Where can I get my aging paperbacks preserved and rebound?

September 16, 2005 4:41 PM

Where can I get my aging paperbacks preserved and rebound?

Years ago I read about the Perma-Bound service in the Signal Whole Earth Catalog. They take your paperback books and rebind them as sturdy hardcovers. They're used a lot by schools. Their service is attractive, but not quite what I'm looking for.

Among other battered and beloved paperbacks, I have a prematurely aged copy of Finnegans Wake that I want to preserve with all of my hand annotations, including those on the inside of the covers. I would like this book rebound as a tougher hardcover. I would also like the paper to be deacidified, but I'd prefer not to use one of those services that photocopies your book onto acid-free paper, because many of my annotations are in colour, and photocopying would reduce them all to black and white. I'd like the process to cost not too much money. For example, $50 would be affordable for me if I were only going to preserve this one book, but I might like to do repeat business. $10 would be ideal. (Am I dreaming?) Finally, I'd like the process to take not too much time -- a week or two at the most.

Please remember that this particular copy of my book is precious to me. I don't want to send my book off to a preservationist or bindery and have them return a generic copy of Finnegans Wake from their warehouse of previously rebound books. That would be a disaster.

posted by rwhe to shopping (9 comments total)

its not fancy or nuttin' -- but i would just wrap the cover in clear plastic "textbook-wrap"

also, i cant imagine you outliving the readability of the text or your annotations, so i'd just enjoy it while you can :) finnegans wake is a beast!
posted by Satapher at 12:37 AM on September 17, 2005

I read the front page question and remembered my 5-rolls of sticky tape copy of Ulysses. JJ's fault obviously. I get the feeling that you want a lot. This page has some background relevant info. $100-1000 p/book. I suppose 700-odd digital pictures are out of the question?
posted by peacay at 4:58 AM on September 17, 2005

Scan it; do you really need another paper copy of a paper copy? This way, as long as you keep verifying and backing up to a new digital medium every few years, you've aways got your notes.

Colour copying is expensive for single copies of pages; more than you'd want to pay. Also, rebinders tend to guillotine off some of the outside margin, probably losing some of your marginalia.
posted by scruss at 6:01 AM on September 17, 2005

Sorry, scruss, I appreciate your digital idealism, but I don't want to scan a 600+ page book every year or two, and I need something I can carry around.

peacay, I think you may be right that I'm asking too much. I may settle for a preservation photocopy; even if I get my pages deacidified, they weren't very good paper to start with and are hard to write on. Heckman does some of this stuff, but I don't know whether they deal with individuals. They do print copies of dissertations from PDFs for individuals, so maybe they'll talk to me.

Looking over the annotations, I'm not sure my use of colour adds that much, and I think if I had a B/W preservation photocopy made, I'd get the original back for reference.

Does anyone know for sure of a company that makes preservation photocopies for individuals?
posted by rwhe at 6:54 AM on September 17, 2005

You probably need to find someone locally who binds theses for students. Look up bookbinder in your local area, and discuss what you need with them.

Alternatively, you could try doing it yourself. It's not an economic approach, but there's a great sense of accomplishment. As long as the book block is more or less intact you can easily mount the paperback's covers, no matter how tatty, flush on bookboard.

Most of my books are in storage right now, but I seem to recall this as a good place to start.
posted by Leon at 7:12 AM on September 17, 2005

rwhe I don't think scruss meant for you to scan it more than once. Digitize it once and then back that copy up and recopy the digitized book every couple of years to a new disc/medium to ensure the data stays 'fresh'/remains in an accessible format, depending on tech advances.

Of course you would have to rescan it if you intend on adding to the marginalia.
posted by peacay at 7:15 AM on September 17, 2005

Yup, I intend to keep adding to the marginalia...
posted by rwhe at 7:34 AM on September 17, 2005

Would it be possible to get another copy of the book-a decent hardcover-and then copy the notes as you go through it again? Time consuming but probably the cheapest way of getting your notes transferred in color.
posted by 6550 at 10:08 AM on September 17, 2005

Thanks, 6550. A preservation photocopy would run me around $250. Finnegans Wake is no longer published in hardcover, but reasonably-priced hardcovers from around 1975 are still available from used booksellers online for an order of magnitude less money, on much better paper, in very good or fine condition. I think I'll take your advice! Thanks for being creative.
posted by rwhe at 4:24 AM on October 12, 2005