I always thought that the phrase “bindery discharge” sounded like the name of a disease that only afflicts bookbinders.

In reality it means the damaged book can go directly to the bindery without any additional preparation by the preservation lab. This is often because it is an adhesive bound book, so the spine will just get shaved and then reglued by the bindery. For sewn books ( i.e. Non-adhesive bound) we like to clean the spine first and then put a protective release layer of Japanese tissue.

This extra layer of tissue will prevent future damage to the spine if we ever have to rebind the book again.