Patent Publication Number: US-2002008378-A1

Title: Pocket insert for bound book

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] This invention relates to a pocket insert for a bound book, especially an electronic media insert. The insert includes at least one pocket adapted to receive and retain supplemental material that cannot easily be bound directly to the book binding, for example, a diskette or CD-ROM.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002] It is often desired to provide supplemental media along with a book that may be separated easily from the book by a user. For example, in the case of textbooks or other books containing instructional or reference material, a diskette with software thereon relating to the subject matter of the book may be packaged with the book in a manner that the diskette is easily removable from the book so that a user may access the diskette. It may also be desired to provide along with the book supplemental media such as brochures, charts, etc., that may be stored with the book but are not bound to the book so they can be separated easily from the book.  
       [0003] A known commercial method of providing a diskette with a book involves binding a sleeve illustrated in Figure la along with the pages and covers of the book. More specifically, the pages, covers and sleeve  100  are assembled in a stacked arrangement, where sleeve  100  is positioned in the stacked arrangement with flap  101  in a closed, folded-down position (i.e., flap  101  is folded along fold line  102 ), so that edge  103  is aligned with edges of the pages and covers. Then, edge  103  and the edges of the pages and covers are bound with a common spiral binding through holes  104 . Flap  101  is lifted open by an operator, to appear as illustrated in Figure 1 b,  and a diskette is inserted into the sleeve  100  by an operator. A drawback of this method is that it requires manually assembling the sleeve with respect to the pages and the covers, opening the flap and inserting the diskette. Additionally, unless the book is sealed with a material such as shrink-wrap plastic, there is a possibility for the diskette to fall from the sleeve if the book is inverted during handling.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004] This invention provides a pocket insert for binding in a book along with pages of the book. The pocket insert may be easily assembled with the book pages prior to the binding operation. Additionally, the construction of the pocket insert reduces the risk of media material stored in the pocket insert, such as a diskette, from inadvertently falling from the pocket insert and becoming displaced.  
       [0005] According to a first embodiment, the pocket insert comprises a base sheet of paper material comprising a binding edge bound to the binding, and a pocket sheet of paper material, the perimeter of which is defined by an attached edge section and a free section. The attached edge section is attached to the base sheet and the free edge section is unattached to the base sheet to form a pocket opening along the free edge section. The base and pocket sheets are arranged such that the pocket opens towards the binding.  
       [0006] Additionally, the invention provides a book where the pages and the pocket insert are bound along a common binding. The book may include front and/or back covers bound to the pages and pocket insert, and a media such as a diskette in the pocket of the insert.  
       [0007] According to other embodiments, the pocket insert is defined by a generally rectangular base sheet of paper material and a generally rectangular pocket sheet of paper material, where the base sheet comprises a first edge, a second edge opposed to the first edge for binding to a binder, the first and second edges defining a width of the first sheet, and third and fourth edges opposed to one another and disposed between the first and second edges, the third and fourth edges defining a length of the first sheet. The pocket sheet comprises a first edge attached to the base sheet, a second edge opposed to the first edge, the first and second edges defining a width of the pocket sheet, at least a portion of the second edge being unattached to the base sheet for forming a pocket opening, third and fourth edges opposed to one another and disposed between the first and second edges, the third and fourth edges defining a length of the pocket sheet and being attached to the base sheet, and wherein the second sheet has a shorter width than the first sheet.  
       [0008] According to various preferred embodiment, the pocket sheet has a width at least half the width of the base sheet, more preferably at least 60 percent of the width of the base sheet. The base sheet and the pocket sheet may be formed of separate sheets of paper material that are adhered to one another, for example, along their edges, or that may be formed of a single sheet of paper material with a fold line defining one of the edges of the sheets. The pocket insert may include two pockets formed by the base sheet and the pocket sheet, with both pockets opening towards the base sheet first edge. The base sheet may be formed of a rectangular sheet of paper having a length of about 11 inches and a width of 8 to 8.5 inches, to approximate standard 8.5×11 inch paper, with the pocket sheet formed of rectangular sheet of paper having a length of about 11 inches and a width of 5 to 6 inches.  
       [0009] Additionally, the invention provides a method of binding a book comprising: assembling in a stacked arrangement multiple pages and the pocket insert; and binding the pages and the pocket insert, wherein the pocket insert is bound along its binding edge and the base and pocket sheets are arranged such that the pocket opens towards the binding. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0010]FIGS. 1 a  and  1   b  are front plan views of a prior sleeve for a diskette that may be bound with book pages.  
     [0011]FIG. 2 is a front plan view of a first embodiment of a pocket insert of this invention.  
     [0012] FIGS.  3 - 6  are front plan views of additional embodiments of a pocket insert.  
     [0013]FIG. 7 is a perspective, exploded view of a pocket insert arranged in a book.  
     [0014]FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a conventional wire-o binding. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
     [0015]FIG. 2 illustrates a first embodiment of this invention. pocket insert  1  includes base sheet  10  of paper material and pocket sheet  20  of paper material. For this illustrated embodiment, each of the base sheet and the pocket sheet are formed of separate rectangular sheets of paper. Base sheet  10  includes a first edge  11 , a second edge  12 , a third edge  13  and a fourth edge  14 . Second edge  12  is adjacent to the portion of base sheet  10  that will ultimately be bound to a binding. First edge  11  and second edge  12  define the width of the base sheet  10  and third edge  13  and fourth edge  14  define a length of base sheet  10 . Pocket sheet  20  includes a first edge  21 , a second edge  22 , a third edge  23  and a fourth edge  24 . First edge  11  is contiguous with first edge  21 , third edge  13  is contiguous with third edge  23 , and fourth edge  14  is contiguous with fourth edge  24 . Additionally, the two sheets are adhered to one another with strips of adhesive. More specifically, adhesive strip  31  is proximate to and along edges  11  and  21 , adhesive strip  33  is proximate to and along edges  13  and  23  and adhesive strip  34  is proximate to and along edges  14  and  24 .  
     [0016] A suitable class of adhesives is water-based adhesives, such as those available from Knight Adhesive under product nos. 10295 and 10325.  
     [0017] Accordingly, the perimeter of pocket sheet  20  is defined by an attached edge section, which for the illustrated embodiment includes edges  21 ,  23  and  24 . The pocket sheet  20  also includes an unattached edge section, which for the illustrated embodiment is defined by edge  22 , at least a portion of which is unattached to the base sheet  10 . The attached edge section and unattached edge section form a pocket  40  with a pocket opening  41  that faces the binding portion at edge  12 .  
     [0018] The embodiment in FIG. 2 further includes an adhesive strip  35  running widthwise to the two sheets and adhering the sheets together. Strip  35  extends between and parallel to edges  23  and  24  of pocket sheet  20 , preferably about midway between these two edges. Accordingly, strip  35  separates pocket  40  from a second pocket  42 , pocket  42  having a pocket opening  43 . Both openings  41  and  43  face and are parallel to the binding section of base sheet  10  at edge  12 .  
     [0019] Pockets  40  and  42  are sized and shaped to receive a diskette, such as a standard  4 ″ diskette (such diskettes typically being about 3½×3¼ inches). Pocket sheet  20  has a width smaller than base sheet  12 , however, it is preferred that pocket sheet  20  has a width that is at least half the width of base sheet  10 , more preferably, at least 60% of the width of the base sheet. This ensures that, when pocket insert  1  as in a book, a diskette held in pocket  40  or  42  cannot easily become dislodged from the pocket when the book is handled. In other words, the binding at holes  9  prevents the diskette from fully slipping out of pocket  40 .  
     [0020] According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, base sheet  10  is formed of a rectangular sheet of paper having a length of about 11 inches and a width of 8 to 8½ inches, and pocket sheet  20  is formed of a rectangular sheet of paper having a length of about 11 inches and a width of 5 to 6 inches, when the pocket insert is assembled with book pages having a standard size of about 11″×8.5″,  
     [0021] Referring again to FIG. 2, it is possible to omit adhesive strip  35  whereby the pocket insert  1  has a single pocket. The pocket can still be used to retain a diskette, but the larger sized pocket can also receive additional supplemental material, such as a brochure, that would not fit easily in pocket  42 .  
     [0022]FIG. 3 illustrates an alternate embodiment of a pocket insert  1 , where the base sheet  10  and the pocket sheet  20  are formed of a single sheet of paper folded along fold line  16 . These two sheets are adhered to one another by adhesive strips  33  and  34  and, optionally adhesive strip  35 . Accordingly, fold line  16  defines edges  11  and  21  of the base sheet and pocket sheet, respectively.  
     [0023]FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate additional embodiments of the invention. FIG. 4 illustrates that it is not necessary for base sheet  12  to be rectangular, as base sheet  10  further includes edges  15  and  15 ′. FIG. 5 illustrates that is unnecessary for the pocket sheet  22  and the base sheet  10  to be rectangular. In this embodiment, base sheet  10  further includes edge section  17  and  18 , and pocket sheet  20  further includes corresponding edges  27  and  37 . These edges form part of the attached edge section of the pocket sheet attached to the base sheet through adhesive strip  37  and  38 .  
     [0024]FIG. 7 illustrates a book including a pocket insert  1 . The pocket insert  1  is assembled in a stacked arrangement with multiple pages  2 ; a front cover  3  and back cover  4  may also be included in the stacked arrangement. The materials may be stacked in the following order, from bottom to top: back cover, front cover, pages and pocket insert. More specifically, the pages can be received in a stacked arrangement from a printer or copier. Then, this stack of pages, along with the pocket insert and the covers, are placed in a binding machine that punch holes  9  in the various sheets of the stack and inserts a binder through the holes to connect the various sheet, such as a conventional spiral binder  5  (or wire-o binder  6 , illustrated in FIG. 8). An operator can then insert a diskette, and/or other supplemental material, in the pocket of the pocket insert and turn the back cover along the binder so the book assumes its final orientation. This operation requires much less manual labor than the aforementioned method employing the sleeve of Figures  1   a  and  1   b , reducing the binding operation time by up to 30 percent. Such time savings are significant when filling orders for large numbers of books.  
     [0025] A further advantage of the present invention is that the pocket insert may be automatically collated along with the pages. For example, the pages may be collated automatically as they are copied on a copier. Some copiers provide a supplemental tray to collate a supplement page along with the copied pages, i.e., a supplemental page onto which no information is being applied to the page. The pocket insert of this invention is suitable for such copying environments, thereby permitting the insert to be collated automatically with the various pages while the pages are being photocopied. For this embodiment, the pocket insert should be assembled of standard weight paper, and it is important that the insert is arranged in the collator tray such that edge  12  (this edge having a single-sheet thickness) is pushed by the copier roller during collation.  
     [0026]FIG. 6 illustrates a pocket insert  1  adapted for other binding operations. In some binding operations, the various pages are oversized, i.e., the pages include excess material around the perimeter of the pages; the oversized pages are first collated in a desired stacked arrangement and then excess material is trimmed from the perimeter of the stack with cutting knives. For example, the oversized pages may have the form of signature pages as referred to in the printing trade. The external dimensions of pocket insert  1  of FIG. 6 essentially match the external dimensions of the oversized pages. Excess material along regions  51 ,  53  and  54 , as well as along the binding edge of the pocket insert, are trimmed along with the pages. The adhesive strips  31 ,  32  and  33  remain intact from the trimming operation to adhere the base sheet  10  and the pocket sheet  20  in the desired configuration. The stack containing the trimmed pages and pocket insert can then be bound along with desired front and back covers. For example, the trimmed pages and pocket insert can be assembled with front and back covers and bound with a spiral or wire-o binder through holes in the various sheets, as described previously, or the pages and insert can be bound to front and back covers with an adhesive as in conventional perfect bind operations.  
     [0027] While the invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation of material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope and spirit of the appended claims.