Physical books, despite the rise of electronic devices such as the Nook and Kindle, still have a place on library book shelves and in personal collections. Often, a book will have sentimental value to it, and this means that a book kept for years may eventually become damaged, and that can include its hinges, covers, and the spine, whether the fabric cover or the cardboard spine inside. How to repair a book spine? And how can colored stickers be used for books safely and clearly? Handling books can be made easy.
Parts of a Book
How to repair a book spine? That starts with knowing the anatomy of a hardback book. The spine is the center piece that holds everything together, a tall, thin piece of cardboard that also has a cloth spine cover. The hinges connect the spine to its outer covers, and the endpapers coat the covers on the inside, and a flyleaf is a loose sheet of paper that, when the book is closed, is between the endpaper and the main pages of the book. Often, a book’s pages are sewn or glued together, usually in several bundles held together. The sheets are not actually attached to the book’s spine, however. The spine’s top is the headband, and the bottom is the tail. Over time, these various parts may become damaged, and a book owner can repair and replace these parts.
The question now is “How to repair a book spine?” One method is to remove the spine’s cloth covering to expose the cardboard piece inside. Then, the book block, or the sum of the hard covering, is removed, and the two covers are removed from the assembly and may be cleaned, if needed. Now, a new book spine is cut from cardboard, and it must be the exact same dimensions as the old one, and cloth that is two inches wider and one inch taller than that spine is glued to it. The cloth is folded over the tail and headband of the spine, and 45-degree cuts are made on the head and tail. Then, the new spine can be bent into a curve shape with a dowel or broom handle, then the book covers are glued onto the exposed excess fabric of the book’s spine. The assembly can then be glued onto the pages, and the original spine’s paper cover can be glued onto the new spine so the book has the same spine label as before. The whole book is pressed together and held for 15 minutes.
Stickers for Books
Vendors selling new or used books can make use of colored adhesive tape, colored circle labels, and round printable labels to mark books on sale, show special promotions or deals, or labels for messages such as “From the author of…” Any of these stickers can make a book stand out if the label is strategically placed on the book’s front or back cover, is a vivid color that contrasts with the cover’s color, and has an appealing message. Color coding dot stickers could also be used for librarians or book sellers to organize books by shelf, genre, or category, to make inventory and stocking jobs easier. Of course, these sticks must be possible to easily and cleanly peel off of the book’s cover without leaving residue or tearing the paper dust jacket. If a book is shrink-wrapped, the sticker can be placed on that, and there is no tearing or residue hazard for the book’s cover.
