We purchase
custom-printed bookplates with water-activated adhesive ("gummed") from Gaylord,
and are very happy with them. It takes no more time to brush the backs
with water than it would to peel them off a backing, and the adhesive, while
they make no claims for it, has never shown signs of degrading over the many
years we've used the labels (since either the 1920s or some enormous
and unlikely forgotten bookplating project before 1980). The paper is acid-free;
I think the glue is slightly acidic, the testing pen gave a brown
line. We have examples of old brown scores with a white patch on the front
page where the bookplate covered the acidic cover board, so we know they're not
*causing* damage!
One possible
drawback is the choice of only 2 papers, "white linen" and "tan parchment." They
both look ok...
While these
don't "pre-solve" the problem of adding donor names, our laserjet printer does
accept paper of any size, so it's not a problem to add laser-printed names
to individual labels, even in fairly large lots.
They also
carry plain labels, which one could print in color in-house. For
the custom labels they offer ink in 4 colors, but only one per label. The
minimum order for custom printing is 1,000 for $140; plain gummed labels are
$8.49/50.
Alice
Carli
Conservator
Sibley Music
Library
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