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