The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-06-10

w L. Sas AAO
Bookbinding standards are chang
ing. The old belief that leather is
the only worthy and durable bind
ing for a good book is now almost
discounted. Libraries no longer
add regularly to their rows of old
volumes bound in aristocratic red
and brown leather. Buckram, util-
itarian and unromantic, Is sup
planting morocco and calf.
The library of congress, which
! binds 10000 volumes a year for its
own shelves, says that this is a
natural development of our large
scale of civilization When leather
was prepared by hand by European
craftsmen it was undoubtedly a
material of great lasting qualities.
But now factory methods prevail,
and leather is efficiently tanned
with acids. This process does not
affect shoes, purses and other ar
ticles that are expected to last only
a few years at most. But when t
comes to a valuable book that
counts its lifetime by decades and
centuries, an acclaimed leather is
in for an endurance test that It
cannot be expected to withstand
This development has contr1bu-
ted to the rise of buckram- This
material is said to outlast the mod
ern acid tanned leather, and it is,
even contended that it will wear
longer than the old hand prepared,
acid free feathers. It will be some
time before this point is settled.
because buckram has been in use
only about % years, and a fine
grade of old leather has been
known to stand more than two cen
turtles of wear.
For a few years the library of
congress has been able to get acid
free leather for some Of its valua-
BILE books. Strangely enough, it is
not the latest magic Of science
which is making this possible. The
leather is obtained from saVages of
Africa who prepare the skins of
the Niger goat by some crude ma
tive process.
This leather is in demand for
old and heavy books. Buckram.
however. is generally used to bind
even important collections of docu-
ments in the library of congress
A trip through the stacks in the
manuscript division shows long
series of volumes encased in olive
green, brown, or gray buckram
covers, with panels Of leather of
the same color decorating the backs
and forming a dark background for
the" gold lettering Of the titles.
Library Binds Books.
This library. with the country's
largest collection of books to keep |
in order, attempts to solve most of /
its bookbinding and repairing ques-
tons Old volumes cracking with |
age and new paper-covered addi- |
lions to the shelves are bound in |
the big library building by force
of workers detailed from the gov ,
eminent printing Office
Few visitors know of the exist
ence of the library's bookbindery,
hidden away in the basement in
long rooms opening off a red and |
white corridor Here 40 people
work at an endless job of book
binding. There are nearly 3,000,- |
600 books in, the governments Ii
brary and about 100, 900 new books
and pamphlets come in every year.
Many of the new books have only
paper SOFOAO Al1d Ola Vi
these must be either put in envel-
opes or seryiceab1y bound. Then
there are $50 volumes of newspa-
pers to be collected in huge tones
every month, and besides all this
there is a constant stream of worn
books to be repaired.
The bookbin1ery merely tries to
keep from being swamped. 1t can
not Accomplish nearly all of the
work it would like to do if appro-
priations permitted. Some year
the superintendent of the division
hopes to have sufficiently large
so that he can con-
1uct a grand overhauling and see
hat every book on the shelves is in
first class condition. But that is
only one of the castles in the air
which government chiefs and super
yisors like to build There is scant /
prospect of an extra sized appro-
from congress for patch
ng up books that are unobtrusive-
y degenerating on library shelves. |
The binders in the library shop /
10 thorough work Cover boards
Ire laced into each volume, making
he binding a part Of the book and !;
lot = merely a gfued-on covering.
The bindings in heavy books are
enforced with a cloth joint. II
The library workers can replace 1