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Protecting unfinished pencil art?

I'm between quarters at school, and I've set myself a goal of filling at least one sketchbook during the break.

The problem, though, is that now that I'm carrying my sketchbook everywhere, the constant jostling is causing the pages to become badly smudged (especially now that I'm using softer leads than just a #2 pencil).

I have a can of fixative, but since these are unfinished sketches I don't want to use that. I've tried taping parchment over the pages; that helps, but is cumbersome, and sometimes the tape damages the pages.

Any suggestions?

What type of sketch book do you use? I have a hardcover sketch book which prevents the pages from shifting, but the graphite will still smear while I'm working on it. I don't have any experience with a spiral bound sketch book, but I can see the pages shifting often in one of those, causing the graphite to smear.

I usually use ballpoint pen to sketch: it's still possible to lightly shade areas in, it doesn't smear, I can't erase anything so my sketches are more spontaneous and raw—which is good for the design process, and it also trains me to be more confident with my marks and to be more precise. If not for the fact that pen doesn't smear, I'd suggest sketching with a pen just for the other reasons alone.

Another possible option is to use black Prismacolor pencils instead of graphite ones. Those won't smear either, but if you have an electric eraser you should be able to erase the marks. It may need to be on a tougher paper though. I heard about the Prismacolor trick from a story board artist and I can't remember what paper he used. So I'd try it out first.

Either way, it's a sketchbook. You shouldn't really be worrying about erasing anything.

At first I was about to say use hairspray, but that also goes along the line of a fixative spray. Although this doesn't exactly work for the sketches you've already done, it will help with future sketches. A harder type lead holds a lot better the softer leads in sketchbooks. Try using a 4h or harder lead. It'll be a lot lighter, but it won't smear as much. Once you're ready to finish up the drawing, use the softer lead to darken the lines you want.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I have two drawing classes in the upcoming quarter, so I need to stick with graphite and charcoal for now. Every sketchbook I have (even the ones with hard covers) is spiralbound. On the smaller ones I've started binding with rubber bands to keep the pages from shifting. Going to need something else for the large ones, though. Maybe binder clips.

One option is Krylon Workable Fixatif (rather than the sealant sort of fixative.) It's a fixative, but it puts down a matte surface that you can draw back over. I work a lot with charcoal on Arches paper, so I'm a fan of this stuff. I'm not sure how it would react on sketchbook paper. It may alter the texture too much if you're working small, but it's somewhat cheap and might be worth a shot.