A very neat pamphlet binding, for pamphlets too large to be saddle-stitched, is the following:
Cut two pieces of smooth, hard, “flat” paper the size of the pamphlet; along one edge of each paste a strip of thin cotton cloth, bleached muslin, about half an inch wide; lay one piece each side of the pamphlet, cloth strips at the back, and sew the pamphlet through these strips, close to the back, with three holes or five as seems advisable. Make two end-sheets of two leaves each, the size of the pamphlet; guard each with muslin; paste these to the first sheets, all over, one on each side of the pamphlet; cut boards and paste them down on the outer halves of the end-sheets (each end-sheet has now become, one-half the lining paper for the cover, the other half, half of a double fly leaf); put on a back of art vellum, leather or other material; paste on the pamphlet’s cover; trim. This binding is very strong, very neat, opens quite easily and will wear well. The boards can be covered all over with cloth, and the binding will then wear much longer.
Ballard’s clips find favor with many librarians, for both pamphlets and magazines. They hold things together neatly and securely, and hold magazines into covers of cloth or leather quite effectively. They are strips of sheet steel, of several widths, bent into about three-fourths of a circle. Small steel levers fit into cleverly adjusted holes and make opening easy.
[CHAPTER VIII]
Magazine Binders
It has long been one of the library traditions that magazines used in the reading room should be put into stiff and heavy temporary binders as soon as received, and so arranged, usually on racks holding them vertically, that they can all be seen at once. It is now permitted to doubt the wisdom of this proceeding. The binders are expensive; the best of them soon get a worn and dingy look, even if they hold together for a long time; the racks with their contents are usually not ornamental and are often quite the reverse. The space taken by the racks can ill be spared, especially when the area needed by browsers in front of them is included. If the number of periodicals taken is quite large the display space needed for them is quite out of proportion to the use made of them. Recent back numbers of most journals, as well as the last numbers, should be made accessible to readers, and for this there is no provision in the vertical file arrangement. There seems no better reason for exposing to the casual reader of the reading room the full fronts of all the journals the library takes than there is for making a similar display of all the books the library buys.
To the display of all journals on terrace tables most of the objections just noted are also applicable. A careful consideration of the relative value of current numbers of periodicals in a library and of space, time and energy that should be put on their presentation to the public, will lead one to the conclusion that the best way to handle them is to lay them in alphabetical order on plainly labeled ordinary book shelves wide enough to hold the larger ones, set about six inches apart, that the numbers for the past six months may be kept together.
The thin journals which are most read, like “Puck” or the “Scientific American,” may well be slipped for a week into an inexpensive binder like the one called “Cleveland” in the list which follows. Magazines much read, like the “Century” and “McClures,” can be so reinforced in a few minutes, as described below, that they will keep quite neat for several months.
This method is economical of space; keeps the journals easily in one alphabetical series; makes six numbers accessible instead of one; eliminates the question of binders; saves the assistant’s time, relatively to the service given to the public; and asks the public simply to remember their alphabet and to read the shelves.