Notes on Bookbinding for Libraries

by John Cotton Dana

If leaves stick out of book after they have been tipped, guarded or sewed in, trim them off even with the others.

If the end sheet or lining paper of the cover is soiled or injured, cut a sheet of suitable paper to fit the lining paper exactly and paste the new sheet down all over, fully covering it.

After the new lining paper is put in, keep the book for a time under moderate pressure or the cover will curl.

Loose joints. If books are loose along the joint they can sometimes be repaired by pasting along the joint inside as a guard a strip of thin muslin or bond paper, an inch and a quarter wide. Fold the strip through the center, paste it and apply it to fly leaf and book cover. A better material than muslin for this purpose is jaconet, being light in weight and starched a little. The book should lie open and flat after mending until it is dry.

This, as has already been noted, is a poor method of mending a broken joint. By it the strain is passed from the cover through the new joint to the fly leaf, and the strength of the new joint is only the strength of the fly leaf itself, which is generally a poor piece of paper. A better way, in some cases, is to take the book entirely out of its cover, pull the super from the back, sew on new end sheets and glue a new piece of super or muslin over the back and extending half an inch onto the sides. Let this dry thoroughly. Then cover with paste the back and the end leaves, the latter being the sheets which are now to become lining papers, and put the book again into its case. This is recasing, in effect, in the manner in which the book was first put together.

Loosened back. A book which is in fairly good condition, with sewing protected, but loose in the case, can sometimes be strengthened by applying paste or glue down the inside of the loose back of the cover. This can be done fairly well with a long handled brush. This changes the binding from a loose to a tight back.

To reattach loose covers. The method here described should be applied only to books which are little used. Cut a strip of muslin the length of the book, and about an inch and a half wider than its back. Apply hot binder’s glue to it and put it over the back on the outside. When this is dry, cover the book with brown wrapping paper as described under the heading “Covering books,” as a book thus mended is quite unsightly.

When a book is out of the cover, but has its sewing intact and the super or paper over the sewing firmly in place, it may be wise to give the back a coat of hot glue and put book again into its cover, thus making it a tight back.

Covering books. Cut brown Rugby wrapping paper into sheets of such a size that they will extend from 2 to 2½ inches all around beyond the book when laid open on them. This size will be found to be nearly 13×17 inches for the ordinary 12mo. Lay the closed book on the paper with back in the center and toward you, making sure that the proper margin of paper is left all around. Fold the paper over the front edge of top cover; reverse book, this time with front edge toward you, and fold and stretch paper tight over the front edge of the cover. Take book by the back in the left hand. With scissors cut the paper at top and bottom, with slight inward slant from its outer edges down to the four ends of the joints. Take out the book, and turn in these center flaps with a double fold, putting a little paste on them after first turn. Replace the book in the cover, flush with head and tail. Tuck in folds at the corners of the front and back lap, making not too great an angle; crease well. The top and bottom laps should lie over the front and back laps. Put a touch of paste on laps at corners, but do not put any on the book itself.

Re-siding books. Books in good condition as to their bindings, being still solid, but having badly worn or badly soiled sides, send to bindery to have the covering of the boards, not the leather of the back, taken off and replaced with fresh keratol. This costs about 10 cents per volume. This can also be done in the repair department, and book cloth can be used instead of keratol.