Like many of us here, I have an enormous stash of old ballet programs. They are presently crammed into plastic egg crates and scattered loose around my apartment. I once tried to keep the boxed stuff in groups by seasons, but they've been moved around so many times now that there's not much order to them. And I'm beginning to worry about losing the uncrated programs.

What I would like to do, if possible, is to buy binders for these programs (yeah, I know, that's a lot of binders) and shelve them in chronological order. I'm talking now just about the conventional, Playbill-sized programs; the oddly sized ones will have to be handled separately. Playbill itself sells binders, but they don't hold many programs and they're expensive and not very attractive. I know that there are places that sell binders for paper products such as programs -- I once saw a catalog, a long time ago, but don't remember the company's name. Does anyone know of such stores or companies?

I'm not interested in tearing up my programs or putting the info into a database. I love the programs as artifacts; I like to look at the articles and even the ads. Part of the nostalgia.

Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

You might want to consider boxing them instead of putting them in binders. It should be fairly easy to find some kind of box that will accommodate the size (possibly from a library supply company).

Another possibility is to find generic magazine binders of the appropriate size, but I fear that this would also be expensive.

A third option would be to store them in page protectors in regular 3-ring binders.

PS Now that I see that we live in the same town (!), I should add that I don't know of any likely shops around here, though I do have a colleague that has located a library-supply firm and otherwise I would suggest a spin through Ikea.

The library supply firm sounds promising, Koshka. Could you find out the name and contact information and either post it here or PM me?

All my Dance Magazines live in shoeboxes, which seem as if they would hold programs pretty well.

it turns out that the rather reasonable priced magazine holders sold in packs of 5(?) at ikea - where i get NO commission! - cut down quite nicely to fit stage/play-bills on their long-edge (so as to read their 'spines' if you get my meaning). i 'gut' my programs saving only one complete one per month - when they change copy - and file into them the casts/changeable matter for the rest of the mo. these then fit nicely and snugly into these cardboard holders. i suppose you need not cut them down but for my shelving purposes the fit better when they are taken down to about the size of the programs themselves. i file then by year (or season no. - it turns out that in case of NYCB for ex. the seasons are numbered so you don't need to get confused w/ those seasons that go from say nov. of one calendar year to feb. of the next, you simply file them as say 118th ny season or whatever the prog. says. my NYCB stash of progs. now goes for ex. from the '49th ny season' up thru the 118th. (it took me years to realize that these convenient nos. were neatly printed on each season's program.) i don't know if i'm making any sense whatsoever. let me know if not and i'll try to elaborate.

I keep programs in pattern boxes that I have purchased at a fabric store. They are just the right size for Playbills. However, I do like the binder idea if I ever get that organized. Sounds like IKEA would be a good place to go for my magazine collection as well. Dance Mag. used to sell binders for each year but I think they discontinued them.

Try these:

http://www.gaylordmart.com/listing.asp?cat...0-%20Paperboard

the site you suggest mel, looks like a real find. many thanks.
fyi: if anyone suggests the type binders that playbill once sold itself w/ individual lengths of wire to hold each program at the centerfold portion, i do not recommend these. i have a few holding special gala programs but i find them unstable and not really all they're designed to be.
or perhaps it's just me and i tried to put too many programs in the binder. tho' the no. of wires given indicated that no. of programs. still, they tended never to fit easily and often to end up w/ the wires popping out.
bottom line these are better in theory than in actuality.

I don't know if they still do this, but the Kennedy Center once sold binders (with Kennedy Center on the spine, of course). I started out putting them in binders, but gave up.

My New Season's Resolution is to scan them and keep them on disk. That way they'll be searchable.

If you have extra-special programs that you want to give extra protection for long-term preservation, I recommend:

http://www.gaylordmart.com/adblock.asp?abi...ylar%20envelope

Oh Mel, you are such a treasure trove of handy info.!

rg, thank you so much for your detailed pointers about the NYCB programs...now I'll just have to set aside a bit of time to see if I can follow your description. Seriously though, I am sure the specifics will be extremely helpful to all the balletomanes from wayback...and perhaps a relative neophyte like myself will get a jump on organizing my own toppling piles of programs.