125 years of binding, Part Four: Madison and the Digital Age

This is the final part of a four-part series. Part one covered up to 1900, Part two 1901 to 1940, and Part Three 1941 to 1980.

In 1981, the Binding Office was on the move again, a frequent occurrence across its 125 years of history, which we have celebrated this year in these blog posts, as well as in presentations for Preservation Week and at the National Book Festival. Once staff unpacked in the newly opened James Madison Memorial Building on Capitol Hill, the office finally found a space built for its use.

 

After five years at the Navy Yard Annex, the Binding staff were finally reunited with the rest of the Library, but not everyone was in favor of the move.

“Most staff, myself included, did not want to transition to the Capitol Hill campus because we had free parking and a river view at the Navy Yard Annex,” said Clifton Fulwood, former binding staffer and supervisor. “After the move the adjustment was smooth.”

 

The new office space in the Madison Building was set up with the Binding Office in mind. It now had direct access to the loading dock and was joined on the ground floor by the various other offices within the soon to be rechristened Preservation Directorate. Working with a mix of commercial binders, the office continued to churn out thousands of books each week. Though largely now separate from Library operations, the Government Printing Office (GPO) continued to support binding operations, as one of the contracted binders for a time, but more commonly the GPO acted as oversight on the contracting process.

Backlogs started adding up even with the expanded space, upwards of 40,000 volumes by 1982, and there were increasing number of items that needed rebinding. In 1983, William Underdue, the assistant binding officer, created the Book Repair Unit to increase care of these rebound items. For its first few years, the unit would consist of only one or two technicians. Staff were also working with enhanced technology in labeling books, especially those items from the Law Library.

 

Cost cutting hit the Library in the mid-80s, which meant a hiring freeze, reduction in force, and reduced binding expenditures. The Library attempted to negotiate better terms on binding contracts but was blocked by the GPO oversight. An attempt to secure a waiver from the Congress Joint Committee on Printing was unsuccessful. Changes were also underway reforming the quality review process and the initial preparation for each book to be given a piece identification number by way of a printed barcode attached to each item, the beginnings of a digital catalog.

In 1989, the first steps toward office automation began with the Serials division creating MUMS, the Multiple-Use MARC System. It was the first attempt at an online connected database of serial title records using Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC). Yes, that’s an acronym within an acronym. This system would expand use through the 1990’s with the Library Automated Retrieval System (LARS) interface. MUMS would be retired in 1999 with the creation of the Internal Library System (ILS), which was in turn retired this year with the launch of Library Collections Access Platform (LCAP).

 

“In my view, the transition from manual to automated processing created the biggest change to the workflow,” Fulwood said. “It reduced errors and enabled better tracking of materials. As the binding industry developed exchange systems between customers and the library binder, it increased productivity.”

Changes in technology were not the only things coming to the Binding Office in the 1990s. In 1995, the Library completed a major reorganization, combining the previous departments of Constituent Services and Collections Services together into Library Services. In the second phase of that reorg, the Preservation Directorate was restructured, merging the four parts of the Binding Office together. The previous Monographic Preservation, Serials Preservation, Bibliographic and Binding Control, and Book Preparation sections became the new Library Binding Section (LBS). However, the Book Repair Unit was separated and made into its own section, the Collections Care Section. The final combined structure was the new Binding and Collections Care Division (BCCD).

 

“The reorganization created better efficiencies by combining Library Binding with shelf preparation functions and expanding the Collections Care operation,” Fulwood said.

Just as the original repair stations in the Binding Office would grow to become the Conservation Division, the Brittle Books Project became the Preservation Reformatting Division, and materials testing groups became the Preservation Research and Testing Division, the office was once again launching a spin off. The technician who led that first lecture was Carrie Beyer, who returned to the Library in 2016 as the supervisor for CCS.

“The mission has stayed the same, the treatment and repair of the Library’s general and reference collections,” said Beyer, current supervisor of the since renamed General Collections Conservation Section. “We treat so many more items that we did back then, we also treat general collections in more areas of the Library. The housing programs that we provide have also expanded in size and scope.”

 

In 2000, the Binding Contract was removed from GPO oversight by the Congressional Committee on Printing, allowing the Library to negotiate better terms with binderies directly. With that action, the 100-year binding partnership between the LOC and GPO was officially over. In the decade that followed, systems improved and stabilized. Debra Kern became the first BCCD Chief after taking over as Binding Officer from Underdue. She would hold both positions until 2002 when she brought on Patricia Simms as LBS supervisor. McKern left shortly after that, and the chief position remained vacant until Jeanne Drewes was hired in Summer 2006.

Drewes would lead a full review of the binding process including new automated elements, such as the quality review process using an online database to track books and errors. Digital acquisitions would result in a decrease in items in need of binding. Tightening budgets led to the deferred binding program where certain items are sent to the shelf as is.

After Simms retired in 2008, Fulwood was promoted to section supervisor, capping his 40 plus years of service.  Little did he know that he would be the last person to have the title of Binding Supervisor.

“I’m very fortunate to have played a small part in the Binding Office growth,” Fulwood added. “Working with dedicated staff has been my greatest privilege. The future is bright as the Office continues to move forward and take advantage of new technologies in this digital age.”

 

When the Library of Congress completed another reorganization of the Preservation Directorate in 2021, the office known as the Library Binding Section was renamed to the Processing and Preparation Section. At the time it was expected that the staff would begin training in other duties beyond binding. The name change however brought an end of an era, as for the first time since 1900, there was no longer an office named Binding at the Library.

 

The future of the binding operation is uncertain though Preservation at the Library continues to advance in leaps and bounds. All of this incredible work got its start 125 years ago in the Library Bindery.

As then Director of Preservation Dianne Van der Reyden said in 2008, “The Library of Congress has a long history of fostering national preservation strategies in education, emergency preparation and research. But as collections expand to unprecedented sizes and formats, new partners and emerging technologies are required to solve the distinctly new challenges of the 21st century.”

At its highest, the combined staff of GPO and Library binding comprised 65 employees. The most productive year, 1977, saw 273,000 items sent for binding. Today’s Processing Preparation Section is led by Eltoro Davis, as part of the Preservation Services Division, led by Adrija Henley, under Preservation Director Cathleen Martyniak. Our six technicians are Nikia Duarte, Ronlicia Gordon-Falls, Justin Miree, Amir Sabry, Marques Wright, and myself, Keith F. Shovlin. Though we may no longer be the binding office, we keep the proud tradition going. As former Preservation Director Kenneth E. Harris stated in 1991, the Binding Office is “the front line of the Library’s preservation efforts.”

 

Part One – Part Two – Part Three – Part Four

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