=Covering Books=
Few libraries now cover their books. The reasons for covering them
usually given are, that the paper covers gather dust less easily than
do the publisher's cloth bindings; and that the paper covers can be
renewed when soiled and books can thus be kept at small expense fairly
clean as to their exteriors.
The objections to the paper cover may thus be stated: It takes away
the individuality of the book and thus detracts from its interest; the
cover has a tendency, unless very carefully put on, to strain the back
of the book; borrowers are more careless in handling a covered than an
uncovered book.
The only use the Newark Library has found for book covers is on old
volumes which are very rarely used and yet are too broken or too much
worn and disfigured to look well on the shelf. Frequently old leather
bindings crack along the joint so that the sides separate from the
back. When this occurs a piece of muslin covered with hot glue applied
to the back of the book, extending onto the sides, will hold it
together fairly well, and then a paper cover hides the defacement.
The process of putting on a paper cover is described in the chapter on
Repairing.
The Newark Library has experimented with several materials and at this
date has found that Rugby wrapping paper has given better satisfaction
than any other. It is a tough brown paper, which can be obtained from
Lindenmeyr & Sons, New York. Cost, $3.30 per ream; size, 24×36, 60 lbs.
The arguments for covering books used in schools are somewhat different
from those that may be applied in regard to the same practice for books
in libraries. The Holden Patent Book Cover Company, of Springfield,
Mass., makes an adjustable cover of very stout, water-proof paper. This
cover and others akin to it are used to a great extent in the public
schools.
The same Holden Company publishes a little pamphlet called, "How to
Care for Books and Keep Them in Perfect Repair." This they present to
teachers who make use of their appliances for repairing books. These
appliances include thin transparent paper glued on both sides; the same
glued on one side; polished cloth in several colors glued on one side;
paper in long strips, so folded and glued that they can be conveniently
used to strengthen and repair bindings; self-binders, which are strips
of glued cloth with little tongues cut out and projecting from them,
that may be used to hold cover and book together.
It appears that in schools which purchase materials like those made by
the Holden Company, and instruct their teachers to use them on books
as soon as any of them show the need of repairs, the annual cost of
text-books is reduced. Probably the cost would be still more reduced
were the books mended very little by a skilled person, and were they
properly rebound as soon as they need to be.
Gaylord Brothers, of Syracuse, N. Y., make and sell repair material
similar to that of the Holden Company.
Further light is thrown on this subject by certain answers to questions
recently received from forty superintendents in the United States.
These answers show that in two only of forty cities where text-books
are furnished is any systematic attention given to the care of
text-books. In two cities there is an official curator of books who
looks after the covering, repairing, and rebinding of them.
The custom in public schools seems to be to purchase text-books, to
keep them in use with a minimum of repairs until they are too tattered
and soiled to be thought respectable even by the most careless teacher,
and then throw them away. This practice is probably wasteful and
extravagant; at least it seems to be so in the light of the experience
in libraries in the same matter.