Early Years / Start of Prebinding / Binding Standards / Second Generation / End of Rebinding / Growth of School Libraries / Turn of the Century

Second Generation

In 1931 New Method added on to the building on Kosciusko and the company employed 250 people. Robert F. Sibert (1915-1998), Lawrence and Jessie Sibert’s only child, began working at the bindery while in high school and joined the company fulltime after graduating from Illinois College in 1936. He became company treasurer after William Suhy retired in 1937 and he also spent quite a bit of time on the road making sales calls. In 1941 Robert Sibert left New Method and joined the U.S. Army for the duration of World War II. He returned to the bindery after the war and, while attending the Louisiana Library Association conference in 1946, he met Jessica Boatner, also a World War II veteran and a librarian at the Vermilion Parish Library. They were married later in 1946.