9. Volumes should have French joints.
10. The best quality millboard of suitable thickness with rounded corners should be used.
11. Leather should be made, if possible, according to the specifications of the London Society of Arts. Niger morocco is probably the best. Volumes should have leather corners as well as backs.
12. For cloth sides, Winterbottom's Imperial morocco cloth, Bancroft's Legal buckram, or Holliston's Library buckram should be used.
CHAPTER VI
BINDING BEFORE PURCHASE AND REINFORCING
One way of economizing in libraries is to buy books that have been bound in strong binding before they come to the library. It is not, however, a universal panacea which will reduce binding bills to a minimum. On the contrary, if not used with caution, this plan will result in the expenditure of large sums of money for which the library will never receive a return in actual wear of the books. Library binders who adopt this scheme buy books in the sheets from the publishers, put them into a strong binding and sell them directly to the library. Mr. Cedric Chivers of Bath, England, was the first to adopt this plan. Later he started a bindery in this country, and since then other binders have followed his practice. For the librarian there are several advantages in this method of buying books.
1. Books can be bound according to the library's special needs before they have received any wear, while the paper is fresh and clean. Books printed on very thick, spongy paper must be sewed very strongly and receive special reinforcements that are not necessary on paper which is more suitable for binding. If a good library binder buys the sheets from the publishers, he can test the paper to see what kind of treatment it should receive, and he can then bind it suitably for library wear. If the book is used in the original publishers' binding it deteriorates much more rapidly than when properly bound at the beginning.