Library binding

A response concerning the Bell's Theatre, we also have a set but it has
not been rebound; it is also available to new libraries on
microfilm/microfiche.  We have this set in Rare Books but to my knowledge
has been asked for only once in ten years.  You must weigh preservation
and costs versus demand, use, and availability in other medium as well.
The set is so small and tightly bound that we would have difficulty even
getting photocopies.

Hertzberg New Method is still in business and most commercial library
binderies continue to use the buckram and cheap end papers.  The problem
remains that until more library administrations realize the need to
connect preservation decisions with the binding operations (binding
operations are often considered a rote job, good for student assistants
with minimum training) we are going to continue to received bindery
preservation problems.

--Dean DeBolt, Special Collections Librarian, University of West Florida

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 4:35
                 Distributed: Friday, December 28, 1990
                        Message Id: cdl-4-35-002
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