Ideal Bookends

Now here's what I really want in a bookend.

They don't have to come in pairs, because bookcases have sides. They have to be really thin at their thinnest and be able to expand so as to gently push the books upright against the end of the bookshelf.

I'm thinking some sort of mechanical expansion initiated by either a little winding handle or a small power tool.

Has anyone ever seen such a thing?

Jim

I know they have Space Saver Mechanical Stacks that move on a track whenever you turn the lever left or right and you can also get several stacks to move at once too if you want to do it. Is this what you are talking about? Space Saver is the actual name of the company that puts in these mechanical stacks on tracks. They are really cool. In our Branch Library we have the style that has the safety feature in it that will not move if someone is in the stacks or if a book has fallen on the floor. Also we have a Storage facility up the street from our Branch Library where we keep Pre-1986 Journals and we also have a Space Saver Mechanical Stack system up there too however that is different from the other one. In the one at our Storage facility you can move the lever to have the stacks open up and step inside before the stacks finish moving because only Library Staff has access to the building where our Journals are kept so we don't need the safety feature up there.

beatles1964

If you go to the Space Saver Web Site at www.spacesaver.com you will see the kind of Movable Stacks I am talking about. Good Luck.

beatles1964

Hi, Sorry for the delay. No that's not what I had in mind (although I would absolutely love something like it!), I've seen that sort of thing before under the brand-name "Compactus".

What I was imagining would go on the shelves of a normal bookcase (one with sides) and just gently hold up the books that tend to lean (and bend their spines) when the shelf is not quite filled.

Since I sort my fantasy and science fiction case by author, I'm forever moving them around when I make new acquisitions, so there are often gaps and the size of the gaps change.

It's just a pipe dream really.

Jim

You have gaps in your bookshelves? How on earth do you manage that? Of course the solution is to buy more books. I have no gaps at all; in fact, I have books stacked on top of the bookshelves! And in boxes...and on my nightstand...and on the floor...

Just like the woman in the movie Fahrenheit 451 except of with a different outcome than she met with in that Dystopian Society. The scene where they come in and burn her house down with all of her books she loves so much and she is dancing around in the flames is the saddest part of the movie for me.

beatles1964

>5 oregonobsessionz:
I'm working on it... Actually if you look at my TBR pile you will see that there are some books queued up waiting for shelf space.

Jim

When I stack books on top of bookshelves, I usually use a stack of books in horizontal position to anchor each end.

I found bookends here, here, and here. The adjustable ones are costly, but maybe you could make some if you are handy.

Thanks for the research but still not exactly what I envisage (although that Vernon site has some great stuff).

My imagining is for something to push against the bookcase side wall and the last book on the shelf, expanding as necessary to fill the gap. There may be a patent in this for somebody!

Jim

My Library has the wire support bookends that hang down from our metal stacks and we HATE them. They constantly fall over and are worthless. I would NOT recommend them to anyone. They are just cheap metal wire and a piece of crap. We don't have any money right now in our Budget to buy some new book ends and metal Princeton Files. Though we could use some bookends or Princeton Files right away if we had them. What I will usually do when I am in the Stacks is take away any metal book ends or Princeton Files that are at either end since you don't really need them there because of the support from each side. You really need them more in the middle of the journals to keep them from sliding down and all over the place.

We also have both the larger and smaller style metal book ends in different colors plus some older larger different colored plastic style book ends too. They're ok except that every now and then one of them might break because of the weight put on them. So the heavy metal ones are the best ones for the money. I think we might even have a few older metal book ends around here somewhere with the stuff on the bottom to keep them from sliding. That works real well.
Though of course you can't slide it down when you're trying to shift some books or journals. I don't particularly care for putting a stack of books in the horizontal position to anchor each end. Because they sometimes will still fall over and all the books go sliding every which way unless you have some very serious large books that won't move too easily.

beatles1964

To liven things up, here's an article from Book Riot about do it yourself bookends. http://bookriot.com/2014/10/21/bookish-diy-bookends/

I like the dinosaurs. But they wouldn't be heavy enough.