The University of Kansas Libraries

Glossary of Useful Binding Terms

Adhesive Binding: Individual leaves of a textblock are held together solely by adhesive. Adhesive binding methods are used by both publishers and commercial binders. Commercial binders use a "double-fan adhesive binding" method that fans the pages to one side, then the other, as adhesive is applied. This method greatly improves the durability of the binding. An adhesive binding can be strengthened by notching the spine edge of the pages before applying the adhesive.

C-Grade Buckram: C-Grade buckram is a thinner, smoother cloth than the F-Grade buckram used in journal bindings. In recent years new poly-cotton weaves have been developed that have greatly increased the strength and durability of this cloth.

Case Binding: The primary treatment used in the Conservation Unit, it involves replacing a damaged cover with a new cover. Commercial bindings are also case binding structures.

Custom Enclosure: Protective enclosures (e.g., phase boxes) that are made to custom-fit the dimensions of the damaged volume. A custom enclosure provides protection and holds the pieces of broken volumes together. This is generally a treatment of last resort.

Endpapers: The pages at the beginning and end of a volume added by the binder to both protect the text block and to secure it into the cover.

F-Grade Buckram: Buckram is a woven cloth made specifically as a book covering material."F-grade" means that the buckram meets or exceeds the highest standards for strength and endurance.

Leaf Attachment: The structural method used to hold the pages of a volume together, creating a text block. Some leaf attachment methods only employ adhesive to hold the pages together. Other methods employ thread which is used to sew together the pages of the text block.

Mylar Laminate Cover: A covering material made by sandwiching the original paper cover from a paper-bound volume, or the dust jacket from a hard-bound volume, in between a laminate of polyethylene plastic and paper. The laminate is used in place of buckram to form the new cover. This product was developed to allow libraries to retain the original artwork or text found on paper-bound volumes or dust jackets, but is generally not as strong as a binding made from buckram.

Notching: In preparing the spine of a text block for adhesive binding, the binder will cut very shallow notches into the spine before applying the adhesive to allow the adhesive to penetrate into the pages. Notching greatly improves the strength of the leaf attachment.

Oversewing: A long-practiced leaf attachment method used to sew single leaves together. This leaf attachment method was very common in commercial binding, but has fallen out of favor. Individual leaves are grouped in small (1/8") gatherings which are side sewn together. The oversewing machine operator continuously feeds these small gatherings into the machine which sews the gatherings together. Oversewing can be recognized by its very inflexible spine and uneven inner margin.

Retain Sewing: Often called recasings, the commercial binder removes the old case, cleans the original adhesives off the spine of the text block, and new endpapers are sewn to the text block, retaining the original sewing structure of the volume.

Sewn Through Fold: Items with sewn signatures have been "sewn through the fold." They may be identified by sewing thread (or staples) in the inner margin of the middle of gathering of pages.

Signatures: A gathering of folded pages held together by sewing or staples (e.g., pamphlet). A text block is made up of many gathered signatures all sewn together.

Slots: A linear scale used to measure distance for stamping spine information on commercially bound volumes. Slots are used to determine where lettering is stamped on the spine. The term originates from a piece of stamping equipment used in the days before computer-controlled stamping machines. It had many number slots that allowed the binder to stamp several lines of text onto the spine of a volume at one time.

Spine Panels: Spine panels are a holdover of binding practices of several centuries ago when spines of all volumes were divided into small windows, or panels, by the raised sewing cords on which the text blocks were sewn. Traditionally there were six panels on a spine. The titling information was placed in the fifth panel up from the bottom of the spine, and variable information was placed in the third panel up from the bottom of the spine. The terms "fifth panel" and "third panel" are still used in commercial binding.

Spine Repair: A repair performed in-house to repair an original hard-bound cover when the only damage it has sustained is a torn or damaged spine.

Stamping Foil: The lettering on the spine of a volume is stamped into the cloth using heat and pressure to transfer color (gold, white, or black) from a piece of carrier film to the cloth.

Text Block: The paper pages, or the non-cover portions, of a volume.

Tip-in: Readhering a loose page into its volume by applying a small amount of adhesive along the spine edge and reinserting into the volume.

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