Library binderies

Merle Kimball <makimb [at] mail__wm__edu> writes:

>I would like to urge anyone responsible for commercial binding to take a
>whole day and visit their binder.

It's good to see people looking at the binder's side of things for a
change. We are an in-house bindery and therefore not as commercialized
as American Bindery-East but the same problems still apply and we have
to deal with the same kind of wrongly processed binding and unclear
instruction. (We once had a request to "tip-in" a supplement to the back
of a volume which was 1/2 inch thick when the supplement was about 3/4
inches thick )

We have since removed some of this problem in a similar fashion to
American Bindery-East by allowing all of our Library staff to "make a
book" which takes approximately 5 half day sessions (the book being a
simple 5-section case bound volume) this has been enthusiastically
received and the knowledge gained by staff has led them to think of the
poor binder who have to follow their instructions!

We aren't finished there, as a follow up we are to allow Library staff
to bind some of the volumes they have prepared to see if they can
understand the problems some of their instructions can create and a
reciprocal visit is planned for Bindery staff to see books being
processed for binding.

Eventually we hope to create a situation where we all work together to
remove mistakes and problems instead of shouting "It's your fault!" at
each other.

Owen Bradford
Deputy Bindery Manager
The Robinson Library
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne
England
+44 91 222 7663
Fax: +44 91 222 6235

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 8:37
                 Distributed: Sunday, November 13, 1994
                        Message Id: cdl-8-37-014
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