The subject of the care of pamphlets in a library does not come within the field of these notes; but it may be proper to say that experience and observation have led me to the conclusion that many pamphlets are bound and entered in the catalog which are not worth the labor they have entailed. How those should be kept that are thought worth keeping I do not attempt to say. Often those kept are not worth keeping, and still oftener those bound and catalogued are not worth binding. If they are bound, the style of binding they should receive, if they are in fact books in paper covers, is to be decided by the same rules as is the same question in regard to other books. If they are in fact pamphlets—a few pages with no cover, and must stand on the shelf and will be little used, a cheap binding may be made thus: Take off the cover; fold once a sheet of stout paper to the pamphlet’s size; cut two boards for covers, a little narrower than the pamphlet; paste them to the paper mentioned about half an inch apart; paste a strip of book cloth down the back and over the edges of the boards; paste the cover to the boards, front and back; sew the pamphlet into the case thus roughly made with stout thread through three or five holes along the back (this last process is called stabbing); trim. This is simple, strong and inexpensive.

If the pamphlet consists of one signature only the method just described can be followed; but the sewing should be through the back, a saddlestitch, with the knot inside. The binder’s knot or stitch is thus made: Having three holes for the thread, go first down through the center one, back through one of the end holes, down again through the other end hole, up through the center, and tie the two ends over the thread which passes from end hole to end hole. With five holes the process is similar and easily followed.

A very neat pamphlet binding, for pamphlets too large to be saddle-stitched, is the following:

Cut two pieces of smooth, hard, “flat” paper the size of the pamphlet; along one edge of each paste a strip of thin cotton cloth, bleached muslin, about half an inch wide; lay one piece each side of the pamphlet, cloth strips at the back, and sew the pamphlet through these strips, close to the back, with three holes or five as seems advisable. Make two end-sheets of two leaves each, the size of the pamphlet; guard each with muslin; paste these to the first sheets, all over, one on each side of the pamphlet; cut boards and paste them down on the outer halves of the end-sheets (each end-sheet has now become, one-half the lining paper for the cover, the other half, half of a double fly leaf); put on a back of art vellum, leather or other material; paste on the pamphlet’s cover; trim. This binding is very strong, very neat, opens quite easily and will wear well. The boards can be covered all over with cloth, and the binding will then wear much longer.

Ballard’s clips find favor with many librarians, for both pamphlets and magazines. They hold things together neatly and securely, and hold magazines into covers of cloth or leather quite effectively. They are strips of sheet steel, of several widths, bent into about three-fourths of a circle. Small steel levers fit into cleverly adjusted holes and make opening easy.