binder, recommend the following rules:
For the smaller volumes of juveniles, novels, and perishable books (by
which I mean books which are popular for a short time, and then may
lie on the shelves almost as so much lumber), have each book pulled to
pieces and sewed with Hayes' linen thread on narrow linen tapes, with
edges carefully trimmed.
Have the books rounded and backed, but not laced in. Have the boards
placed away from the backs about one-fourth of an inch, in order to
give plenty of room for them to swing easily and avoid their pulling
off the first and last signatures of the book when opened. Give the
back and joint a lining of super or cheese cloth. Have them covered
with American duck or canvas pasted directly to the leaves, pressed
well and given plenty of time to dry under pressure, and so avoid as
much as possible all warping of boards and shrinkage of the cloth. For
all large folios, newspapers and kindred works, use heavy canvas, as
it is somewhat cheaper than sheep, and as easily worked. Have them
sewed strongly on the requisite number of bands, every band laced into
the boards, which should be made by pasting two heavy binder's boards
together, to prevent warping and give solidity to the volume.
The reason I say lace in large volumes is that the heavy books will
sag and pull out of covers by their great weight unless tightly
fastened to a solid board, thus giving the book a good foundation to
stand on.
For all periodicals not bound in leather I should prescribe the same
treatment. These volumes can be lettered in ink on the canvas, or in
gold on a colored leather label pasted on the cloth. But for all books
which are destined to be bound in leather I should surely, and without
any hesitation whatever, order morocco, and by this I mean goat skin,
and I should go still further and demand a good German or French
goat; boards hard and laced in at every band, super joints, full, open
backs, lettering clear and distinct, and the paper on the sides to
match the leather.
I would also recommend that a schedule be used, giving a space for
schedule number; then the name of book or books, or lettering to
be used on each volume; space for the number of volumes, space for
description of binding, and finally for price, thus giving the binder
a complete order on a large sheet, which he is in no danger of losing.
All he will have to do is to mark on the title of each volume, in
small figures, its schedule number, and, when the books are done, put
down the prices and add up the column of figures, and make out his
statement as per the number of schedule.
This method gives the librarian a complete list of volumes sent
and returned, and by laying away these schedules she has for handy
reference a very complete list of prices. It saves the binder from
writing out the name of each volume on his bill, and as the librarian
must keep a list of books sent, why not keep them this way as well as
any other? I have mislaid or lost hundreds of lettering slips, which
are the bane of a bookbinder's existence. Lay down some rules for
the cutting of books, placing of plates, binding of covers, and
advertisements, style of lettering, etc., and have your binder follow
them.
Don't ever cut with a folder before sending to binder, as it makes the
sewing more difficult.
Don't pull to pieces or take out titles and indexes. The binder always
takes care of that.
Don't take off ads, as it sometimes leaves unsightly tears or takes
away pages, and if all leaves are paged the binder is at a loss to
know if the book is complete.
Don't ever use mucilage or glue. Your bookbinder will send you a
little paste, or you can make it by boiling flour and water and
sprinkling in a little salt. If you wish to keep it for a long time,
mix a few drops of oil of cloves with it and seal up.
Of course there are cases where some of these rules don't apply, such
as volumes made up from leaves taken from several other volumes or
pamphlets.
In case of a book of this kind place every leaf in correct order, and
write directions very carefully."
Many books will need repair. A few hours spent in the bindery,
studying the methods of putting a book together, will be helpful, not
only in the matter of securing good binding, but in the repairing of
books that have gone to pieces. Mend and rebind your books the minute
they seem to need it. Delay is the extravagant thing in this case. If
you are slow in this matter, leaves and sections will be lost, and the
wear the broken-backed volume is getting will soon remove a part of
the fold at the back of the several sections, and make the whole book
a hopeless wreck forever.