List of Illustrations | |
| Page | |
| Old Picture of Bindery and Tools | [Frontispiece] |
| Sewing, Drawing Showing Four Methods | [26] |
| Sewing on Tapes | [32] |
| Method of Attaching Slips on Ends of Bands to Boards | [34] |
| Plates, Two Methods of Inserting Them | [48] |
| Method of Lacing in Slips on Ends of Bands | [49] |
| French and Ordinary Joints | [50] |
| Anatomy of a Joint | [51] |
| Type Faces Suitable for Lettering | [55] |
| Type Cabinet | [56] |
| Backing Boards, metal | [121] |
| Backing Boards, wood, steel-faced | [121] |
| Backing Hammer | [122] |
| Backing Press | [123] |
| Beating Hammer | [124] |
| Boards, brass-bound | [125] |
| Hand Wheel Drive Cutter | [131] |
| Finishing Presses | [135] |
| Finishing Stand | [136] |
| Lettering Pallet | [149] |
| Flat Polisher | [151] |
| Rounding Hammer | [153] |
| Sewing Bench | [155] |
| Standing Press of Wood and Iron | [158] |
[CHAPTER I]
Introductory
As the title indicates these notes have been compiled in the hope that they may be of assistance to librarians in caring for the binding and rebinding of library books. They hardly touch upon publishers’ binding or the decoration of bindings. The suggestions and advice they give should not be taken as final, for the binding and rebinding question is not yet settled. They may help some to carry out more successfully their own inquiries and experiments. If good binders were more common librarians would need little of the information here briefly set forth. But under the present conditions of the bookbinder’s art in this country librarians themselves must often furnish considerable expert knowledge, if they wish their work well done.
I have refrained from going much into the details of the process of binding. The details can only be made clear by means of illustrations, and have already been most admirably set forth in Douglas Cockerell’s book. I have tried to draw attention to the important points. The librarian ought to know good results when he sees them, or at least when he tests them on his books; the details of every step he can learn if he will, by a little practice and a good deal of observation. No librarian should try to bind or to conduct personally his own bindery. Binding is a special trade, and skill and speed in it come only by long practice. The librarian cannot become a skilled binder. He should become familiar with the results of the binding he gets by a study of his books. If he finds they do not wear well, but rot, break or show loose pages, let him keep a few statistics, and if he learns he is wasting money on cheap work or poor material, let him change his material and his processes, and perhaps his binder. I hope this book may lead some to test the work they are now getting, and may help some to get more satisfactory workmanship and more enduring materials. It is not a guide to the craft of binding. To get good binding, go to a good binder; to learn about the binding craft, practice it and read Cockerell; to discover if your binding is good, watch it and gather statistics of its wear.