It has long been one of the library traditions that magazines used in the reading room should be put into stiff and heavy temporary binders as soon as received, and so arranged, usually on racks holding them vertically, that they can all be seen at once. It is now permitted to doubt the wisdom of this proceeding. The binders are expensive; the best of them soon get a worn and dingy look, even if they hold together for a long time; the racks with their contents are usually not ornamental and are often quite the reverse. The space taken by the racks can ill be spared, especially when the area needed by browsers in front of them is included. If the number of periodicals taken is quite large the display space needed for them is quite out of proportion to the use made of them. Recent back numbers of most journals, as well as the last numbers, should be made accessible to readers, and for this there is no provision in the vertical file arrangement. There seems no better reason for exposing to the casual reader of the reading room the full fronts of all the journals the library takes than there is for making a similar display of all the books the library buys.

To the display of all journals on terrace tables most of the objections just noted are also applicable. A careful consideration of the relative value of current numbers of periodicals in a library and of space, time and energy that should be put on their presentation to the public, will lead one to the conclusion that the best way to handle them is to lay them in alphabetical order on plainly labeled ordinary book shelves wide enough to hold the larger ones, set about six inches apart, that the numbers for the past six months may be kept together.

The thin journals which are most read, like “Puck” or the “Scientific American,” may well be slipped for a week into an inexpensive binder like the one called “Cleveland” in the list which follows. Magazines much read, like the “Century” and “McClures,” can be so reinforced in a few minutes, as described below, that they will keep quite neat for several months.

This method is economical of space; keeps the journals easily in one alphabetical series; makes six numbers accessible instead of one; eliminates the question of binders; saves the assistant’s time, relatively to the service given to the public; and asks the public simply to remember their alphabet and to read the shelves.

Binders that require the punching of holes through the backs of magazines should be looked on with suspicion; though in spite of its expense the binder of this type, with flexible metal strips in place of strings and with polished sides containing actual covers of the magazine within, has had much use. It wears well, is put on about as quickly as any, exposes the date and name along the magazine’s back, and looks more attractive than any other binder when perched in rows in vertical racks.

All other binders may be divided into three kinds: The Clip, the Bar and the String.

The Clip is based on the Ballard clip idea. The Johnston is a good example. A spring in the back grips the sides of the magazine and holds the binder on. It tends to make a magazine less easy to hold open. It pleases a good many.

The Bar has for its main feature one or more strips of steel, which run down the back of the magazine and are fastened to the binder by a hinge at one end and a hook at the other. Of all of this kind the best for the money is, perhaps, the New Haven.

The String uses a string or elastic band to hold the magazine. In the one called the Springfield, first used in Los Angeles in 1890, the string passes through the magazine, between sections, and through three holes in the back of the binder in a binder’s stitch.

The Newark Library has tried many kinds of material for binders. Thin book cloth soon wears out. Heavy and strong cloth soon gets soiled. Full leather is very expensive, unless the leather used is light and poor, and then it soon wears out. Good leather backs outwear sides of any cloth. A Cleveland binder made for “Harper’s Weekly,” with heavy cowskin back and keratol sides, was in constant use for 30 months and looked well nearly all that time. It costs 70 cents. The few binders now used in the Newark reading room are made in this style.

Covers of strong paper pasted to the outsides of single copies of magazines to protect them during reading-room use or for lending, the Newark Library has not found satisfactory. We reinforce the covers of single magazines for this purpose as follows and find the method quite satisfactory:

If the original cover is loose, take it off and paste on again carefully. Line the cover with thin, white bond paper, pasted on all over and lapping a half-inch onto the magazine itself. Press for ten minutes in a copying press. Paste a strip of thin dark-colored book cloth down the back on the outside. Put under moderate pressure until dry. Write the name and date of the magazine on the strip of cloth with white ink.

Sew large magazines like the “Ladies’ Home Journal” into covers of stout paper. A strip of paper an inch and a half wide placed in the center of the section through which the magazine is sewed keeps the sewing from tearing the paper.

Single copies of magazines can be bound for lending, at about 15 cents each, in this manner: Take off covers; trim; remove table of contents if it faces the cover; paste strip of strong cotton cloth down the back, and extending about an inch over the sides; staple this on with at least three staples in the same line with the staples which hold the magazine together, or sew with stout thread through five holes; cut covers as for an ordinary binding; paste them to the strip; cover all over with art vellum; line covers with paper (this lining can be put on all over as the first step in the process, and pasted to the covers after they are on, thus forming the end paper); paste the front cover of the magazine on the front in such a way that the date line down the back comes on the back of the new cover. This is neat, convenient and quite durable.

A few of the more popular binders are listed below. The material used to cover them can be endlessly varied.

1. The New Haven Binder, designed by Mr. W. K. Stetson, Librarian of the Public Library of New Haven. A solid back of metal. A metal rod hinged at one end passes through the middle section of the magazine. The free end of the rod is formed into a hook which, being slipped under a metal loop attached to the back of the binder, holds the magazine firmly in place. Costs from 85 cents to $1.15. A simpler binder, also designed by Mr. Stetson and made on the same principles, sells at 55 cents.

2. The Johnston Binder, made by William G. Johnston & Co., Pittsburgh, Pa., has a round steel spring back which grips the magazine. Costs from 75 cents up, according to size.

3. The Boston Binder, made by the Office, Bank and Library Co., 157 Summer St., Boston. A rounded wooden back supports the binding device which consists of two bars of steel pivoted at one end and fastened at the other with a pin. Costs from 75 cents to $2.00 according to size and material used.

4. The Torsion Binder, made by the Barrett Bindery Co., 180–182 Monroe St., Chicago. Two flat steel wires are hinged to the binder at the top and fitted with knobs at the free ends. These pass inside the magazine and a slight pressure on the knobs sends the free ends of the wires into an inclined slot. Costs from 95 cents to $4.50 according to size and material used.

5. The Springfield Binder has a strip down the back of a simple cover or case, with three holes punched therein through which the magazine is laced in by strings. Shoe strings or tape may be used. Costs from 25 cents up.

6. The Chivers Binder, made by Cedric Chivers, Bath, England, and Brooklyn, N. Y., is like the Springfield cover, but with a separate flat brass rod around which the magazine is sewed into the cover.

7. The Weis Binder, made by the Weis Co., Toledo, Ohio, has metal grooves in the back which hold the magazine.

8. The Buchan Binder, made by Buchan Mfg. Co., Newark, N. J., has a steel back which consists of a hinge regulated by a screw. One or more magazines may be kept in the binder. Good for magazines that are poorly put together.

9. The Roedde Magazine Binder, made by the Flexible Back Looseleaf Ledger Co., Buffalo, N. Y., varies somewhat from the Torsion and Boston Binders, but is built on the same principle. Costs from $1.10 to $8.00.

10. Cleveland Binder, so called because much used in the Cleveland Library. A simple cover or case in the back of which are holes half an inch from the top and bottom; through these a piece of narrow elastic is sewed. The magazine, opened at the middle of a section is slipped under the elastic. Recommended for weekly journals.

11. Klip Binder, made by H. H. Ballard, Pittsfield, Mass. A simple cover attached to the magazine by a pair of steel clips, put on with keys. Price of klips, 50 cents per box of 10.

12. The Philadelphia Binder, made by G. D. Emerson, Philadelphia, Pa. A rod passes through the magazine and springs into hooks at each end of the back.