| You have them hanging on the refrigerator, stored in | | | | own. |
| boxes, or stuck between the thick pages of a big | | | | You will be pleased to find that there are many |
| book until you have the time figure out what to do with | | | | materials available to you to choose from for your |
| them. These are the crayola drawings your children or | | | | bookbinding project. Today we have materials such as: |
| grandchildren have made; the certificates and awards | | | | leather, strong-bond paper, and vinyl, which are a |
| they have earned in school and even the programs | | | | light-weight, yet durable alternative to the heavy-weight, |
| from their school plays that you have saved to | | | | stone tablets of ancient times. These materials are |
| remember those special events. They are also | | | | used every day to produce the copy-back and |
| important documents such as Marriage & Death | | | | hard-cover books that we buy to read. |
| certificates, diplomas, and career awards. You can | | | | If you prefer to bind your special papers and important |
| protect these special papers and important documents | | | | documents into a book yourself, it is no longer required |
| from deterioration by binding them into a book. | | | | that you perform the labor-intensive task of stapling, |
| People have been binding important documents and | | | | taping, or gluing individual pages together in order to |
| special papers into books for centuries. The practice | | | | bind them into a book. Today, you can purchase a |
| of bookbinding even dates back to ancient times, | | | | 'binding machine' that takes the work out of |
| when the detailed accounts of certain events were | | | | bookbinding for you. These machines are capable of |
| inscribed on thin stone tablets and then encased using | | | | using different materials to bind your pages together |
| different materials such as leather, ropes, and wooden | | | | and they are a good investment. This is especially true |
| pegs inside thicker tablets of stone to protect this | | | | for those who don't want to, or who don't have the |
| information from being lost due to damaging toxins in | | | | luxury of a lot of time to put towards protecting special |
| the air, and dirt. These early 'bindings' were the first | | | | documents by binding them into a book. |
| books created. | | | | If your budget doesn't allow for the purchase of a |
| Bookbinding occurs through the use of various | | | | binding machine or to have your pages bound by a |
| methods to secure or bind together loose pages or | | | | professional, consider this alternative: purchase 3-ring |
| sections of a book or booklet using stitching, staples, | | | | binders with protective sleeves already in them, or use |
| wire, plastic, tape, or glue. You can bind your special | | | | a photo album you already have and personalize your |
| papers and important documents into a book using | | | | book by using stickers, decorated paper cut into |
| these techniques yourself or by having a professional | | | | different shapes, markers, crayons, and whatever else |
| binding service do the job for you. You can find binding | | | | you would like. Place your important documents and |
| services through your local print shop, your local phone | | | | special papers in the protective sleeves and then don't |
| directory, and online. The costs of having a | | | | forget to use labels to document such important |
| professional do the binding for you will be influenced by | | | | information as what, where, when, and who. Binding |
| your choice of materials used in the binding process, | | | | special papers and documents into a book, not only |
| but these costs can be a worthwhile investment in the | | | | protects them from spills, fingerprints, and dirt; it also |
| time and work it saves you from having to do on your | | | | ensures their long-term preservation as well. |