a plurality of fingers 54 that may on demand be made to project through slots 56 in the book accumulating table 20 and move toward the book accumulator outfeed line 34 the rows of books on the book accumulating table 20 are then each advanced by the rake toward the book accumulator outfeed line 34 in addition the movement of the fingers 54 in the slots 56 causes the row of books nearest the book accumulator outfeed line 34 to be delivered to that line in this connection the operation of the various components of this system is responsive to signals from the central processing unit 36 which makes it possible to accumulate and discharge books from the book accumulating table 20 in a preselected manner so as to accomplish first in first out book accumulation thereby as will now be readily apparent to those skilled in the art with the present invention the book accumulating table 20 essentially provides a buffer between upstream and downstream components which provides another important advantage in that the system disclosed herein is able to accommodate non synchronous operation between the upstream and downstream components by negating the effects of differences in speed therebetween while many details of construction of the binding line.