Of Rare Books, Emerging Technology, and Social Networking...

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).

At the same time, there are some really interesting elements emerging. As we seem to be losing one of the *critical* venues for the transfer of bibliophilic passion...the open shop...other venues finally seem to be emerging. The lose of the open shop has been worrying me a great deal for, as one who hopes to be wandering the stacks for many decades, I've been worried where the next generation (or two...or three) will be bitten by the biblio-bug. The primary petri dish has historically been open shops...you could go and hang out...handle books...talk with the owner(s) and similarly afflicted. You had a place you could *be* where you could handle books, listen, and learn. The loss of open shops has meant, in a real way, the loss of one of the primary gateway drugs that hook those so inclined and lead to more sophisticated distractions.

We are finally beginning to see some interesting and potentially important alternatives. As social networking sites have come into their own, we are seeing vibrant bibliophilic communities emerge. Facebook has dozens and dozen of Pages and Groups dedicated to authors, specific books, broad genres, periods, booksellers, printing, binding, etc. (Lux Mentis can be found here). Twitter has vibrant communities of librarians, booksellers, book lovers and, well, any number of other interest areas (Lux Mentis can be found here). Even "business networking" focused LinkedIn has interesting bibliophilic groups emerging (I can be found here). There is also the rather brilliant LibraryThing, a social networking site for booklovers where, among other things, you can post your collections, find others with similar interests and engage in any number of other distractions (I can be found here).

As one who spends a lot of time thinking about and exploring how to find/reach/engage the next generation of collector, I've spent a lot of time exploring these venues and am beginning to be pleased with what I'm finding. I've had dozens of "first contacts" by young (in the collecting arch, if not chronologically) collectors, asking interesting, engaged and/or curiosity questions and established collectors/clients tell me how much they enjoy the sense of community and ease of contact.

Several years ago, I had the pleasure of leveraging modern technology in an interesting way in the sale of a collection of Sommerset Maughan photographs. Not long ago, I'd have had to pack them off to the California dealer who I knew had a sophisticated collector of such material and then wait for him to be available and view the collection. Instead, she and I had an iSight based video conference...I held up each of the 110 photos, she did a screen capture of each one and threw them up on a unique webpage of thumbnail images. She then emailed her client a note saying she had something she thought he'd find interesting with the link to the page. He viewed it and responded very quickly that he wanted it all. From start to finish, it was about 24 hours...a wonderful improvement over the weeks or months it might have taken not that long ago.

Much more recently, I received a Twitter "Direct Message" (a message to a specific recipient that others can not see, as opposed to the norm that can be seen by the world). It was from someone I had never met, but "Followed" on Twitter as he did me (me, because he was clever, witty and posted consistently interesting things; he, because he clearly had too much time on his hands). It turns out he is a lit scholar and an extremely interesting gentleman. It also turned out he was assisting in placing a remarkable "lost" archive of the personal papers and manuscripts of Montague Summers (the full story has recently been published in the Antigonish Review). His DM, completely out of the blue, was to ask if I might be able to assist in placing the collection. One thing led to another, and I am very pleased to say that the archive is currently with me, being catalogued and prepared for, most likely, institutional placement.

While the scope and significance of the Summers collection is wonderful and far and away the important element of the transaction...the fact that I would *never* have had it *except* for Twitter is, I think, a fascinating element. It is a sign that new meeting places are beginning to gel and evolve into important forums for the trade (as seller, collector and/or dealer). The key, of course, is that it is not enough to simply hang a virtual sign...the onus is on you (collector or dealer) to connect. To talk. To post. To engage.

Interesting times, indeed.

The Private Library - A great new blog on the block...

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 TERMS
GLOSSARIES OF SPECIALIZED BOOK TERMS
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES
BOOKISH ORGANIZATIONS
BOOKISH PODCASTS & WEBCASTS
BOOKISH BLOGROLL
STATE CENTERS FOR THE BOOK

It 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.

Fine Books announces 2008 Collegiate Book Collecting Champions

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.