Scores and books seldom arrive at a library unbound, in separate pages.
The example shown above is a dissertation ordered from UMI with the specification that it be sent unbound on letter size paper rather than soft bound in smaller format. For dissertations about music this is a doubly good value: the cheapest adhesive binding by a library binder will be sturdier than the soft cover binding supplied by UMI, and the musical examples will print out much more reliably at full size.
The other situations in which libraries will deal with unbound materials will be scores from which an undesirable binding (comb or spiral, staples, ring binder) has been removed, or music purchased electronically and printed out in-house.
Unbound scores involving 20 or fewer sheets of paper (for a total of up to 40 pages) are best guarded and sewn as a pamphlet, but thicker scores can be sent out for adhesive binding.
Last updated: March 17, 2008, at 04:23 PM EDT