A Library Primer Part 14

Preparing books for the shelves

All books should be marked with the name of the library. This is cheaply done with a rubber stamp and violet or red ink pad. An embossing stamp makes a good and indelible mark. The type used should be of moderate size and open faced. A perforating stamp now on the market marks a book neatly and most permanently. Mark books freely, to a.s.sure their being recognized as the library's property wherever seen.

Have some definite pages on which stamps always appear. Many use the t.i.tle-page, fifty-first or one hundred and first, and the last page.

This need not interfere with marking elsewhere.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Embossing stamp.]

On the back of the book write the call-number. For this purpose use a tag or label. They can be had in several sizes; round ones are best.

Paste the label where it will mar the book least, as near the middle as possible. It is well to put all labels at the same height from the bottom of the back, so far as this can be done without covering essential parts of the lettering. Four inches is a good height for the lower edge of all labels. Labels stick better if the place where they are to be pasted is moistened with a solution of ammonia and water, to remove varnish or grease. If this is done the mucilage or gum on the labels when purchased will be found usually to stick well. After the call-number is written, varnish the label with a thin solution of sh.e.l.lac in alcohol. Labels put on in this way will keep clean, remain legible, and rarely come off.

If a charging system using a pocket is adopted, no book-plate is needed, if the pocket, that is, is pasted on the inside of the front cover and has the name of the library on it.

When books are cla.s.sified the call-number is written with hard pencil on a certain page, the same page in all books; a common place is the first right hand page after the t.i.tle-page, and near the inner margin.

This call-number should be written with ink on the pocket and book slip, which is kept in the pocket, or on the book-plate. It is advisable also to write the call-number in ink on some definite page bearing the library's stamp.

If a book-plate is adopted let it be small and simple. Have a special plate for gifts, with s.p.a.ce on it for writing the name of the giver.

Books wear better if they are carefully opened in a number of places before they are placed on the shelves. This makes the backs flexible and less likely to break with rough handling. In cutting the leaves be sure that the paper knife does its work to the very back edge of the top folds, that it is never sharp enough to cut down into the leaves, and that it is held nearly parallel to the fold to be cut.

The following is a list of things to be done before books are ready for use in a public library:

1 Book notices and reviews are read and the library's needs and funds considered.

2 Order slips are made out, arranged alphabetically, and compared with the catalog to see if the books listed on them are already in the library.

3 Order list is made out, approved, and sent to dealer.

4 Books arrive and are checked by the bill, and brief notes of date of purchase, initials of dealer, and price are written on the left margin of the second page after the t.i.tle-page.

5 Bill is checked for items and prices by order slips.

6 Gifts when received are a) properly acknowledged; b) entered in gift book; c) marked with small gift-book plates pasted inside the front cover.

7 Books are looked over (if you wish), collated, especially the expensive ones, to see if complete and sound.

8 Books are entered in the accession book.

9 Books are stamped with library stamp.

10 Books are opened to loosen binding, and pages cut, if necessary.

11 The book-plates are pasted inside the front cover--if book-plates are used.

12 Pockets are pasted on the inside of front cover or wherever the system adopted places them.

13 Labels are put on the backs.

14 Books are cla.s.sified, author-numbered and call-numbered.

15 Books are entered on shelf-list.

16 Catalog cards are written--author, t.i.tle, and subject.

17 Bulletin lists of the books are made out for posting up and for newspapers.

18 Call-numbers are written on the labels, the pockets, and the book slips.

19 Labels are varnished.

20 The call-number of each book is entered in the proper place on the line which that book occupies in the accession book.

21 Books are placed on the library shelves for public use.

22 Catalog cards, author, t.i.tle, and subject, are arranged alphabetically in one series and distributed in catalog.

CHAPTER XXVII

Binding and mending

Binding a book means not only covering it, but preserving it. Good binding, even at a high price, educates the public taste and promotes a desire to protect the library from injury and loss. Cheap binding degrades books and costs more in the end than good work.

Keep in a bindery-book, which may be any simple blank book, or one especially made for the purpose (see Library Bureau catalog), a record of each volume that the library binds or rebinds.

Enter in the bindery-book consecutive bindery number, book-number, author, t.i.tle, binding to be used, date sent to bindery, date returned from bindery, and cost of binding.

Books subject to much wear should be sewn on tapes, not on strings; should have cloth joints, tight backs, and a tough, flexible leather, or a good, smooth cloth of cotton or linen such as is now much used by good binders. Most of the expensive leather, and all cheap leather, rots in a short time; good cloth does not. Very few libraries can afford luxurious binding. Good material, strong sewing, and a moderate degree of skill and taste in finishing are all they can pay for. Learn to tell a substantial piece of work when you see it, and insist that you get such from your binder. The beginners' first business is to inform himself carefully as to character, value, cost and strength of all common binding materials.

From binders, or from dealers in binding material, you can get samples of cloth, leather, tapes, string, thread, etc., which will help you to learn what to ask for from your local binder.

The following notes are from a lecture by John H.H. McNamee before the Ma.s.sachussets library club in 1896, on the Essentials of good binding:

"Had I the ordering of bindings for any public or circulating library where books are given out to all cla.s.ses of people, and subjected to the handling which such books must receive, I should, from my experience as a binder, recommend the following rules:

For the smaller volumes of juveniles, novels, and perishable books (by which I mean books which are popular for a short time, and then may lie on the shelves almost as so much lumber), have each book pulled to pieces and sewed with Hayes' linen thread on narrow linen tapes, with edges carefully trimmed.

Have the books rounded and backed, but not laced in. Have the boards placed away from the backs about one-fourth of an inch, in order to give plenty of room for them to swing easily and avoid their pulling off the first and last signatures of the book when opened. Give the back and joint a lining of super or cheese cloth. Have them covered with American duck or canvas pasted directly to the leaves, pressed well and given plenty of time to dry under pressure, and so avoid as much as possible all warping of boards and shrinkage of the cloth. For all large folios, newspapers and kindred works, use heavy canvas, as it is somewhat cheaper than sheep, and as easily worked. Have them sewed strongly on the requisite number of bands, every band laced into the boards, which should be made by pasting two heavy binder's boards together, to prevent warping and give solidity to the volume.

The reason I say lace in large volumes is that the heavy books will sag and pull out of covers by their great weight unless tightly fastened to a solid board, thus giving the book a good foundation to stand on.

For all periodicals not bound in leather I should prescribe the same treatment. These volumes can be lettered in ink on the canvas, or in gold on a colored leather label pasted on the cloth. But for all books which are destined to be bound in leather I should surely, and without any hesitation whatever, order morocco, and by this I mean goat skin, and I should go still further and demand a good German or French goat; boards hard and laced in at every band, super joints, full, open backs, lettering clear and distinct, and the paper on the sides to match the leather.

I would also recommend that a schedule be used, giving a s.p.a.ce for schedule number; then the name of book or books, or lettering to be used on each volume; s.p.a.ce for the number of volumes, s.p.a.ce for description of binding, and finally for price, thus giving the binder a complete order on a large sheet, which he is in no danger of losing.