Expert: Rupert Evans - 7/21/2005

Question
Rupert:

Thanks for being here!

I hope you can help me. I have about 60 chiropractic technique books I want to unbind in order to scan them into a computer. The binding is some sort of a rubber cement with a cloth tape on it. The covers are not hardback but a single sheet of cardboard.

What is the best way to unbind these books?

David R.  

Answer
   Be sure that no staples have been used to bind these books. If staples _have_ been used, the first step is to pry out all of them. If there are any staples, they will ruin the the cutter blade in the next step.
   Next, take the books to a quick printer (Kinkos, Office Max, etc). Have them use their guillotine paper cutter to cut off as little of the spine as they can (about 1/16 of an inch). This will free all of the pages.
   The only other alternative is to pull of each page, one at a time. This works, but it leaves the spine edge of each page a bit wavy. However, you would still be able to scan them.
Rupert