The Department of Office Fastening is the oldest department of the Brennholt Institute of Applied Taxonomy and covers seven families of object: paperclips, staples, spring clips, rubber bands, pins, paper fasteners and tags. Its method is the same on every object, in four steps, and it is the constancy of the method that the Institute offers as its principal contribution.
The Department publishes in millimetres and inches, defers to every existing standard, and proposes a classification only where none has been published.
| Family | Lead page | Standardised? |
|---|---|---|
| Paperclips | Sizes by number | Partly: wire only |
| Staples | Staple sizes explained | Trade conventions only |
| Spring clips | Binder clip sizes | No |
| Rubber bands | Rubber band sizes | Trade numbering |
| Pins | Push pin dimensions | No |
| Paper fasteners | Paper fastener sizes | No |
| Tags | Treasury tag sizes | No |
It does not rank brands, recommend products or give prices. It does not rewrite history: the origin of the paperclip, including the patent of 1867 held by Samuel B. Fay and the contested Norwegian attribution to Johan Vaaler, is reported as the sources give it, on the patent page and the attribution page.
The Department's premise is that a small object produced in very large numbers is usually specified by habit, not by document. A box of 100 clips is sold under a size name that two manufacturers use differently. The Department's contribution is a published measurement that a reader can check against a rule, which is the reason it reports the size of its sample on every page and the reason its tables carry no rounding beyond that of its callipers.
Measurements are taken with digital callipers reading to 0.01 mm. Each dimension is taken at three points and the middle value reported. Weight is taken on a balance reading to 0.001 g. The Department records the temperature of the room, since rubber and plastic objects change dimension measurably across a few degrees. The weight work is set out on the paperclip weight page.
Each family has a lead page, a size chart, and pages on weight, material and use. Related families are linked, since an object in one family is often confused with an object in another. The full register is on the register page, and the criteria for entry are on the admission criteria page.
The Department measures at least 30 objects of each type, drawn from at least two boxes bought from different suppliers, and reports the smallest and largest reading beside the median. Where the spread between boxes exceeds 3 per cent of the stated dimension, it says so in the first paragraph of the page. This is the reason several of its pages decline to give a single figure: a clip sold under one name in two boxes can differ by more than a millimetre, and the Department considers that difference part of the finding, not noise to be removed.
The panel disagrees on whether the Department's scope should be widened to include writing instruments. A minority argue that the pen is a fastener of attention and belongs. The majority hold that it is outside the Department's competence, and an object that is not a fastener cannot be classified by the fastener method. The scope stands as above.