Labeling Spiral Journals and Sketchbooks

It used to be all I ever worked in were spiral sketchbooks/journals (once I stepped away from single sheets and placing in Itoya presentation folders).  Then I was introduced to the hard bound journals like Stillman and Birn or even hand-sewn journals we can make.

I kept going back and forth as to which I prefer and I'm at a point now that it's a true toss up.  Sometimes spirals can be difficult to lay completely flat for scanning but then I've also had problems with hard bounds as well.

Some people feel you can't work a two-page spread but I have and to me looks fine even with the spiral in between the pages.

What I determined was the biggest positive for hard bounds was the fact you had a spine you could write contents on so you could see at a glance on a book shelf what they contained (time period covered, subject, etc.). 

I like spirals because they are often lighter in weight.  Mentally they also give me permission to not treat the journal as some priceless book I can't use for fear of messing up the pages.  If a page is that poorly messed up, you can tear it out without leaving any trace you've done that........lol.

The problem is, of course, with a bookshelf of spirals, you have to take them all down just to flip open to see what's in them or you pull off the shelf to see what you might have written on the front cover.  If you have several (like I do), that can be horribly time consuming.

Here's my solution to that :-)  You can use the round key ring labels but I used what I have on hand and to me these work out beautifully.  And you can color code if you wish depending on brand or type of journals you're using.  Or color code by subject, etc.


Couple other ideas:

One friend of mine takes stiff paper (watercolor paper as an example) and wraps it around folding the ends inside front and back cover.  That creates a spine you can write the contents on.  Unfortunately, I don't have paper laying around that I could use for that or large enough for some of my spirals.

I've also tried sticking a pen through in between the spirals and trying to write on the edge of the pages with very little luck.