The small library will find it does not pay to have a bindery of its own. This is a safe general rule to which there are exceptions, of course. Special conditions, such as remoteness from good binderies, may make it worth while for a library which spends only about $1,000 a year in binding to put in a small plant and do its own work. Even then, however, it is usually better to find a binder who will take the contract from the library at a fixed price per volume, using the library’s room and material. Such a binder can sometimes get additional work from other libraries or from private individuals. It should be noted that the amount paid for binding is not quite all that a binder who works in the library may expect to divert to his own shop; for a clever and obliging workman will make himself useful in repairing and in doing many small jobs of cutting, mounting, etc., which will add a good deal to his income. Still, as I have said, the small library will usually find that it is not economical to have its own bindery. Were there in this country plenty of commercial binderies, where first-rate work is done at fair prices—I do not mean low prices—it would not pay even the larger libraries to open their own binderies. The large shop is the only place in which some of the most important economies are possible, and only the large shop can afford to hire the most competent foremen and workers. Even the large libraries find it wise to rent their binderies to competent men who will do binding at contract prices. Under this arrangement some libraries find it pays to give up room to a bindery; though, as I have already remarked, they would not find it economical to do so were there efficient library binding establishments in the immediate vicinity.

As the large libraries have a good deal of work which the average commercial binder does not care to take, like map mounting, rare-book mending, and ordinary book repairs, the ideal condition for them would be a small bindery with two or three hands, in the building; a contract for all ordinary binding and rebinding with an outsider, and the purchase of many new books especially bound direct from the sheets.

The following list includes the machinery, tools and materials needed in opening a bindery. The full list would equip fairly well a shop employing one foreman, who is also a finisher; one forwarder; one boy (helper or apprentice), and three girls for sewing. This shop would turn out, say, 10,000 books a year, its output depending very largely on the character of the work.

If the shop is to bind, say, only 2,000 books per year the items marked S on the list will prove sufficient. These estimates are very general.