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[PADG:163] Re: Permanent bookplates



We went to laser imprinting about ten years ago in conjunction with a big increase in gifts and a sponsor-a-book program. We have several bookplate styles commercially preprinted 4-up, and then use a Word template to drop in the donor name (and, for Rare materials, the call number). When we get a big gift collection that needs to be plated, it's easy to run off plates fast.

I set up the printing masters and the templates so you can run through a sheet of four or do a vertical cut and run through a sheet of two, the long way like an envelope. We batch them, so there isn't much waste.

Small rotary cutters are very cheap these days so trimming is usually neat enough. We have one staff person who handles most of the bookplates. We still glue in. Staff tip in the Rare plates and students do the general materials. I looked pretty hard at adhesive alternatives but didn't find anything that looked to be both durable and cheap.

It's worth having a discussion in your institution about what would please the donors the most--having a bookplate, OR having their name traced in a catalog entry, so it can be searched (seldom worth the cost to offer both). For a genuine cohesive gift collection I'm in favor of bookplating, but for bits and pieces sometimes a catalog entry works better.

Label printers tend to use expensive stock and have a short lifespan.

Another labor-saving trick is when we get a giant set of fiche, instead of feeding the empty envelopes through the printer to get the title and call number on, we buy a rubber stamp with the call number.

Normandy S. Helmer
Access & Preservation Officer
Special Collections & University Archives
-------
UO Libraries--SPC
1299 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1299
541-346-1864
Fax 541-346-1882


Sue Davis wrote:
Shannon,

Excellent questions. We, too, are pondering the bookplate issue. There seems to be a dramatic increase in our gift collections (or at least in gift bookplates) and we are finding it very labor intensive to glue these into the books one by one. Our gift plates generally are designed and printed outside the library, but there are plenty of generic ones that require a typewriter for the donor name. The generic ones are just printed out in black/white on a laser printer and manually cut on a board cutter. The "designer" bookplates come in all shapes and sizes and weights, but I do try to remind the designers to stick to acid-free paper stock. There are days when I'm almost desperate enough to ask for peel-and-stick. All that said, I am interested in what other libraries recommend, especially about the self-adhesive issue.

--On Friday, August 20, 2004 7:57 AM -0400 Shannon Zachary <szachary@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Sharon,

We are in the process of revising our bookplates as well. I am
also interested to hear what solutions others have developed.

At present I'm looking at the following: have a printer print up
(in color) generic bookplates. The printer will lay out six or
eight bookplates to fit on an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper with crop
marks as guides for trim for each plate. At the library we can
fill in specific information ("Gift of John Q. Donor") on a
template using PageMaker and print out on a laser printer in
black only. Library staff trim the plate to size and apply it to
the book. Drawbacks to this system: wasted plates when you have
to put a whole sheet through the printer but need only one or two
bookplates; and the need for library staff to trim (neatly!) the
plates.

Other options we've considered:

1. Start with the plates trimmed to size (the small sheets of
paper jam in a regular printer)

2. Use a label printer (these seem to require manufacturer
provided paper on rolls; we can't use our choice of quality and
color of paper)

3. Use peel and stick label stock (unacceptable for special
collections and not much desired for general collections because
of the difficulty of removing the label)

4. Use a typewriter to print the donor's name onto a pre-printed
label (what we do now and are trying to move away from--our
development office considers typewritten names a bit tacky).

Are there other ways libraries are generating bookplates?

Shannon Zachary, Head, Conservation Services
Preservation Division, University Library
The University of Michigan
837 Greene St. / 3202 Buhr Bldg.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1048
Phone: 734/763-6980 Fax: 734/763-7886
email: szachary@xxxxxxxxx





--------------------------------------- Sue Davis Vanderbilt University Library 419 21st. Ave. South Nashville, TN 37240 Email: sue.davis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx




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