Bookmark Collector

In the course of producing my weekly Bookmark Bookmarks survey, I’m often trying to come up with a descriptive name for a bookmark pictured in a post. I’m interested in finding out what names we are all using out there (or names that we’re avoiding). I recently had the pleasure of asking a couple of collectors “what do YOU call this type of boomark” and finding a new name that just tickled me.

Here are some fairly common types and the names I’ve found for them so far:

Flat Bookmark

The basic flat describes the vast majority of free, give-away, promotional bookmarks. It’s intended to be used by just sticking it between the pages of a book, perhaps sticking out a bit from the top. In addition to the paper give-away, the flat form can be found in all materials: leather, wood, metal, plastic, and fabric. It may be printed, carved, sewn, hammered, painted, knitted, tatted, burned, cast, or any other form of fabrication and surface decoration.

Oddly, despite its popularity (or maybe because of its popularity) I haven’t seen that many names for this type of bookmark. If there’s no adjective associated with the word bookmark, we just assume that its a flat.

Ribbon Bookmark

Silk ribbons are some of the oldest bookmarks, used since the sixteenth century.

Ribbon bookmark is the only term I’ve ever used for this style, although in many ways they are similar to a book thong. The distinguishing characteristics are that it’s constructed from a ribbon rather than a cord, and there’s no more than a single bangle attached at one end of the ribbon. Once there’s a bangle on both ends, we are in book thong territory.

Another unique attribute is that this type is often built into books. Many a bible or technical reference has had a ribbon sewn into its spine or cover because it is so useful.

Book Thong

I’ve seen the term book thong used more and more often recently.

Similar to the ribbon bookmark, the thong has some sort of bauble attached at both ends of a cord which are meant to hang out of the top and bottom of a book.

Hookmark

The hookmark, or hook bookmark, is a new term to me. It’s also the term that motivated this post. I’ve seen the term shepherd’s hook also used for this style.

The hookmark has the figurative element (which is attached to the end of the hook) hang over the spine of the book. The figurative element is either a fixed sculptural piece or a dangling bauble.

Clipmark

The clipmark, or clip bookmark, has some form of clip that fastens onto the page being marked. The clip may be a paperclip or a pattern cut from metal, plastic, or wood that serves as a clip.

The clipmark presses the page between an inner loop of material and an outer loop, often leaving an embossed impression on the page.

Slit Bookmark

The slit bookmark is different from the clipmark in that the slit fits over a page, pinching it between the two flat portions of the mark.

I’ve seen this type of bookmark also described as a clipmark, obviously confusing it with the previous style of bookmark. I think these two styles are very different and need unique names, and I’d love to learn a better, more distinctive set of terms.

Cornermark

The idea behind using a cornermark is that it can be slipped over the corner of your current page in a book. Shown here are a metal bookmark and a leather bookmark, but paper and other materials are also used in this form.

Spring Bookmark

There are a lot of variations on the spring type of bookmark. The one shown here (which is my favorite bookmark to use) clips to the back cover of a book, and the spring arm clips against the page that’s currently being saved.

Due to the structural requirements for the bookmark to function properly, this style is typically made of metal.

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Leave a comment with your favorite names, below. Even if you’re just affirming the names I’ve listed here, I’d like to know how commonly they are being used, so feel free to add a comment that just says “ditto”.

And if you object to certain names, I’d like to hear that also. I indirectly heard something about book thong being an embarrassing term, so if there’s strong opposition to it, we can certainly come up with a different one.

This was a fairly ad hoc list, so I’m sure I missed some categories. And I’ll bet we can pretty quickly get into a broad set of sub-categories and exceptional cases. Please share any additional categories or interesting sub-divisions that you’ve identified or feel should be highlighted.

I think this could lead us to an interesting Bookmark Taxonomy.