There is a well-known curse, "may you live in interesting times". For the rare book world, times have seldom been more interesting (and here I speak only of the book trade, though the worlds of librarians, archivists, curators, etc have been similarly afflicted). The book trade has seen the death of book arbitrage, regional scarcity, and several of our beloved journals/institutions...we have seen a radical shift in the previously rather caste system of dealers and the emergence of a vast class of hobbyist "dealers"...we are in the midst of a radical shift from how the trade used to function to a newer-if not better, different-state of being (e.g. open shops dropping off droves, print catalogues becoming less common, the emergence of other venues for data transfer, etc).
By: LuxMentis,
on 5/7/2009
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There is an outstanding new reference/resource blog for bibliophiles: The Private Library. The site's owner is a longtime collector ("overly enthusiastic book collector"), a sometime antiquarian bookseller and a professional librarian (with a MLS w/ a Specialization in Rare Books & Manuscripts)...that is, he is a high-order book geek, to our great benefit.
His posts are well written, cogent, reasonably frequent and genuinely useful (as opposed to my random and often off-topic rants). He posts, as the title implies, on various aspects of the private library...all sorts, all levels and all nuances. As one who spends most of my time in and around collection development projects, it is a great treat to find.
Best of all, however, are the resources he has pulled together. At either side you will find:
GLOSSARIES OF GENERAL BOOK TERMSIt is, far and away, one of the best reference sites I know of and has leapt to the top of my "Hit Every Day" blogs. Enjoy.
GLOSSARIES OF SPECIALIZED BOOK TERMS
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES
BOOKISH ORGANIZATIONS
BOOKISH PODCASTS & WEBCASTS
BOOKISH BLOGROLL
STATE CENTERS FOR THE BOOK
By: LuxMentis,
on 9/14/2008
Blog: Lux Mentis, Lux Orbis (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Among the things I have not had time to properly blog about is this year's slate of winners of the Fine Books and Collections Collegiate Book Collecting Championship. There was a great turnout this year and, as I understand it, the strongest field they've seen. After much deliberation, the winners are:
1st Prize goes to Rhae Lynn Barnes, who is beginning her senior year at UC Berkeley, for her extensive and well-annotated collection of blackface minstrel plays.
2nd Prize goes to Basie Bales Gitlin, who is beginning his junior year at Yale, for his collection of publisher's canvassing books.
3rd Prize goes to Jacob Brunkard, a recent graduate from Swarthmore College, for his collection of Black Sparrow Press.
Fine Books will also make a donation to the libraries of the winners, in addition to the winners' awards.
Much praise is due the competition judges: Claudia Skelton, from the Book Club of Washington; bookseller Joachim Koch, of Books Tell You Why; and Richard Ring, the special collections librarian at the Providence Public Library.
We (Lux Mentis, et al) are very pleased to be sponsors of the competition and look forward to supporting it for years to come. As I have said before, the burden is on us...all "younger" dealers...to do all that we can to bring along the next generation(s) of book collectors. This competition and all those at the college level are a great starting point.
Congradulations to all the winners. We look forward to meeting all the winners at the awards dinner during the Seattle Book Fair.