Because I received more than 50 requests for Carleton's binding guidelines,
we decided to put our updated document on a website for retrieval by those
who are interested.  You will find our document at:
<http://people.carleton.edu/~ceyler/bindreduce.doc>

It is 3 pages long and titled: "Coping With a Binding Budget Reduction of
29%"

A few caveats.
1.  The binding issues we faced are common to all small academic libraries.
2.  We do not feel that we had any particular epiphanies.
3.  We thought through the options that seemed logical and do-able for our
situation and made decisions accordingly.
4.  We were under time constraints and did not do a thorough exploration of
what other libraries have done in similar situations.
5.  Some appealing options were discarded as not practical or
cost-effective for our situation -- e.g. I would dearly love to be able to
shrink-wrap periodicals and fragile volumes, but the start-up costs for a
small library are prohibitive!
7.  After looking more closely at our numbers, we will consider whether we
need to adjust our current ratio of periodicals to books bound.
6.  We are very open to other ideas and approaches.

While I didn't expect my response to a SERIALST posting to result in so
many requests for our document, I am actually happy to see evidence of this
interest in binding.

In the last 5-7 years, it has become much harder to feel confident about
our earlier approaches to binding.  Our budgets are battered by the demands
for electronic resources, which we know our patrons prefer.  At the same
time, we take seriously our role as "keeper" and have justifiable concerns
about long term access to e-resources.  And so we are all facing the same
questions about what and whether to bind in this new climate.  I hope that
others on the list will share their thoughts, strategies and decisions
about binding, so that we all can gain a better understanding of how to
balance our needs for both access and preservation.

If you have questions about our document, process or decisions, please don't
hesitate to contact us.

Carol Eyler, Head of Technical Services	ceyler@carleton.edu
Carol Thunem, Periodicals Assistant 	cthunem@carleton.edu
Carleton College Library

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Carol E. Eyler                                 ceyler@carleton.edu
Head of Technical Services
Carleton College Library                507-646-4268 voice
One North College St.                    507 646-4087 fax
Northfield, MN 55057
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