Don't Break the Bind that Bounds

A public service message from Brand Autopsy

Ah! I just received a package from Amazon.com. Opening my brand new book for the first time reminded me of grade school when our school librarian taught us how to properly break in a new book. I was too young to remember exactly how to do it… And I knew breaking in a book had something to do with not ruining the spine – but that was all I remembered.

Using Google, I found this helpful article in the "Preservation Corner" of the Winter 1999 ASDAL Action on-line newsletter. (That's the Association of Seventh-day Adventst Librarians).

A gentleman named Randy Butler wrote the below piece on how and why to properly break in a book. Enjoy!

PRESERVATION CORNER

By Randy Butler

How to "break-in" a new book! Sound incongruous? How often do we in our libraries, or at home, properly prepare books for use? More often than not we simply open a new book somewhere in the middle and fold back the two halves so that the book will lay flat on a table or our laps. Wrong!! The result is a damaged or broken binding.

There is a proper way to open books for the first time and prepare them for use or circulation. First, hold the book vertically or upright, spine down, on a flat surface. Second, hold the text block in one hand while allowing the front and back covers to slowly fall or settle to the table (or counter surface). Next, take 20-30 pages from the front of the book and lay them down, gently run the tips of your fingers (you can also use the edge of the palm of your hand) along the gutter (fold/crease line); repeat with the same number of pages from the back of the book all the while holding the remaining text block in a vertical position with your free hand. Finally, repeat this process with an equal number of pages each time, first one end and then the other, until the entire text block has been folded back into two even halves. The book is now ready for use.

This simple technique can add years of life to any title. It can be used with either sewn or double-fan adhesive bindings, albeit adhesive bindings are more easily damaged. Be sure to use only light pressure evenly applied while sliding your hand down the gutter of each group of pages. When using this technique with sewn bindings, try to avoid folding back an entire signature (a group or unit of folded and sewn pages that together with other signatures form a text block) at one time. Rather, fold somewhere within the signature in order to place less stress on the thread.

This technique is a good quality control test for either a publisher, or a re-binding contractor. Whether purchasing books for the first time or the hundredth, check the quality of the contractor or publisher's binding by using the above-described technique. If a binding cannot stand up to this simple test, the product should be rejected and returned.

Preservation of books can be as simple as explained above. Of course, you would never want to use this folding method on rare materials.

Randy Butler is Library Director at Southwestern Adventist University, Keene, Texas and current president of ASDAL.

Comments

[Michele Miller]

It's amazing how one's memory can influence another's. There was not only the excitement of new books to open, but the SMELL. That ink... that varnish... those shiny covers on the social studies books.

Is it any wonder that we love to read so much?

Love your blog!

Michele Miller