Taking into consideration all points of excellence it is probable that some form of rod binder is the best. Rod binders are not hard to apply; they require some effort to remove them—those which lock cannot be removed without a key; they are firm when applied; and many of them do not injure the magazine. Nearly every librarian has his own personal preference among such binders.
Since binders receive very hard wear it is important that they should be made of good material. Those which are used for popular magazines should have cowhide backs and buckram or imitation leather (keratol or fabrikoid) sides. A full leather binding would help solve the question of dirt, but it is equally well and less expensively solved by using imitation leather on the side. In reading rooms frequented only by educated persons binders with flexible leather covers are desirable and are greatly enjoyed by readers. The cheaper grades of cloth, such as are used by the publishers, should never be used, as they soon wear through at the edges and corners. In many cases it is wise to use pigskin or morocco on the back, though if this is done, the cloth sides and the boards themselves may become disreputable before the back is worn. In nearly all binders the mechanism can be removed from the boards when they become shabby, and new covers attached. This will save some of the expense of a new binder. A clever mender can do such work so that it need not be sent to a regular library binder. The boards should not be made of mill boards, but of semi-tar or tar boards.
CHAPTER XII
PAMPHLETS
Fortunately it is not necessary to decide here the ever-vexing question "When is a pamphlet not a pamphlet?" From the binding viewpoint any printed matter of more than four pages which does not have a stiff cover is a pamphlet and it is within the province of the binding assistant to prepare it for the shelves.
Unbound material in libraries is of three kinds: periodicals; serial publications which are not periodicals such as annual reports, bulletins of societies or government bureaus, etc.; and separate pamphlets not numbered, of a monographic character. The binding of periodicals forms part of the regular routine and is discussed elsewhere in this book.
Annual reports and other publications of a serial character should be filed in pamphlet boxes on the regular shelves at the end of the bound set. When a sufficient number of reports have collected they may be bound in cloth by decades or half-decades, according to the thickness of the reports. In many libraries most of such publications need not be bound at all, but will answer every purpose if wrapped in paper and lettered by hand. Serials other than annual reports generally give some indication of which numbers should be bound together, if bound at all. If there be no change of numbering or no completion of volume numbers to indicate a separation, they should be arbitrarily grouped in volumes of a convenient size, conforming if possible to one or more calendar years, and bound or wrapped in paper. If series are not to be kept together they should be treated as described in the following paragraphs.
Monographic works in unbound form range in size from those of a dozen pages to those of several hundred. Probably the best arrangement for a large part of this material is to assign a subject heading or a class number and keep in a vertical file alphabetically or by class number. With this the binding department has no concern, but there are always a number of pamphlets which have permanent value for the library and which should be treated in the same way as a book with stiff covers.