Do they still teach bookbinding?

It turns out they do.

When I think of trade schools, I think of HVAC repair, beauty schools, and auto mechanics. The North Bennet Street School of Boston Mass is a trade school of the classical genre. NBSS offers courses in bookbinding, furniture making, violin making, and piano technology. As an institution, NBSS has come to be one of the oldest and most respected trade schools in the country.

Here is a highlight from this article in Felt & Wire:

 “We’ve seen an interesting reaction to the rise in e-books and online publishing. There’s a heightened awareness of our work, both from people who are interested in doing it and from those who are interested in buying. People seem to have recently stopped taking physical books for granted — which might be a short-term phenomenon — as digital technology has come up. I sense a bit of a backlash — a renewed interest and appreciation of the higher end, in owning books that are of higher quality, a little better thought out, in terms of design or craft or both.” He adds, “Even Penguin Classics are beautiful right now, and I think that reflects demand. People don’t want throwaway — if it’s disposable, then electronic is fine. We’re definitely seeing people interested in taking care of their existing books — repair and conservation have been the main source of demand for bookbinding skills. We’re also seeing a growth in demand and interest in hand-bound books. I like to joke that nobody is ever going to say, ‘Oh look, here’s the Kindle that grandpa read during the war.’”

As bookbinders, this is what gets our hearts going, the inherent value of well-bound, beautiful books.

In addition to the article above, I recommend that anyone who is interested in the NBSS bookbinding program should check out Work of the Hand, a meticulous blog by current student, Henry Herbert.

For anyone local who is interested in hand-bookbinding classes, I teach those as well. In the beginner's class, we make a hardback book like this:

I also teach a coptic class:

Give me a call or send me an email to set up a private or group event.