Deferred binding of paperbacks

Because of a surprise shortfall in our materials budget this year
our library committee (responsible for setting library policy) has
decided to save costs by purchasing monographs in paperback whenever
possible and placing these on the shelf unbound, absorbing the
monographs binding budget into the materials budget.  Although we
are not a research library, the decision not to bind on receipt does
seem to me to conflict with the library preservation goals and
practices I learned as part of my library basic training a number of
years ago.   Does anyone have any experience or thoughts about such
a policy?

    **** Moderator's comments: This topic has been discussed before,
    so check the DistList archives and the Library Binding page in
    CoOL <URL:http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/>

Thomas Hill
Vassar College Box 512
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601, USA
914-437-5791
Fax: 914-437-5864

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:18
                  Distributed: Friday, August 22, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-18-012
                                  ***