Background
Library books take a lot of abuse. After enough people have pulled them from the shelves, checked them out, and stuffed them into their book bags, even the best-made books fall apart. When they do, they are sent to technical services for rebinding. “Books come into our department in various states,” said Barbara Milton, the head of technical service at the Lansing Public Library in Lansing, Illinois. It is her job to ensure that every book has the longest life possible. “Each case is different,” she explained. “Some may have a page or two coming out, while on others, half the book block may be detached from the binding.” The first step is to decide whether or not a book is worth repairing. Some books are considered a lost cause immediately, while others may be rebound and then deemed unworthy of putting back on the shelves.  “If a book is still unattractive looking after repair, it is pulled from circulation,” Barbara said.

Challenge
Every book is different. How the people at Lansing Library repair a paperback book is different from how they repair a hard cover book. “To bind books, we were using bindery tape glue,” Kathy Gough, technical service assistant, explained. “It wasn’t a good method in terms of how it looked, but it let us put the books back in service.” They wanted to find a way to accomplish the same thing more quickly, without the mess of glue binding, and it had to look good.

Solution
Bill Babcock, the Library Director, received the Library Rebinding flyer from Powis Parker and contacted BindUSA, his local dealer. Jay Moore, the president of BindUSA then came in and demonstrated the Fastback Model 15xs for the library tech services department and the director. “We arranged to use the binder on a one month basis to see how we liked it,” Kathy said. “At the end of the month we requested that the director purchase the binder.”

Results
“Paperbacks are pretty straightforward,” Barbara Milton said. “Hard covers, on the other hand, may take more work. The simplest solution is to cut the old binding off the book block. This makes it a lot easier to bind. If a book is very thick, we bind it in more than one block.” The Fastback binder is faster than their old method. “With the glue and bind system, we would let the books accumulate until we had a few before binding them,” Kathy Gough said. “With the Fastback binder, we can put the books right back on the shelves, and they look so much better than books repaired using the glue and bind system.”

When asked about rebinding services, Barbara said that Lansing Library is currently doing all their own repairs, and, as is often the case, they have found other uses for the Model 15xs. “We’re not just using it for binding,” Barbara said. “We also use it for other work, such as handouts for patrons.” Barbara and Kathy found the rebinding manual provided by Powis Parker especially helpful. “Binding is a breeze,” Barbara said. “And the rebinding manual explains everything very well.”

April 2004