Good material, strong sewing, and a moderate degree of skill and taste in finishing are all they can pay for.

Learn to tell a substantial piece of work when you see it, and insist that you get such from your binder.

The beginners' first business is to inform himself carefully as to character, value, cost and strength of all common binding materials.
From binders, or from dealers in binding material, you can get samples of cloth, leather, tapes, string, thread, etc., which will help you to learn what to ask for from your local binder.
The following notes are from a lecture by John H.H.McNamee before the Massachussets library club in 1896, on the Essentials of good binding: "Had I the ordering of bindings for any public or circulating library where books are given out to all classes of people, and subjected to the handling which such books must receive, I should, from my experience as a binder, recommend the following rules: For the smaller volumes of juveniles, novels, and perishable books (by which I mean books which are popular for a short time, and then may lie on the shelves almost as so much lumber), have each book pulled to pieces and sewed with Hayes' linen thread on narrow linen tapes, with edges carefully trimmed.
Have the books rounded and backed, but not laced in.

Have the boards placed away from the backs about one-fourth of an inch, in order to give plenty of room for them to swing easily and avoid their pulling off the first and last signatures of the book when opened.

Give the back and joint a lining of super or cheese cloth.