What is a "Bound" Journal?

Publishers send periodicals to the library in their normal soft-cover format. The library then will store the periodicals on the third floor in their appropriate places (alphabetical order based on their title). Since it is highly likely that frequent use will damage the soft-cover periodicals, approximately every year or so, after several issues have arrived, they are sent to a book bindery, which will place the issues together and bind them with a hard cover, as if they were a book. Usually, the issues are bound together based on their year of publication and/or volume number.