The National Library of Medicine is responsible for the preservation of biomedical information. Binding library materials is a basic aspect of preservation. Approximately 160,000 serial issues and monographs are received unbound each year. These volumes must be bound in hard covers to protect them from damage during use and to keep individual serial issues from being easily lost. Library materials are bound offsite by a commercial library binder. The contract for binding is negotiated and administered by the Government Printing Office for all government agencies. Approximately 30,000 volumes are bound per year. The objective of the binding preparation contract is to retrieve volumes from the collection which require binding, collate the volumes and prepare instructions for the commercial binder, check in and perform quality control on the commercial binding, attach security labels and bar codes, reshelve the bound volumes, and update NLM files which indicate the binding status of volumes. A related task included in the project is to pull from the shelves unbound volumes which have been superseded by cumulations. The work is performed onsite at the National Library of Medicine.
