[PADG:1493] Re: paperback children's books

["Patricia P. Selinger" <pepalmer@xxxxxxx>]

VCU Libraries has a Juvenile and Young Adult Literature collection which is kept
separate from the general collection. School of Education students are the
primary users but the community children also use the collection (and we have a
day-care center 1/2 block away).  It is politically the School of Education's
books so they set the parameters for our purchases and maintenance of the
collection.  Hardbacks are purchased if available.  Dust jackets are retained.
Paperbacks are bound usually as a Copi-cover product offered by our binder.

I had an active Kapco program going in the early 90's here before the Copi-cover
product was available from our binder.  The Kapco was applied primarily to art
books which were generally signature sewn and had strong bindings. Students did
the labor; it was mostly good.  A common pitfall with applying the Easy-Bind to
the inner hinges is not seating it properly in the hinge so the cover didn't
open without pulling up the first or last page.  This stresses the leaf
attachment and those bindings quickly fell apart if they were used.  Brian is
right that Kapco does nothing for the leaf attachment.  I wouldn't use Kapco on
books with single leaf attachment binding if I could help it.   I'd use it only
on signature sewn books but even then, if not correctly applied, you will have
binding failure.  I would go with Brian's suggestion of having the books
prebound with the covers laminated, which sounds like the Copi-cover process.
It is usually about the same price as an economy binding.  Copi-cover is best
done when the cover is fresh and clean.

I have had a few of the early Kapco books come back to repair in the past year
and have been disappointed in the way the Kapco ages.  The glossy cover becomes
"cloudy" and the spine develops bubbles from use.  "Cloudy" isn't the best word
but it's the best I can think of right now.   I haven't determined if the
"cloudiness" is a result of adjacent books abrading the cover, from handling, or
if it is the aging of the adhesive.  The covers hold on to dirt which increases
the "cloudiness".  Edges of the cover still fray.  Now we use Kapco on a very
limited basis, mainly for sandwiching spiral binding covers when the margins
don't allow binding.  When we have to rebind Kapco, it goes to a standard
library binding.

Good luck and let us know what happens!

Patricia
--
**********************************
Patricia Palmer Selinger
Head, Preservation Services
VCU Libraries
Richmond, VA
phone: 804.828.2287
pepalmer@xxxxxxx
**********************************

Annie Armour wrote:

> Our library will soon begin to receive paperback books for a children's
> >literature section for their education classes. Since our library is also
> >used by the community, we anticipate high use from children as well.
> >
> >We are just beginning to think about the best way to care for these books.
> >I'd like to know what other libraries do.
> >
> >Tech Services has mentioned having Kapco covers placed on the books as they
> >are ordered, but our company will then do it to all of our "mass market"
> >books, which to me seems a waste of money since I would think the glue
> >fails in those bindings soon enough anyway.
> >
> >My initial thoughts are to put laminate covers like Kapco on all young
> >readers' books (paperback), and rebind them in-house when necessary. For
> >older children's books, we would do nothing at first, but rebind when the
> >binding fails.
> >
> >Do Kapco covers prolong the bindings of the books or just keep the covers
> >from falling apart?
> >
> >Also, when it comes time to rebind those picture books (often very thin),
> >how would you rebind them? So many children's books are side sewn, but
> >these would have glued pages with pictures that bleed across the page.
> >
> >Please let me know what you do.
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >Annie Armour
> >University of the South
> >Sewanee, Tennessee
> >aarmour@xxxxxxxxxxx