GEN: Increasing the life of paperbacks

[Johanna Halbeisen <johanna@MASSED.NET>]

This is in response to Suby Wallace's post some weeks back about her fun
books that are mostly paperbacks.  I've got a marvelous way to increase the
life of a paperback.  I am lucky.  I have a very dedicated community
volunteer who has made it all possible.  Here's the scoop:
        1. We use the big stapler, the kind that takes BIG staples, and on
the thinner books, we
        put three staples as close to the spine as possible.  This
eliminates one major problem
        with paperbacks - pages falling out.  The volunteer takes hammers
the staples after
        they are in to be sure they aren't sticking out.  (With lots of
jokes about "If I Had A
        Hammer")
        2. Then the books are covered with clear Contact plastic.  I buy it
from the local
        hardware and get 10% off for buying the whole roll.  I bought six
rolls last year and
        we not only covered the new books, but a lot of older ones too.
This eliminates the
        cover wear and tear.
We've only been doing it for about a year and a half, so no real statistics
about how much longer a book will last, but the books look good and so far
are standing up to the use they get.

---------------------
Johanna Halbeisen
Woodland Elementary School (preK-4)
80 Powder Mill Rd.
Southwick, MA 01077
johanna@massed.net

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