I am not getting any better at taping library book covers. I have gotten better at COVERING them, which is when you put a plastic wrapper over the dust jacket: at first I felt so clumsy and awkward doing it, but then my hands learned how, and now I just whip those suckers out one after another. But TAPING, which is what you do to protect the covers of paperbacks and the kind of hardcovers that don’t have dust jackets, is something I keep doing and keep being bad at. I feel like I shouldn’t do it anymore, when I’m so bad at it? But no one is saying anything or acting concerned. “Oh, you’ll get the hang of it,” they said four months ago when I learned how. “You just have to practice!” HOW MUCH PRACTICING UNTIL WE GIVE UP
Today I accidentally stuck the tape to the book cover without noticing the tape had picked up the index card that goes along with the book on its trip through the cataloging/taping/covering process. So I had to carefully remove the tape from the book cover, then put a new sticker on the cover to replace the one I ruined with the tape, then literally cut the index card out of the tape strip, then start all over. IS THIS THE BEST USE OF OUR PERSON-HOURS
Not to go on and on forever about such a boring and specific topic but, like, when the librarian was showing me how to do it, she showed me how to do it so there’d be NO bubbles under the tape. On my BEST taped covers, there are LOTS of bubbles. LOTS. One of my co-workers told me that she secretly uses a pin to pop a bubble if she gets one. ONE! If she gets ONE bubble! She takes out a PIN and pops it! Because it is so important to her to have NO BUBBLES! (I have not shown her any of my taping work.)
And I get SO MANY FINGERPRINTS under the tape! So many! I don’t know what other people are doing to prevent this! One of the librarians said I should just wash my hands and not use lotion right beforehand, but I DO wash my hands and DON’T use lotion right beforehand and I STILL leave fingerprints all under the tape! If I am ever accused of a crime and have vanished so they can’t get my fingerprints, all they will have to do is go to the library and pick up as many full, perfectly-preserved sets as they like!
Also, you know how hardcover books have a little canal/indent along the edge of the cover? Like, there’s the spine, and then a nice little indent to let the cover bend, and then the rest of the cover? The tape is supposed to go neatly down into that indent, and we have a little tool we use to jam it down in there. MY tape keeps getting stuck ACROSS the indent before I’ve had a chance to wrestle it into the indent. Once I DO press it down into the indent, it’s with a BUNCH of bubbles.
Pretty soon I am seriously going to have to go up to someone who ranks higher than me and tell them that I am not getting better at this and should perhaps spend my time elsewhere doing elsewhat. I feel like they’re going to think I’m just trying to get out of having to do the task, even though it should make absolute sense to all of us that some people would be better at some things than others. I’m happy to cover books! I’m happy to stamp discards! I’m happy to refill tape dispensers and put more water in the Keurig and bundle up the old newspapers and salt the walkways and collect books from the bookdrops and do any other tasks they want me to do! But THIS PARTICULAR TASK seems to me to be a BAD IDEA for me to do. If I mis-cover a book, I can take the cover off and start again; when I mis-TAPE a book, the book looks bad and fingerprinty and bubbly for the rest of its life.
I learned better techniques by watching YouTube tutorials – there are more library related ones than you think! And, in the school libraries in these parts, there is only one librarian. So you get there and it’s just you, no one to show you how to do anything! I’m curious about the “tape” you’re using? I use Kapco covers for paperbacks, which sounds like it might be easier than what you’re working with. Either way, definitely check out video tutorials – you might find a technique that is better suited to you. Yes with the finger prints… SAME HERE.
If I worked at the same library as you, I would GLADLY take over taping duties because this is something I am EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD AT and would want to have done right.
Is there a coworker you could say all this to and offer to take some of their duties in exchange for them taking your taping duties? If not… eh… I guess it sounds like they don’t care all that much if there are bubbles or fingerprints, so you can just keep on going how you have been. Not an especially satisfactory solution, I know. :-/
School librarian here – could NEVER cover a book properly, never!! But I found one or two staff people who love love loved it and saved it for them. Truly, it’s a particular skill and those who are good at it love to do it. It’s a win/win if other people do it, I promise!!
Taping is truly my one hidden talent! I wish I could come do all the books for you because it is so satisfying for me (a perfectionist who lacks abilities to do anything else perfectly). I am exceptionally bad at other things and do wish we could maximize each others’ time and talents!
I had the same problem/thought about fingerprints when I worked in the library. I often said all my prints and DNA would be my undoing should I turn to a life of crime.
I worked at a retail store and once had to fold a whole wall display of jeans. My manager came back to check on me when I was done and didn’t believe I had folded them all. When I insisted that I did, in fact, fold them all, she looked at me kindly and said, “Well, this just isn’t your forte.”
My I reframe this a bit for you?
You are not giving up, you are delegating. Does that sound too much like management? Fine, you noticing your coworkers talents, reorganizing tasks, and prioritizing efficiency over cross-training.
Would seeking out the best book taper in the building for a tutorial elevate or decrease your stress level? Coworkers LOVE to be the expert at something. I hooted today when I showed someone how to automatically add page numbers in their preferred format in Adobe. ;) If it would stress you out to ask, then just mention how great they are at this task to management…repeatedly.
Omg, I’m terrible at this too! And I keep trying to get better and I keep not getting at all better. Most of the jobs I do feel so neat and satisfying and measured, and this is horrible and sticky and enraging. I don’t really have to do it, though, and the other library tech is better at it. I pay her back by doing all the bottom-shelf stuff that she can’t sit on the floor for.
😍 elsewhat
Oh my goodness. This is me with wrapping presents. I try SO hard to be neat and tidy and careful and thoughtful but they still come out all bumpy and skewed. So much so my husband refuses to let me wrap gifts that come from both of us and laughs heartily when he receives a wrapped present from me.
I believe I am a lost wrapping cause and I sympathise with your plight!!
I’d love to see photos! What’s a really great job, what’s one with a lot of bubbles, etc. I must have seen what you’re describing, but I can’t quite picture it.
If it’s the sticky paper that goes over book, what we used to do when we were in primary school was to take a sock (you could grab any cloth or handkerchief) and with that you can glide over the sticky paper and with your other hand pull the non-sticky paper so you’re coverning section by section, this way you don’t have bubbles. I hope this makes sense, I’m thinking about contact paper for wrapping books.
I am mostly amazed that there are this many people in the comments already who have experience taping books!! :D (Also: elsewhat, holy cow i love it)
When I was in high school, they taught us how to cut our own mat boards in art class. In junior year, we were required to use only ones we cut ourselves. I cannot tell you how many fail/restarts I had on that front. My cut lines would not be perfect 90-degree angles, or there would be a wobble in the middle of a line, or there would be a jagged edge. I never did get it right. The best I got was the art teacher decreeing that one had problems, but was good enough to use. So that I could then go on to starting the art project that everyone else had already started, having cut their mat boards successfully on Day 1.
Senior year, we were allowed to use mat boards that other people had already cut and put in a spot he’d designated for discarded boards. Sometimes people would cut them and then realize that they didn’t have the right size or they didn’t like the color of the board they’d picked. Senior year, I started every project by going to the discards and picking my mat board first. And then I did the art project to fit in the mat board, whatever it was.
Part of me now regrets that I didn’t push through and get better at it… but honestly, after a year of trying, I don’t know how much more longer it would have taken for me to get there. There may not have been enough days left in my high school time to manage it.
I totally get where you’re coming from.
This sounds a lot like when you first learned how to throw clay! And remember, one day it just…worked. I’m sure it will happen like this with the taping too. :)
This sounds like me wrapping gifts. I am not good at it, and I always mess up the tape. Strands of my hair falls into it and then I accidentally tape my hair on the gift, I always get fingerprints on the tape, it gets all crumpled, and that’s Scotch tape. I can’t imagine how bad I would be at taping actual books.
Ha, ha, this would be me! But it sounds fascinating!
Oh my! I cannot tell you how much I relate to all of this!! The bubbles, the fingerprints-I’m really good in libraries (I’m a guest librarian with tons of experience) but this is something I feel I’m not great at.
I will say-with the indent along the spines? Smooth the tape along the spine, then use your fingers to press into the indent. You might get bubbles past it-but the spine and the indent is good. In my job, I also put on spine labels, and can you imagine how horrified I was when I put the nonfiction labels on the wrong way? Then TAPED them?? I am a total library nerd, and any mistake makes me feel like I must do real penance.
I am actually in awe of your ability to put on dust covers. I can’t do it. They get super static and I can’t get everything lined up. They are my WORST thing. So I am super impressed got the hang of it.