Patent Application
20090315313
This invention relates generally to the field of blank books and binders and more particularly to a system for labeling and presenting a variety of blank book and binder styles on a bookshelf spine-forward in an organized and visually appealing manner.
Blank books and binders take many forms, but their common function is to store and hold together pages uniquely created by the individual user. For example, in a sketchbook, such a book or binder stores and holds together pages of the user's drawings; similarly, in a notebook, journal, or composition book, such a book or binder stores and holds together pages of the user's writings; similarly, in a photo album, such a book or binder stores and holds together pages of the user's pictures; similarly, in a scrapbook, such a book or binder stores and holds together pages of the user's memorabilia; similarly, in a presentation book, such a book or binder stores and holds together pages of the user's demonstration; similarly, in a portfolio, such a book or binder stores and holds together the user's artwork and other materials in an unbound format.
The above paragraph asserts that there is a multiplicity of blank book and binder modalities. However, each modality also has a subset of possible binding styles and each of these styles provides a different functionality. Thus, for example, within this paradigm a sketchbook, storing and holding together the user's artwork, may be constructed in a hardbound style, providing for maximum permanency; or may be constructed in a wire bound style (otherwise known as wire-o and twin wire binding), providing for maximum flexibility and durability; or may be constructed in a spiral coil bound style, providing for maximum flexibility at the lowest cost; or may be constructed in a disk bound style, providing for removability of pages. In turn, each of the other blank book and binder modalities has its own subset of potential binding styles.
It will be noted that a user may maintain a separate blank book or binder for a specific theme and thus may use several blank books or binders simultaneously. This holds especially true for students, who may keep a separate blank book or binder for each subject during the course of a semester. Furthermore, such blank books or binders allow for, and indeed encourage, the user to make an emotional investment in the product by committing their own creativity and memory to it. It follows, that once completed, such blank books or binders are not discarded but rather retained, and often retained permanently. Thus, over the course of a lifetime, a user may accumulate a substantial collection of such blank books or binders of varying styles, sizes and types.
Storage of these blank books and binders is both an organizational and aesthetic challenge to the user. With respect to hardbound books, if stored on a shelf or in a box face forward, there is no means to identify the contents unless the user marks the cover; alternatively, if stored on a shelf, spine forward, the collection merely presents an array of solid color of the spine of the books. Similarly, with respect to spiral coil bound or wire bound books, if stored on a shelf or a box, face forward, there is no means to identify the contents unless the user marks the cover; if stored on a shelf, spine forward, the collection presents an array of unsightly metal or plastic coils without any means to identify the contents.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system for archiving blank books and binders of varying size and type that is an improvement over the prior art.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system for displaying blank books and binders in an attractive manner.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a system for organizing blank books and binders of varying type.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a system for identifying the contents of a particular blank book or binder.
A still further object of the invention is to provide an archiving system which allows the user to label the contents of the blank book or binder on its spine and to provide an aesthetically pleasing manner to showcase it spine forward on a bookshelf.
Some of the objects of the invention having been stated, other objects will appear as the description proceeds, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which—
While the present invention will be described more fully herein after with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which particular embodiments are shown, it is to be understood at the outset that persons skilled in the art may modify the invention herein described while stilly achieving the favorable results of this invention. Accordingly, the description which follows is to be understood as a broad teaching disclosure directed to persons of skill in the appropriate arts and not as limiting upon the present invention. Further, while the description and drawings illustrate two embodiments, namely, the spiral and hardbound blank books, it will be understood that the invention may be applied to virtually all types of books, whether blank or including printed pages.
In the drawings, wherein like characters of reference generally indicate like parts throughout, 100 indicates generally a blank book or binder or book constructed in accordance with the invention and 200 indicates generally the detachable sleeve constructed in accordance with the invention. In addition, as employed herein, for ease of description, the term “blank book” is intended to cover all types of bound books and binders, irrespective of binding style, having a hard or flexible front and/or rear covers, including but not limited to, sketchbooks, journals, notebooks, composition books, scrapbooks, photo albums, presentation books, portfolios, and the like. In addition, the term “blank book” is intended to cover refillable blank books, which consist of book covers whose inside lining has an aperture into which the replacement book is inserted; with respect to the other aspects of the invention, and its key component, the magnetic or magnetizable sleeve, this refillable blank book functions in the same manner as the other modalities.
Likewise, as employed herein, the terms “magnetic” is defined as “capable of being magnetized or attracted by a magnet” and “magnetized” is defined as “to exert an attracting influence upon” will be employed somewhat interchangeably, as will become evident as the reader proceeds. The foregoing “blank books” may be assembled by a variety of binding styles including coil binding (spiral coil binding, wire-o/twin wire binding) as well as hardbound, post bound, disc bound (such as Atoma® and Rollabind®) and cloth bound (portfolios), all of which fall within the scope of the present invention.
Referring now to the figures and particularly to
The magnets 170 are well known to those skilled in the art and in the prototypes that were constructed comprise disc shaped synthetic magnets as may be obtained from MMC, Corp. (Magnetic Materials and Components) of, Hauppauge, N.Y. 11788 USA. Alternatively, the magnets may be elongated high efficiency/strength magnets. In the prototypes, a pair of disc shaped magnets were positioned proximate the edge of the covers 140 proximate the spiral coil binding 130 approximately one inch from the respective top and bottom edges. For aesthetic purposes, the magnets 170 are preferably glued to the cover 140 beneath the decorative covering 160. Additionally, the magnets 170 should be sufficiently thin to be virtually imperceptible to the user. Alternatively, the magnets may be in powdered form and embedded within a suitable matrix such as glue [not shown] which is distributed longitudinally along the cover 140 edge proximate the binding. In another aspect of the invention, the cover 140 may include a cut out or hollowed out area to receive the magnet 170 to facilitate its imperceptibility to the user. In another aspect of the invention, the magnets may be visible and exposed.
The sleeve 200 comprises a front sleeve section 210, a back sleeve section 220 and a centrally positioned spine sleeve section 230. The spine sleeve section 230 is connected to the front sleeve section 210 on one side and is connected to the back sleeve section on the opposite side. Generally, the sleeve 200 will be constructed in the same manner as a hardbound book cover, with the same height as the bound/spine dimension but shorter on the non-bound dimension: that is to say the sleeve 200 is generally constructed of three separate pieces of board or other rigid material, the front 210, the back 220, and the spine 230, each of the three pieces spaced slightly away from each other and placed on a substrate 240 such as a single piece of paper, cloth or other material. The substrate 204 forms the connective tissue to the three sleeve sections 210, 220, 230 and connects them into one single piece (thereby creating the sleeve) with said spaces creating flexible hinges 250 on each side. Generally, the sleeve thus constructed will be covered with a cover material 260 which may or may not match the cover material used for the covering of the book itself. Alternatively, the sleeve 200 may be a single piece of other U-shaped material, such as an extruded or molded resin such as plastic (not shown), wherein the front sleeve section, back sleeve section and spine are all integrally formed as a single unit. The sleeve 200 has an outward facing side 270 which is visible to the user and an inward facing side 280 which will be facing the blank book 100 when in use. The sleeve 200 is provided with magnetizable strips or discs 290 positioned longitudinally on the inward facing side 280 along both the front sleeve section 210 and back sleeve section 220. In addition, magnetizable strips 290 may be longitudinally positioned on the inward facing side 280 of spine 230. However, depending on the construction of a particular blank book, it may be necessary to employ magnets of opposite polarity to those positioned on the blank book for additional attractive force. It is important to note that in a number of different types of blank books, notably the spiral coil blank book and the wire bound blank book, the respective spiral coil and wire bindings are often made of iron, a magnetic material which will attract the corresponding front and back sleeve sections 210,220 when in use, as will explained in further detail herein below.
Another embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in
In operation, the sleeve 200 is wrappingly placed over the spine end of the blank book 100 so that the respective magnets 170, 290 of opposite polarity or; the magnets and magnetizable material, as the case may be, overlie one another so that the book 100 and the sleeve 200 are maintained in connected relation by magnetic forces of attraction. Further, in the illustrated embodiments, the sleeve 200 overlies between about twenty five (25) percent of the width of the respective front and back book covers 140, however, this figure may be increased or decreased as a particular application may require. It is believed that between fifteen percent (15%) and thirty five percent (35) of the width of the covers will be sufficient while remaining both aesthetic and functional. It will be noted that the sleeve 200 does not have to be the same height as the corresponding blank book 100 to which it is to be attached. Thus, by employing a sleeve 200 that is larger than the corresponding blank book 100, blank books of varying height, when placed adjacent to one another, can appear uniform when placed spine forward on a shelf.
In another aspect of the invention, a labeling means or label holder 300 for identifying the contents of the corresponding blank book 100 is operatively associated or is attached to the spine 230 of sleeve 200, as best shown in
Another labeling technique for indicating the contents or type of notebook 100 is an indicator means for identifying the book such as a decorative stripe or strip 310, which extends along the length of the edge of the respective front and back sleeve sections 210,220. Alternatively, the sleeve may be partially or entirely color coded, or the strip 310 may extend horizontally across the sleeve or the stripe 310 may be positioned in the hinge area and extend on to portions of the front and back sleeve sections 210,220.
In another aspect of the invention, existing notebooks may be “retrofitted” with the sleeve 100 of the present invention. For example, magnetic strips or discs 170 could be attached to the covers 140,150 and/or spine of a notebook 100 as described herein above, except that they may be attached to the outer surface of the blank book 100. Additionally, the magnets 170 may be aesthetically enhanced with a decorative design.
The present invention may also be employed with a set of sleeves 200 as described herein above, and wherein each sleeve 200 of the set has a meaning denoted by a different color, different size, different indicator means 310 or combination of the foregoing, so that when the book and the sleeve are maintained in connected relation by magnetic forces of attraction, the book is coded as well as attractively archived.
In the drawings and specification that have been set forth herein, there are preferred embodiments of the invention and, although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being described in the claims.
