Chapter IX

Binding, Vertical Filing, and Film Storage

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∣📄 p.111 The use of typescript and near-print in the production of small editions of documents of internal circulation in scholarship need not necessarily give rise to new library problems. If most of these documents turn out to be books of size appropriate for binding, the librarian need not be subjected to any change in routine corresponding to the change in the methods of distributing written matter among scholars. But if it should develop that a considerable proportion of these documents of internal circulation are of less than book size, the librarian will find that the difficulty he already knows with his pamphlet problem increases. This problem is already supplemented by that of provision for books on film. How may the different forms of written material entrusted to the librarian’s care be most conveniently and economically preserved? What are the costs of keeping this material in suitable condition for continued use?

Materials to be stored by libraries fall into four classes: bound books, pamphlets, loose-leaf material, and film strips. It is safe to say that any document that is more than half an inch thick is likely to be bound and treated as a book. Documents of less than that thickness may be shelved in pamphlet binders or combined in groups to form volumes of ordinary book size. An alternative treatment is that used for loose-leaf material, that is, to store them in vertical filing cases with folders and guides to make them easily accessible, or to lay them in manuscript boxes to preserve them as safely as possible. Microcopied material in the form of film rolls may be kept in small boxes, labeled and shelved like books. Three types of costs appear here: filing, binding, and library shelving. The latter are discussed in Chapter II.

Vertical Filing

The vertical filing system, rather ∥ than ordinary library shelving, is used for the temporary storage of items of pamphlet or typescript memorandum size. When a considerable volume of this material accumulates, two alternatives present themselves. If the vertical file system is adopted for the permanent storage of pamphlets and typescript, the library pays at the rate of $5.00 or $6.00 per 1000 pages for storage equipment. If the accumulation is bound as periodicals are bound, when enough articles on a subject have been brought together, the cost of binding the contents of a file drawer in books averaging one inch in thickness would be from $20.00 to $30.00; in books averaging four inches in thickness, it would be from $10.00 to $20.00, with a button binding being used. The choice between these two courses depends as much upon the nature of the material itself as upon cost considerations.

Binding: (a) Vertical File Material

A simple form of binding used for vertical file material up to forty or fifty pages in length is wire stapling. This is done with the small stapling machine, costing about $5.00, that is part of standard office equipment. The cost is almost exclusively a labor cost. 5000 staples can be purchased for $2.00. A worker can staple about 500 to 600 documents an hour at a labor cost of $.40. Wire stapling by a commercial service shop costs about $.02 a copy. Machine stapling, including a suitable paper cover, is available at a cost of a few cents a copy. This will take care of items up to ¼” in thickness. Wire stapling through the fold is not suitable for ordinary typescript on typescript paper, but it can be used for any printed or photo-offset items published in one signature of sixteen or thirty-two pages.

Spiral binding is a form of notebook binding that is becoming increasingly popular for vertical file material. It first appeared a few years ago in Europe and was ∣📄 p.112 introduced in America through an American magazine. It is used for pamphlets and catalogues in Europe and for small edition publications. Loose sheets are held together by rings as in the simplest loose-leaf notebook style, but instead of two or three heavy rings, a series of thin wire ones is fastened along one side of the sheets to be bound together. The advantages are that the book lies perfectly flat, is absolutely flexible, the inside margins are not obscured in any way, and there is no trouble with a double spread of page. The price is determined by two factors: quantity and length of the side to be spiral bound. An 11” side, which is the common one used in schools, in quantities of 1000, with each copy ¼” in thickness, would cost approximately $50.00. The price goes down as the quantity increases, 2500 copies getting a 10% discount; 10,000 having a 20% discount, etc.

Spiral binding has not been unanimously approved by librarians. They claim that it is hard to keep on the shelves and needs more storage space. Also, there is no place on the back of the book for title, author, or reference number; and this makes it necessary to take each spiral-bound item off the shelf to ascertain if it is the desired copy. The Spiral Binding Company suggested the use of labels, to be pasted on the shelves immediately below the books in question. The question of permanency was also raised by the librarians. In answer to this, tests were made between spiral binding and thread-sewn books that seemed to prove that sheets could be pulled out of thread-sewn books more easily than out of spiral-bound books. The number of rings tends to make a stronger binding. An example of its use may be found in Dr. Charles C. Peters’ thesis material, which has been published in reduced-size offset.

Binding: (b) Pamphlet and Periodical Material

For items of pamphlet thickness, four binding techniques are available: namely, the spiral binding and the stapling mentioned above, pasting, and wire stitching. Pasting, next to stapling, is the simplest method of fastening sheets of a pamphlet together, one fold inside of another. This method, however, is for binding only a few sheets and is for very temporary work.

∥ There are two common methods of wire stitching: saddle-and side-wire stitching. With saddle-wire stitching, the pamphlet is opened in the middle and layed face down (or face up). The stitching is done on a machine which holds a spool of wire from which staples are made and driven through the sheets in the fold and clinched on the other side. Side-wire stitching is the same method, except that the stitching is done through the side of the collected sheets instead of through the fold. Saddle-wire stitching is used when sheets are folded as one signature; side-wire stitching is used when two or more signatures are gathered side by side. Wire stitchers can be used for items up to ½” in thickness.

Pamphlet producers, like periodical publishers, usually pass their binding costs on to the library. Library binderies have attained a distinct recognition in the bookbinding industry in recent years, and are now considered as being a separate branch of bookbinding. The United States Census Bureau, in its 1925 statistical report on the binding industry, put library binderies in a class by themselves. The American Library Association in 1922 had a meeting with the Employing Bookbinders of America and the two groups drew up some principles to be observed in library book- binding.

The library, in assuming the costs of pamphlet and periodical binding, sometimes puts them in separate bindings, but usually groups them and binds them into volumes for reference. The publishers of periodicals generally have the responsibility of determining how many issues of a magazine constitute a volume. Monthly school magazines, usually issued ten times a year, form a volume for each ten numbers; magazines issued each month during the year generally form a volume every six months. Extra thick volumes of magazines and newspapers must receive special care and usually have to have reinforcement in the form of a strong lining or back strip. If the periodical or pamphlet producer uses a sufficiently heavy cover stock, he can save the library the extra cost of pamphlet care that is involved in fitting pamphlets into binders.

The only justification for transferring the cost of adequate binding to libraries is a situation in which a substantial proportion of an edition is distributed ∣📄 p.113 to users who will not require that it be well bound. If an entire edition of a pamphlet is to go to libraries which will catalogue and shelve it, it might as well be bound with boards heavy enough to sustain library use. If, on the other hand, the edition is to go principally to users, whether libraries or individuals, who will put it in a vertical file, the heavy cover boards are not only an unnecessary cost, but an actual disadvantage.

Binding (c) Bookbinding Techniques¹

In the case of books of full standard thickness, saddle stitching, side stitching, and sewing are most commonly used. With side stitching, the pages do not lie flat when opened, but must be held open; sewed and saddle-stitched books lie flat and show the full inside margin.

Side stitching is done by making small holes in the sheets near the back and passing the thread through these holes. If the stitching is done by machine, punches are used to make the holes.

Saddle stitching is done through the folds of the signatures. The stitches are made long to prevent weakening of the book by too much perforation. Usually a strip of muslin or crash is glued on the back for reinforcement.

In sewed books (and the great majority of books are sewed) each signature is sewed to its neighbor, so that an unlimited number of signatures may be contained in a book. These signatures are piled together and cords or tape are fastened crosswise across the back in grooves made for the purpose and fastened in the grooves by kettle stitching. The usual number of cords used is five. The finished product is a flexible and strong piece of work. When the signatures have been gathered and sewed, the edges are trimmed and the back rounded and reinforced with muslin or crash. It is during this reinforcing process that the headbands are added. Then the filler is ready for its cover and the finishing steps.

Paper is an important factor in binding and should be flexible in proportion to its size. When the grain of the paper runs the same way as the binding edge, ∥ the book will lie flat when opened; if the grain runs crosswise of the binding edge, the book will not lie flat when opened, but will be stronger. In handmade paper, the fibers run in all directions, so the paper is equally strong in any position.

Binding (d) Bookbinding Costs

There are many factors aside from the technique of binding that determine the cost of bookbinding, which is fundamentally a running cost in book production, as it increases with the size of the edition. The most important factors are: (a) size factors: number of pages, signatures, and copies, and the size of the book; (b) materials factors: weight of paper, number of cords or tapes used in sewing, kind of cover material (leather, imitation leather, buckram, cloth, or paper); (c) style factors: headbands, treatment of corners (round or square), treatment of fly leaves (tipped or turned), stamping or lettering, and treatment of illustrative material (signatures or single pages, placed at end of book of interleaved with text).

Though it is obviously insufficient to speak of an “average” library book, nevertheless, a sample quotation on the cost of bookbinding in a style suitable for library shelving will illustrate the general cost level. The costs, as shown in Table XXXVI on the following page, are based on a good library binding of cloth vellum, linen finish.

The cost of binding newspapers or large quantities of typescript (such as the NRA hearings) enters into the cost analysis that will help determine whether such materials should be preserved by binding and shelving or in microcopy form. It is significant that the costs of binding a year’s issue of a newspaper like the New York Times (approximately 20,000 pages, twenty-four volumes) amounts to $54.00, and storage costs would be from $48.00 to $72.00, while the cost of storage space required for the film copy of the same material would be about $1.50.

Film Storage

There are three ways of storing microcopied material on 16 mm. or 35 mm. ∣📄 p.114

film strips. They can be mounted flat, stored in rolls, or on spools. Flat mounting on cards (suggested by Mr. Atherton Seidell) is adapted only to very short strips, no wider than a card used in a vertical file system—hence 5” to 11” is a maximum length of strip. Roll storage is adapted to the lengths such as those produced in the Leica or EKA camera—5’ to 15’. The separate lengths of film are placed in receptacles which may be either small tin pill boxes or larger partitioned metal or paper boxes holding twenty-five rolls of film. The longer rolls of film require spool storage. The Recordak Corporation furnishes spools with its film. Each spool∥ will hold 200 feet of film; it fits in a cardboard box 4” x 4” x 1”.

It is not known with certainty how much special care of atmospheric conditions is necessary in the preservation of the ordinary cellulose acetate “safety” film used in copying documents. The research under way at the Bureau of Standards will result in information upon this important cost factor in film storage. The storage of nitrate films is very expensive because of fire hazards; the storage of cellulose acetate films is not complicated by any fire hazard. ∣📄p.[114a] (blank) ∣📄 p.[114b]

Notes