Thesis printing

Last week, I picked up my printed and bound thesis from the bindery. The Harvard Extension School recommends two binderies, Wells Bindery in Waltham and another in Chelsea. I used Wells, because it is quite close to where I live. It's located off High Street in Waltham, within walking distance of Moody St. (NOTE: the company has shut down and the building has been demolished since this post was written).

It was interesting to see the facility. It's old -- the building, much of the printing equipment, the office furniture and even the frosted glass doors appear date from the first half of the 20th century. There are a few computer terminals lying around, but other than that, stepping into Wells is like stepping back in time 50 years.

In many ways, it's not surprising. The technologies used for binding books rely on many of the same materials -- paper, cardboard, and glue -- that have been used for centuries. And while the president of the company told me that the early years of the Internet age led to a tough business climate, things have since turned around. Several parts of the operations rely heavily on digital technologies, including submission of draft materials (in PDF format), credit-card processing, and of course, communication with clients (via email and the company website). Wells now has customers from across the country.

Even if the publication of scholarly theses drops away in the decades to come, Wells still has a solid customer base serving libraries and doing custom restorations and reproductions -- such a project might involve recreating a high school yearbook, or making a duplicate 19th-century embossed book cover, I was told.

The cost of printing and binding my thesis was actually quite reasonable. Three copies using high-quality paper (100% rag) and even some color pages (to handle the charts) cost less than $150 total. One copy has already been submitted to the Extension School ALM office, and I dropped off another in the mailbox of my thesis director. The third is in my bookshelf at home, and the document exists electronically on my personal Harvard website until I graduate (click here to download a copy -- it's the hyperlinked title).