The Sad Saga of Library Staplers

Most of the campus libraries provide staplers, hole punches, and other basic office tools for students to use. We also regularly have to replace these items because of theft – accidental due to absentmindedness, or intentional – and breakage.

So, think of the poor librarian (that would be me) who spends all her time buying new staplers and hunting for that magical, heavy-duty stapler that staples up to 60 pages and doesn’t break (our current standby is the Swingline 77701, but it breaks a lot). Please don’t try to force the staplers or hole punches to do jobs they are not made to do. Banging on the stapler never helps, and as for the person who did this:

hole punch

You are very strong – this is an all-metal handle that has been broken in two. Wow. I am impressed, and also a little afraid.

If any of our readers are stapler afficionadoes (or have just watched Office Space too many times), please leave us a comment suggesting the miraculous stapler that will solve all our problems and never break!

By Phoebe Acheson

4 thoughts on “The Sad Saga of Library Staplers”

  1. This served us in the SILS Library at UNC-CH for almost a year:

    Pros: Handles up to 60 pages excellently
    It’s Red – Tom will like that
    No one ever broke it in two
    Cons: Loud (this can also be a Pro since the noise inspires respect)
    stops working after about a year (the staples get stuck)

  2. Our College of Engineering used to have 3 hole puncher which would stop functioning (jammed, broken handle etc) every so often. The dept found it is much cost effective to buy paper that already has 3 holes punched. Also, when we bought our new Xerox printers, we made sure that it has the built-in stapling capability.

    That solved the problem of missing / dysfunctional staplers/punchers.

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