Quick Hangs and Half Hangs

Hanging, or rehanging a book, is a process in which a book block is attached or reattached to the book cover. This is also known as "casing-in," or "recasing," a book. In this procedure, new end sheets and a new spine cloth are affixed to the book block. These end sheets and spine cloth are then glued to the book cover, securing it in place. This is labor intensive: removing the old end sheets from the covers by lifting, scraping and sanding; and preparing new end sheets by measuring, cutting, fitting and gluing.

We have devised a new process which does not entail the use of new end sheets. We call this a quick hang. In this procedure, a book which has torn loose from its cover is reattached with a new spine cloth, only.

This works especially well for paper-backed books which were hard bound, with their original covers intact. There are many such books in the Asian Library at the University of Illinois. These paper backs tear loose from their hard covers because the spine cloth used in the binding process is very thin and quickly splits apart.

The first step entails preparing the book block. If the original spine cloth and or paper is loose, we remove it.

Then we cut a new piece of spine cloth (and paper) which is the length of the book and wide enough to provide a one inch wrap around on both sides.

We apply glue to the spine of the book and firmly pull the new spine cloth over it until bubbles of glue pop up through it. We then glue the new spine paper on top.