Getting Your Dissertation Bound

Pretty, pretty books

After all that work, you finally finish...and you might be surprised that you don't get a copy for yourself!

(unless you are in SBOS, which will pay for you to have your own copy. Nice!)

If you want a copy of your bound dissertation for yourself, or to give as gifts to family or committee members, you have two main options. You can have it bound through ProQuest when you turn in your forms for the dissertation to be filed, but it is costly and the turnaround time is very long.

If only my bookshelves were this intersting

Another, local option, is to take your dissertation to the same place where the library gets its copies bound: Kater-Crafts in Pico Rivera.

Tucked away on a side street just off the Whittier exit on the 605, the marvelous 1950s design of the Kater-Crafts building.

It's a local business, has a fast turnaround time (4-6 weeks), and has a really amazing office about a 30 minute drive from campus. (10 West to 605 South, take exit 15 towards Whittier, take a Right on Whittier, a Right on Gregg, and Kater-Crafts is at 4860 Gregg Road). There are also ways to submit your dissertation to them digitally.

After spending $300 on photocopying my dissertation at Kinko's, I might as well have bound the thing in dollar bills!

I went on a little field trip to Kater-Crafts this week and fell in love with their custom book displays:

I don't know what a Whiskey Bible is, but after a year of dissertating, I think I need one.

They also do custom faux-book fronts for cabinets and shelving, which is way cool:

With the 100+ Honnold library books all over my workspace, my apartment almost already looks like this...

Walking around their front office reminded me of how very much I love books. Which is a rare feeling, after having felt completely overwhelmed by books for the past year. Maybe that is a side effect of finishing the dissertation... remembering the things you loved that got you started on this crazy process to begin with.

Oh yes. If *only* my dissertation were titled "Crawly Things From the Deep"

I wish I could say that I had my dissertation bound in something truly awesome and weird, but alas, I just went with the standard library binding, in deep blue Buckram, with gold foil lettering.

Speaking of weird....Darwin's Origin of Species bound in (I hope faux) monkey fur

The Tournament of Roses bound in football leather

I also ordered a copy for the Writing Center, so future CGU dissertators can take a peek at a sample.

So there you have it! Contact Kater-Crafts for pricing info. My dissertation, at 377 pages, only cost $25 to be bound. I also sprung an extra $11 for the gold lettering of the title to appear on the front cover as well as the spine. One copy will be going to the Writing Center, so stop by and check it out!

Best edition of Leaves of Grass ever?