Commercial Binding Operation
The Commercial Binding Office and Preparations Unit
are under one manager, and staff in both units complement each other.
The Commercial Binding Office
The task of this unit is to prepare materials for commercial binding
by Ridley’s Book Bindery. This process involves collating all
periodicals, retrieving the standard data from the binder’s database,
or creating new records, generating binding instructions on-line to
the binder, and carrying out quality control checks when the completed
binding has been returned. Thesis and some monographs that don’t
meet stiffening criteria also go through this unit. As with Book Repair,
this Office processes materials from all the endowed libraries, with
the exception of Law and is staffed by 3 FTE sending out between 500
and 800 volumes every two weeks.
Staff in Commercial Binding Office processing periodicals
to be shipped to Ridley's Book Bindery
The Preparations Unit
This unit deals with the binding and casing of the high volume of new
unbound material entering the library. The Preparations Unit pre-binds
using a stiffening process that adheres a thin, stiff board and flexible
linens hinges to the inside covers of paperback monographs that will
then go to the library stacks for first time shelving. Materials under
¼ inch are placed in pre-made pamphlet cases. The staff must
work productively to process large numbers of paperbacks to keep pace
with the books processed by Library Technical Services. As the staff
for this unit numbers only 1.5 FTE, the unit is often supplemented by
other Department staff and student assistants to keep pace and produce
more than 4,000 items per month.
Preparing to glue a board
Staff use an electric "Champion" cutter
to trim off excess boards after the stiffening process
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