October 2025

Quick Facts

• Technical Services no longer does in-house mending, repairs and re-casing.
• Locations may do minor mending and recasing of media (DVDs, CDs, etc) when it is economically sensible to do so.
• Media items with damaged packaging are re-cased if the discs are in very good to excellent condition.
• Books that need to be rebound should be sent to the appropriate selector.

Procedures

Mending

Branches may utilize staff or volunteers to do simple mending and re-casing. 

Supplies like book tape and glue sticks are available through MultCo Marketplace. 

Labels, cases and book jackets can be ordered through the Materials processing supplies requisition form. 

If an item has an unreadable barcode, please duplicate and replace. See the instructions at Replicating library barcodes.

If an item has an unreadable spine label, please replicate and replace. See the instructions at Printing spine labels from Symphony circulation.

Recasing

Only recase items in very good condition. If one item in a set is in poor condition, discard the set.

Locations may save media cases in excellent condition when discarding damaged or incomplete DVD or CD sets.

Replace case inserts with stains or water damage by making a color photocopy of the old insert and replacing the damaged one. 

New media cases can be ordered through the Materials processing supplies requisition form.

Binding

A contract with a commercial bindery is maintained to bind materials when needed. Items which are in print should be reordered instead of rebound.

All material to be rebound is reviewed by a selector before an item is sent to the bindery.

To send material for binding:

• Communicate with the appropriate selector about the item
• Check out the item to Bindery User account in Symphony
• Send the item to the selector at 635/OPS via interoffice mail.

It typically takes a few months for items to return from the bindery.

Rationale

Maintaining an essential item by mending or binding it is a cost-effective way to extend its usefulness. Materials in good repair and with attractive packaging are more appealing and help to promote library use.