About Those Blue Book Donation Boxes

Photo by Joseph Lyon / Kitsap Sun

Have you seen those blue book donation boxes that seem to be popping up everywhere? Ever wonder what the deal is?

Well, here's how it works:

The boxes are are owned and operated by Thrift Recycling Managment (TRM), a for-profit company. This alone should bring into question the 'Books For Charity' mantra emblazoned on the front and sides of each box.

To date, about 15,000 boxes have been placed around the country.

51% of books donated end up being pulped. Think revenue stream.

25% go to non-profit organizations committed to various literacy and book-related causes with only a tiny fraction of those books ever making it back to the community they came from.

TRM keeps the remaining books to sell. They claim to be "the largest seller of used books on the Internet," In that process, they have become one of the most prolific penny-sellers in the online marketplace. Part of their mission is "to reduce the cycle of poverty by providing access to books to those in need." Unfortunately, they are also increasing the cycle of poverty for many traditional booksellers by sucking the value out of much their inventory.

And it is not only the booksellers that are suffering from this new disruptive model.

Derek Sheppard's piece in the Kitsap Sun, Donated Books Becoming a Sought-After Commodity — Perhaps Too Much So?, looks at how these boxes have also been affecting the Friends of the Library book sale in Poulsbo, WA.

Maybe the boxes should be painted red.

Victor Hugo To Congress: Confirm Sotomayor!

Victor Hugo (1802-1885), the celebrated author of Les Misérables, rose from the dead this morning to throw his tricorne into the ring and proclaim his endorsement of Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court Justice of the United States.

“If you loved Les Miz, there is only one way for the Senate to vote,” he averred. “You gotta go with Sonia. Otherwise, cognitive dissonance, hypocrisie!"

“Those who know my Les Misérables only as staged musical schmaltz herring may be surprised to learn that the actual novel, a two-ton tome upon which I rest my head in Tempur-Pedic eternity, is a vigorous plea for the E word, empathy, a neutral noun now in crisis; who ever imagined that it could be transmogrified into something sinister?”

The novelist was clearly on a roll; I dared not interrupt. Rising further from the dead to full stature, he continued:

“Les Misérables is, further and most importantly, my answer (and I'm sticking to it) to the moral Absolutism of Immanuel Kant which, in sum, is: Right is Right, Wrong is Wrong, the Law is All, end of story. If you feel you’ve been victimized, that’s all you want to know. But if you’re on the other side of the case, you may want a little understanding of the context, if not forgiveness. Moral absolutism is generally associated with religion but in its socio-political context extends far beyond theology into everyday justice and fairness; there is a human dimension to the law, often and unfortunately overlooked by those who demand an impossible degree of objectivity in jurisprudence. The law is not, first and foremost, about legal process divorced from human action but rather about human fallibility and frailty and its civil redress for society and the individual.”

Hugo, breathless after a hundred and twenty-four years of dead silence, sat down and asked for a glass of wine. “And no vin du pays, either,” he insisted. “I may be of the people but I draw the line at drinking cheap peasant wine; life’s too short. A sturdy yet delicate Châteauneuf-du-Pape would be nice.”

He had to settle for Two-Buck Chuck; who did he think I was, Robert Parker? He winced. He drank.

Ten minutes and a liter and a half later, Hugo’s hootched to the gills. His tongue was too marinated for coherency but this was the gist of the verbal marbles in his mouth:

So, if you cheered for Jean Valjean and booed at Javert, there is only one choice for the Senate: confirm Sonia Sotomayor, who appears to have thus far wisely and successfully walked the tighrope between statute and the individual during her career, balancing the rock of the law with the glorious mush of human existence.

Vic – we were bosom buddies by now – roused from his stupor for a final comment uniting philosophy and phallic itch as only the French can.

“Sonia, ma cher chaude, ma sorte de fille,” he leered. “My kinda gal.”

_____

The true first edition of Les Misérables appeared in Brussels, published by A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven & Ce, in 1862 in five parts within ten octavo volumes.

ABC's of Book Collecting : Aldus, Aldine

ALDUS, ALDINE


The great Venetian printer Aldus Manutius (Aldo Manuzio,
1452–1515) initiated the printing of the Greek classics and the series of
pocket-classics, for which he is chiefly famous. His device of a
dolphin and anchor was widely imitated, not least by William
Pickering in the 19th century, together with the title Aldine Classics for
his similar series of the major authors of English literature.


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Carter, John & Nicolas Barker
ABC's of Book Collecting. 8th Edition
New Castle, Delaware : Oak Knoll Press, 2004

Buy a copy

ABC's of Book Collecting : À La Grecque, Alla Greca

À LA GRECQUE, ALLA GRECA

A style of binding with thick boards, grooved on the edges and flush with the trimmed leaves of the book, the tail- and headbands therefore protruding above and below the boards. These bands, sewn deep into the quires of the book, are an important part of its structure, in which sewing bands, if present, do not carry the weight of the covers. The clasps are usually of plaited strands of leather, ending in a ring fitting over a pin protruding from the edge of the opposite board. This distinctive style, employed in Greece during the Middle Ages and after, usually in monastic or religious foundations, was also imitated, generally for fine bindings for identifiable collectors, on Greek printed books, during the 16th century. Books thus bound sit uneasily on shelves: they were originally designed to be kept in chests (see bookshelves), fore-edge down, and lifted out by the head- and tailbands.

Previous ABC's of Book Collecting posts














Carter, John & Nicolas Barker
ABC's of Book Collecting. 8th Edition
New Castle, Delaware : Oak Knoll Press, 2004

Buy a copy

"Colorful Fortune" : The First Book of Poetry by Composer Harold Budd

Emerging in the 1960s from the American minimalist movement inspired by John Cage and Morton Feldman, Harold Budd has become one of the country's most prolific, consistent and influential composers and musicians. Throughout his career, poetry - or what Harold refers to as "something like poetry, but not the same thing" - has been an occasional companion to his music. His "something-like poetry" now takes center stage in Colorful Fortune, the first published collection of Harold's poems, issued in both paperback and a deluxe, hand-bound and signed editions.

The first half of Colorful Fortune presents the debut of an extended cycle in 18-parts titled 'Poem Sketches 2007-2008.' The second half presents 11 poems which first appeared on three of his albums from the 1990s: By Dawn's Early Light, She is a Phantom, and Glyph. The book also includes 14 original drawings by Harold, inspired by the music of Monteverdi and Tristano. The drawings are variations on a theme that could be described as a visual expression of his music: a string, or line, or thread, that travels, meandering across a page, entering at one point and departing at another.

Colorful Fortune is being issued in two editions: a limited-edition of 50 copies co-published by Heavenly Monkey Editions and MoonLiner Books, signed by Harold and hand-bound by Keith Lowe; and a trade paperback published by MoonLiner Books. Harold's "arabesque" drawings are incorporated throughout the text, in some cases entering and exiting from the edges of pages, printed a light gray that reproduces the graphite originals. Both editions were printed letterpress in three colors by David Clifford at Black Stone Press in Vancouver, B.C. using a vintage German Heidelberg windmill press. The limited edition was printed on special Rives printmaking paper from France, and then hand-sewn and bound into a translucent paper vellum binding. This binding was done by musician Keith Lowe, and marks the debut of his new imprint MoonLiner Books. (Ten of the fifty copies will be bound by renowned book artist Claudia Cohen, and include one of the original drawings reproduced in the book.)

click to enlarge

THE LIMITED EDITION

The limited edition of Colorful Fortune was printed on Rives Lightweight, a classic French mouldmade paper. Each of the 50 copies will be signed and numbered by Harold, and separated into two issue states.

Copies 11 - 50 form the Press state. These are hand-bound in limp paper vellum by Keith Lowe, based on the traditional limp vellum binding used for books throughout the Renaissance. The vellum paper was specially made for the project by papermaker Reg Lissel. Made from abaca fiber, it is a tremendously tough, with a feel remarkably like vellum. It is also semi-translucent, a characteristic exploited in the design: the case is lined with a sheet printed with the title and one of the drawings. The printed text sheets are folded into three signatures and hand-sewn by Keith on to paper vellum supports; the spine is lightly pasted and lined with gampi; and the book is then pasted into the paper vellum cover. $325

Release date June 12, 2009. To reserve a copy(s) of the Limted Edition please click HERE

TRADE PAPERBACK EDITION

The trade paperback edition total of 200 copies, printed from the same setting as the limited edition on Mohawk Superfine acid-free paper. The book is Smythe sewn and put into a stiff paper wrap printed in two colors (black and silver). Except for the paper and binding, it is identical in content to the limited edition. The paperback will be released on June 11th, coinciding with a rare performance by Budd (accompanied by Keith Lowe) in Seattle. A book signing will be held the following day at Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers, the exclusive distributors of the paperback edition of Colorful Fortune. The debut publication from Seattle's MoonLiner Books. $35

Release date June 12, 2009. To reserve a copy(s) of the Trade Edition please click HERE

”A Proud Non-Reader of Books”

If you, like me, hang on the words of celebrities, completely dependent upon the wisdom of our betters for guidance in matters of life and love, then the gold that fell from the mouth of Grammy Award-winner, Kanye West, the other day was bling to the ears of those of us who have struggled daily with the imperative to Read or Die.

"Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed," West said. "I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book's autograph.

"I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life," he said.

I winced at his last statement with the decades-old lingering suspicion that as an avid reader I have, indeed, not been “living real life.”

Yet what a relief to learn that it has all been unnecessary, that I can deep-six my reading glasses, leave books behind, and scamper at play in uncultivated sylvan fields.

Further, as one who enjoys scratching paper with a pen, I can now forget about reading as a means of learning to write.

Though it’s unlikely he’ll actually read it, Mr. West has written a book. He is the co-author of "Thank You And You're Welcome."

The volume is an in-the-backpack-sciatica-inducing fifty-two page tome with blank leaves (the ellipses of profound thoughts), and other leaves representing the foliage of his sunny psychotic optimistic philosophy of life. One two-page section, with plenty of blank space to provide intellectual context, reads, "Life is 5% what happens and 95% how you react!" Another page reads "I hate the word hate!" The weight of tautological guilt he bears must be a crushing burden.

"This is a collection of thoughts and theories," West, 31, said in an interview about his spiral-bound volume, which was written with J. Sakiya Sandifer.

West added that he put his thoughts in a book because "I get paraphrased and misquoted all the time." He calls his wisdom "Kanye-isms."

"My favorite one is 'Get used to being used,'" he said. “If you can’t be used, you’re useless." The wisdom of angels. Next stop, Oprah.

West, a college dropout, said being a non-reader was an advantage when he wrote his book because it gave him "a childlike purity."

Ignorance has never sounded so appealing.

Beyond the obvious, what is most disturbing about the music star’s statements is that there are many of his fans who will take his words to heart.

There is a serious disconnect at work here. Studies have shown over and over that a rich intellectual environment and being read to as a child fosters a child’s interest in books and reading.

West dedicated the book to his late mother, a university English professor before she retired to manage his music career, which begs the question, what was she reading to him?

ABC's of Book Collecting : Advertisements

ADVERTISEMENTS

These have engendered as much heat and argument as any factor in
book-collecting. It is first necessary to distinguish between:

(a) Leaves of advertisement, usually, though not necessarily,
the publisher’s, which are integral to the gathering (or quire or section), i.e. printed in the same operation with, and on the same
paper as, and gathered for binding with, the sheets of the book
itself;

(b) Leaves of advertisement – publisher’s, wholesaler’s, distributor’s,
or other – printed separately from the book and often on
different paper, seldom peculiar to it, but bound up with all, or
some, recorded copies.

The former date from the 16th century and were common in
English books of the 17th and 18th. Their absence (discarded in
binding or torn out later) incommodes the reader no more than the
absence of a blank leaf or a half-title; for the text is not affected.
But they may be bibliographically significant, and since, even if they
are not, they are an integral part of the book, as intended by its publisher
and executed by its printer, a copy cannot be considered as
technically complete without them. It is worth noticing the practice,
normal in the hand-press era, of printing extra copies of the titleleaf
only to serve as advertisements in booksellers’ shops; few such
ephemera survive.

Inserted leaves of advertisements, usually in the form of publishers’
lists or catalogues, are uncommon before the end of the 18th century,
common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and considerably less
common since 1915. Being wholesale appendages, they belong to
the age of edition-binding, whether in boards, wrappers or cloth.
The normal practice would be for a publisher (or before the 1840s the
wholesale distributor, who might not be the publisher) to provide his
binder with a supply of some current list, with instructions to insert it
either in specified books or in all his books as they came forward for
binding. If the binder had no supply when he was ready to start, he
would probably go ahead without; if the supply ran out, he would not
wait for more, but would simply continue without the catalogue; or if
he had a pile of an earlier list from the same publisher, he might use
these up without regard to their being out of date. The hazards and
permutations were as numerous as their results are often unaccountable.
Moreover, others besides the publisher whose name is on the
title-page may in certain cases have been responsible for the wholesale
binding, whether in boards, half cloth or (less often) cloth, of a part of
the edition. A wholesaler for the provincial trade, an exporter to the
colonial market, an Edinburgh or Dublin agent, a jobbing publisher
who had bought a ‘remainder’ of the edition – any of these might buy in quires, order his own binding, and insert his own catalogue (see
wholesaler’s binding, remainder binding).

And if anyone wants to see how often such alien catalogues are found in primary bindings,
especially of the boards period, he need only look through Michael
Sadleir’s XIX Century Fiction, where he will find dozens of examples.
As it has been a common practice since the early 19th century for
such publishers’ catalogues to be dated, their evidence in assessing
priority between two observed variants of a book is sometimes useful.
(It is obvious, for example, that copies of Trollope ’s The Warden 1855
with an 1858 catalogue cannot have been among the earliest issued.)
But it is evidence which must be used with great caution; and the classification
of one copy of a book as preceding another because, though
otherwise identical, its inserted catalogue is dated a month earlier than
that found in the other, is no more valid, without strong support from
other arguments, than the proposition that a third copy is incomplete
without any advertisements at all. An excellent example of a misleading
sequence of advertisements is Wells’s Tono Bungay 1909, which is
neatly dissected in Muir’s Points, pp. 23, 24. And if the collector insists
on having the publisher’s catalogue in his copy of Maugham’s Of
Human Bondage 1915, despite its absence from many demonstrably
early-issued copies, he should remember that the same catalogue was
used in half a dozen other Heinemann books published in the same
season but less esteemed today, and look carefully to see whether a
copy of one of these has not been deflowered to make him happy.
Books issued in parts present a special problem. For, casual as
edition-binders will often have been about inserting catalogues in
cloth books, the assembly line for a popular mid-19th century part-issue
must have been a nightmare, which experience suggests was only made
sufferable to its operatives by an attitude so easy-going as to have
amounted sometimes to levity.

Cataloguers and bibliographers (see, for instance, Hatton & Cleaver’s Bibliography of Dickens’s Novels issued in Parts) have scrupulously noted every conformity to, or departure from,
the complement of variegated slips, sheets, inserts and the like, which
has been accepted as the norm for any individual part in, say, Ask
Mamma or David Copperfield. But how is the norm to be arrived at? The
specialists have not always realised that the rarer the slip the less reason
to suppose it a genuinely requisite component – and parts are made-up
more freely, and with wider approval, than any other class of book.

A part-issue publisher would often farm out the contract for x thousand
insertions, probably through an agent, to advertisers of mackintoshes
and hair lotions, and the liability to confusion, casualness, shortages and
mishaps in delivery from a dozen jobbing printers to the bindery multiplies a hundredfold the difficulty of establishing with confidence, a century later, the basic constituents. Which slips were, and which were not, included in the earliest, or even the large majority of the copies of
some particular part, and with what degree of whose authority?
Part-issue collecting has its own special fascination, and its own
rules (more of them made by enthusiasts than by rationalists). The
general collector who wants a book in parts can either enter into
the spirit of the thing and insist on a set with the sprig of heather or
the bicycle clip in Part 19; or he can accept the more relaxed attitude
which has gained a good deal of ground in the last 65 years – that provided
you have correct text, plates and wrappers, plus perhaps any
publisher’s catalogue which ran steadily throughout the issue, the
miscellaneous extras are optional rather than essential. They certainly
had nothing to do with the author and, unlike the advertisements in
cloth-bound books, they had very little to do even with the
publisher, except as a source of revenue. It has to be admitted,
however, that many of them are uncommonly entertaining.


Previous ABC's of Book Collecting posts














Carter, John & Nicolas Barker
ABC's of Book Collecting. 8th Edition
New Castle, Delaware : Oak Knoll Press, 2004

Buy a copy

Note To Novel Readers: “If Any Harm Results, Stop At Once!”

It is generally assumed that the Culture Wars in the United States began in the Sixties. They did. In the 1860s.

"Licentious literature, which under cunning disguise or with fearless effrontery, circulates among us, defying all decency, sapping the morals of all classes, is doing Satan's work with most mischievous energy. That obscene books and prints are published, imported, and sold in our cities and through the country, is a fact which we are all familiar with…it is easy to estimate their evil potency…Bishop Bayley, in a late charge, gave very timely warning of this important theme. He well says: 'If we are bound by every principle of our religion to avoid bad company, we are equally bound to avoid bad books - for of all evil, corrupting company, the worst is a bad book. There can be no doubt that the most pernicious influences at work in the world at this moment come from bad books and bad newspapers. The yellow-covered literature, as it is called, is a pestilence compared with yellow fever and cholera and smallpox are as nothing, and yet there is no quarantine against it. Never take a book in your hands which you would not be seen reading. Avoid not only all notoriously immoral books and papers; but avoid also all those miserable sensational magazines and novels and illustrated papers which are so profusely scattered around on every side. The demand which exists for such garbage speaks badly for the moral sense and intellectual training of those who read them'

"… Startling disclosures have been recently made in New York. A gentleman of the city [probably New York Society for the Prevention of Vice founder Anthony Comstock] became apprised of the fact that systematic agencies were at work for the circulation of lascivious books and pictures…the business was large, many men and women engaged in it…The extent to which the press is used in the publication of romance and fiction, and of books which, if they do not corrupt the heart, do little but to dwarf the mind and give perverted and false views of life - of its duties and responsibilities, transcends any means at our command to ascertain…In nothing perhaps is the taste of our people so lamentably demoralized as in respect to our reading matter…Similar remarks will probably appear not the less just if applied to general literature. Of two thousand writers in our land, one-half are writers of fiction - a large proportion, indeed, devote themselves to the mere amusement of a people. For most of these writers aim at nothing higher - any many of them aim at something vastly lower. They make a well-told story a decoy to inoculate a large mass of mind with a moral poison more fatal than death."

The preceding screed is found in a giant economy-size box of moral detergent in book form, The God of This World; The Footprints of Satan by Rev. Hollis Read - amongst the many Jerry Falwell/Pat Robertson-types of bygone days - one of 1872's great works of uplifting social commentary. (We are pleased to learn that women in 1872 were a) working, and b) working in the porn trade). But don't think for a minute that smut via Satan is the root of all evil. The Right Rev. Read continues:

"Perhaps yet the more dangerous prostitution of the press is met in those sly, insidious characteristically satanic productions which under the guise of Liberalism sap the foundations of evangelical religion" (Read, Rev. Hollis. The God of this World: The Footprints of Satan, Toronto, Maclear, 1875, pp 195, 280-283, (first Canadian edition). First edition, NY, 1872).

The "satanic" publications of Liberal Progressivism were certainly calling into question bedrock assumptions about social and moral rights and wrongs but the activities of the Free Love communes of the period, such as Oneida in New York, went beyond questions, they TNT'd the bedrock long before the sexual "revolution" of the 1960s.

The entertainment business was also lending a nefarious hand to Satan in his quest to debase American culture. Former actress turned woman's rights lecturer Olive Logan, in her 1869 book Apropos Of Women And Theatres (NY, Carlton, 1869) devotes two chapters to decrying the "coarse rage which [has] spread in our theatres, until it [has] come to be a ruling force in them," to wit: About The Leg Business, detailing the exposure of women's legs on the boards, and About Nudity In The Theatre, discussing the post-Civil War phenomenon of women appearing onstage scantily clad. (Interestingly, Logan makes one of the first references in a general circulation book to "a new theatrical term in use among 'professionals' which embraces all sorts of performances in its comprehensiveness, to wit: The Show Business.").

The Women's Rights movement in 19th century America was, suffice it to say, largely infused with a strong streak of Victorianism. Fortunately, not all of Logan's sisters in the struggle were as puritanical as she was. Logan was attacked in the Press, by fellow professionals in "The Show Business," and by many sisters in the Feminist movement for her moral rigor at the expense of increased employment, opportunity and independence for women.

Here's a bit of vintage literary criticism found in a description from the table of contents of 1869's Popular Amusements by Rev. J.T. Crane (Cincinnati, Hitchcock and Walden, 1869):

.

CHAPTER VIII
Novels and Novel-Reading

Definition of a Novel - A Vice of the Age - FOUR MAXIMS:
1. No Fiction if Little Leisure
2. Only the Best
3. Fiction to be but Small Part
4. If any Harm results, Stop at Once!

SEVEN REASONS AGAINST COMMON NOVEL-READING:
1. Wastes Time
2. Injures the Intellect
3. Unfits for Real Life
4. Creates Overgrowth of the Passions
5. Produces Mental Intoxication
6. Lessens the Horror of Crime and Wrong
7. Wars with all Piety, Disciplinary Rule.

Presumably due to space limitations, Rev. Crane left out "causes dandruff, eczema, psoriasis. halitosis, and the vapors."

If you’re anything like me you know that Rev. Crane's seven dire consequences noted above have proven to be true and that for us there is no salvation. Sic transit gloria liber, friends, and along with novels there goes the parade of us to hell.

Book Patrol Digest : Links From the Week, May 17-23, 2009

Toni Morrison's 'Song of Solomon' removed from high school curriculum in Shelby, MI after after "members of the community objected to its profanity, sexual references and violence."

Romance writer Nora Roberts' opens B&B-style boutique hotel with rooms named after fictional couples

Scribd adds e-book marketplace to combat piracy complaints. 80 percent of revenue to go to publishers

School Library Journal's "Top 100 Picture Books Poll Results"

Supreme Court rejects appeal from John Steinbeck's son over publishing rights.

"Misreading the end of literary culture" Robert McCrum debunks 5 myths.

Forrest Smith pleads guilty to book fraud. Forged authors signatures and sold them on Ebay.

'MillionDollarPoetryBash' Spoonbill & Sugartown holding release party for newly acquired poetry collection.

'Circular Paz '- a look at a set of "extremely rare" visual poetry discs created by Octavio Paz and Artist Vincente Rojo.

"Bound in Chains : Will Seattle University's Independent Bookstore Go Corporate?"

From the archives of Yahoo! Answers "Is it OK to run an illegal library from my locker at school?"

The FBI has Librarians. A interview with FBI Laboratory Supervisory Librarian, Jane Killian.

ABC's of Book Collecting : Advance Copy

ADVANCE COPY

During the last century, publishers extended the practice of circulating advance copies of a new book to reviewers, chosen booksellers, judges of book-clubs, etc., besides those provided to their own travellers ‘subscribing’ it to the trade. Such copies are normally either final proofs or the first sheets to be gathered of the main run. They are often put up in plain or printed wrappers. But they may be bound; and if so the binding may occasionally retain a feature discarded in the
published edition, or lack some final detail, or even be of a different colour or material (see trial binding). Such advance copies as show variations from the published edition, whether of text or binding, are naturally of interest to the keen collector. Even where no variations have yet been noticed, they are by their nature examples of an early state of the printed text (see issues and states), and they may on occasion be useful to the bibliographer confronted with a doubtful point in the published edition. But they do not (as is sometimes suggested) represent a first or early issue in the proper sense of the word; nor can the existence of fifty advance copies of a book prejudice in any way the firstness of the first edition as
issued on the day of publication.

Previous ABC's of Book Collecting posts














Carter, John & Nicolas Barker
ABC's of Book Collecting. 8th Edition
New Castle, Delaware : Oak Knoll Press, 2004

Buy a copy

Alibris Hopes to Expand Distribution Business

Alibris will announce on Tuesday "a new book-fulfillment solution" for booksellers. The new program, called Alibris Distribution Services(ADS), will provide full cataloging and distribution services for booksellers who have "exceeded their operations capacity, have more inventory than they’ll ever catalog, or want to liquidate large amounts of new and used books."

Participating booksellers will receive 70% of the price realized less 99c per item accepted into the program.

Almost sounds to good to be true. Send all that excess inventory to Alibris, let them catalog it and deal with the shipping, warehousing etc. I've rarely meet a bookseller who didn't have space issues.

Here's the catch. It is a similar model to what the notorious "penny sellers" like Better World Books and Thrift Books employ with libraries. ADS will also apply a similar pricing strategy, repricing books daily "according to current market conditions, keeping them competitively priced for sellers and appealing to customers."

Overall, the concept is a good one though in its current form I'm afraid it does more harm than good for the bookselling community at large. Granted their target audience is not the collectible, antiquarian seller but their pricing strategy puts them squarely in the 'race to the bottom' camp which has been plaguing all segments of the bookselling world.

Here is a preview of the upcoming Press Release.

Alibris Introduces Complete Cataloging and Fulfillment Program for Independent Sellers of New and Used Books

Book, music, and movie marketplace offers new service to help online booksellers to list and sell excess book inventory

EMERYVILLE, CA—May 26, 2009—Alibris has launched a new book-fulfillment solution that provides sellers of new and used books with affordable cataloging and fulfillment services. Known as Alibris Distribution Services (ADS), the Alibris program helps booksellers turn inventory into cash. In its first year, ADS has succeeded among participating sellers, who have sent more than one million books through the program.

ADS is a service for independent sellers in the United States who exceed their operations capacity, have more inventory than they’ll ever catalog, or want to liquidate large amounts of new and used books. ADS includes:

· Broadest possible sales exposure. ADS books are listed on Alibris, Alibris U.K., Alibris for Libraries, and business-partner sites such as Amazon sites, Barnes & Noble, Borders, eBay, and Half.com.

· Consignment convenience. Books are shipped to the Alibris distribution center, where they are cataloged and warehoused until they are sold on behalf of participating sellers.

· Affordable fees. As a consignment-based program, Alibris only charges $0.99 for accepted items and pays sellers 70% of the sales price when they are sold.

· No hidden charges. There are no additional processing, fulfillment, storage, or seasonal fees. ADS also covers up to the full shipping cost of moving books from the seller to the Alibris distribution center, depending on shipment size and distance.

· Market-based repricing. Alibris daily reprices books, according to current market conditions, keeping them competitively priced for sellers and appealing to customers.

· Complete customer service. At no additional charge, ADS services all book buyers and process all returned items.

“We think Alibris Distribution Services is a best-of-class solution for sellers with excess inventory,” said Brian Elliott, President and Chief Executive Officer of Alibris. “A wide variety of sellers have tried and incorporated the ADS program into their businesses.” Elliott also summarized the fulfillment service’s assets. “ADS is attractive to sellers because of its operational simplicity, affordable economics, and proven success in turning backlogged inventory into cash.”

Behaving at the Library

The Seattle Public Library wants to get a little clearer about what's cool and what's not when you visit.

Reading the press release one is reminded that today's urban libraries are as much social service centers for their communities as they are breeding grounds for literacy.

Here are few of the proposed rule changes that will be decided on next week:

-Sleeping has always been prohibited but now "appearing to be sleeping" will get you a warning.

-You've never been able to come into the library barefoot. Now they want make sure you don't take your shoes off once your inside.

-Raising the maximum exclusion periods for repeat offenders from one to two years.

-A new rule will also be added addressing the verbal abuse of staff by unruly patrons.

Here's the press release in full:

LIBRARY PROPOSES CHANGES TO RULES OF CONDUCT

The Seattle Public Library regularly reviews its Rules of Conduct to ensure they reflect the Library's needs for effectively managing behavior in its facilities to ensure they are safe, welcoming and clean for all customers and staff.



Changes being proposed include:



· Organizing the list of rules into categories of severity, from behavior that results in a first-time warning (sleeping, being barefoot, unattended items, etc.) to those that result in a one-year exclusion (alleged criminal behavior).



· Clarifying the rule against distributing literature, gathering signatures, soliciting contribution or conducting surveys without Library authorization to specifically include plazas outside library entrances.



· Clarifying the size restrictions for items brought into the library to prohibit bringing in items that occupy floor space in excess of 14"W x17" H x 20." Items are measured in totality. Personal items (purses, laptops, briefcases) are excluded. This change supports the Library's ability to manage crowded spaces and safely evacuate buildings.



· Clarifying the rule related to wheeled devices to allow wheeled luggage that conforms to the size rule for items brought into the Library.



· Clarifying the rule that prohibits entering or being in the Library barefoot, or without a shirt to specify, "or removing one's footwear or shirt while in the Library."



· Clarifying the rule related to sleeping in the library to prohibit "appearing to be sleeping." Initial contact for this rule would be educational.



· Clarifying the rule related to failure to comply with a reasonable staff request with the following wording: Failing to comply with a reasonable staff request to cease behavior that interferes with the effective functioning of the Library.



--more--

· Adding a rule prohibiting verbally intimidating staff, volunteers or other patrons.



· Extending the maximum exclusion period from one year to two years. The maximum length of exclusion for a single incident will remain one year; this change allows the Library to issue a consecutive exclusion to patrons who do not comply during an existing exclusion period.



The Library Board will be considering these proposed policy changes to the Rules of Conduct at its 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 27 at the Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Level 4. The public is welcome to provide comments at the meeting. Comments may also be submitted by e-mail to Marilynne.gardner@spl.org until 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 26. For more information, visit the Library Web site at www.spl.org and select "About the Library," which includes a section on Library policies, or call Marilynne Gardner, chief financial and administrative officer, at 206-233-5109.

******************

With so much of a library's energy being devoted to social service issues perhaps some cash-strapped libraries should be eligible for funding as a social service provider in addition to their normal funding channels.

Image via

ABC's of Book Collecting : Adams

ADAMS

H.M. Adams’s Catalogue of Books printed in the Continent of Europe, 1501‒1600, in Cambridge Libraries 1967, despite its apparently restrictive title, is the most extensive complete available list of 16th-century European books, a fact frequently acknowledged by booksellers with the formula ‘not in Adams’. All 16th-century books cannot, in the nature of things, be at Cambridge, and other catalogues, off- and online, may supplement the record, but that would spoil the story.

Carter, John & Nicolas Barker
ABC's of Book Collecting. 8th Edition
New Castle, Delaware : Oak Knoll Press, 2004

Buy a copy

“The Kindle Is A Dangerous Toy”

Alert the Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection. Call the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Tip-off the DEA. Shut the windows and lock the door.

A Mother’s Day was spoiled by the elves in Lucifer’s Little Toy Shoppe™. Be forewarned - this could happen to you:

“For Mother's Day this year, I told my family, it better be good. Since last Mother's Day, my mothering skills have been put to the highest test.”

So innocently begins the saga of Elizabeth, a writer and rare book dealer in a small town in Georgia. It is, however, a cautionary tale so terrifying in its denouement.

“What I got shocked me,” she continued. “At first, I just stared at it.

“A Kindle.

“Lovely red leather case. Slick, and thin, and well, fascinating. And, I soon learned, dangerous. Very, very dangerous.”

Just how very dangerous?

“Verrrryyy dangerous. For my pocketbook if nothing else. I have already purchased four books and read two of them. Downloaded another two that were free.

“By yesterday, I learned that to save myself from financial ruin, I had to turn off the wireless function. I had to make myself a Kindle budget. I had to stop downloading sample chapters, because that way leads to debtor's prison. I read a book's worth of first chapters on Monday. And I wanted to buy at least half of them.

“And Amazon, not surprisingly, makes it very, very easy to buy the book. Too easy, actually. The buy button is large and prominent on each book page. I already hit it by accident twice, and had to request a refund…

“The Kindle is a dangerous toy…my husband may regret this lovely choice when the credit card bill comes in.”

A mother on the brink. An insidious addiction enabled and fostered by free samples. Children wondering why Mommy is not as attentive as she once was. A marriage threatened. The specter of debtor’s prison hanging over her like a sword of Damocles. Substitute Dr. Locock’s Female Wafers ("They fortify the constitution at all periods of life, and in all Nervous Affections "), the Victorian nostrum loaded with morphine, for Der Kindle and it’s a positively Dickensian scenario.

As for toys, am I crazy or is the Kindle a souped-up, high-tech Etch-A-Sketch?

Amazon Finds Another Way To Deliver the Books : AmazonFresh

Bookmark inserted in AmazonFresh delivery

Remember Webvan, the online grocery delivery service started by that other bookseller Louis Borders, that went down in flames in the dot com crash of 2001. A great idea but a little ahead of its time. Well, not to miss a beat, here in Seattle, Amazon's backyard, we have AmazonFresh, Amazon's version of a local grocery delivery service.

It is a fantastic service. With two kids you can't beat the convenience of running out of something at 8pm and having it at your door by the time you wake up. And it is price competitive, unlike the cut-thought pricing strategy they apply to books, which for some reason makes it feel a bit easier for me to justify. Price does not always have to trump convenience.

As you see from the bookmark above that was included in our latest delivery you can now have books delivered right to your front door with your groceries. There are "thousands of new releases and bestsellers" to choose from.

If you don't have a Kindle this just might be the fastest way to get a book.

One can also see how, if and when this service expands, this method of delivery can supplant Amazon Prime which is almost certainly a loss leader for them.


Full disclosure:
I sell books on Amazon
Occasionally buy books from Amazon
I have an Amazon credit card
My kids eat food delivered by Amazon
My wife works for a company that is owned by Amazon
I think a lot about Amazon, at times not favorably
I talk and write a lot about Amazon :-)

ABC's of Book Collecting : Abbreviations

Abbreviations

The prevalence of these in booksellers’ catalogues varies with the descriptive formula. An elaborate catalogue will have few, but most cataloguers use the familiar ones, and in short-title or clearance lists there may be a good many – sometimes explained at the beginning, more often not.Even the abbreviations in common use are not all wholly standardised,nor does the following list pretend to be exhaustive. Most of its contents appear, under the expanded term, in the main alphabet: to those which do not,page references have been appended where appropriate.

ABA Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association.

ABAA Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America.
ABPC American Book Prices Current.
A.D. Autograph document.
A.D.s. Autograph document, signed.
Ads., advts.,
adverts. Advertisements.
A.e.g. All edges gilt.
A.L. Autograph letter, not signed.
A.L.s. Autograph letter, signed.
A.Ms.s. Autograph manuscript, signed.
A.N.s. Autograph note (shorter than a letter), signed.
BAL See blanck.
BAR Book Auction Records.
Bd. Bound.
Bdg. Binding.
Bds. Boards.
BL British Library.
B.L., b.l. Black letter.
BM British Museum.
BMC British Museum Catalogue of Books Printed in the
Fifteenth Century.
BN(F) Bibliothèque nationale de France.
BPC Book-Prices Current (p. 48).
C., ca. Circa (about, approximately).
C. & p. Collated and perfect.
Cat. Catalogue.
CBEL Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature.
Cent. Century.
Cf. Calf.
Cl. Cloth.
Col(d). Colour(ed).
Cont. Contemporary.
Cr. 8vo. Crown octavo (p. 110).
Dec. Decorated.
Doc. Document.
D-j., d-w. Dust-jacket, dust-wrapper.
DAB Dictionary of American Biography.
DNB Dictionary of National Biography.
E.f. extremely fine.
Ed. Edition, editor, edited.
E.D.L. Edition de luxe.
Endp., e.p. Endpaper(s).
Eng., engr. Engraved, engraving(s).
ESTC Eighteenth-century [once, but now] English Short-
Title Catalogue (p. 202).
Ex-lib. Ex-library.
f. fine.
Facs. Facsimile.
Fcp. Foolscap (p. 110).
F., ff. Folio, folios (i.e. leaves).
Fo., fol. Folio, a size of book.
Fp., frontis. Frontispiece.
g. good.
G., gt. Gilt.
G.e. Gilt edges (p. 87).
GKW, GW Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke.
G.L. Gothic letter.
G.t. Gilt tops (p. 87).
Hf. Half (e.g. hf. cf. half calf ).
Hf. bd. Half bound.
IGI Indice Generale degli Incunaboli.
ILAB International League of Antiquarian Booksellers.
Ill., ills. Illustrated, illustrations.
Imp. Imperial.
Impft. Imperfect.
Index Index Librorum Prohibitorum (p. 130).
Inscr. Inscribed, inscription.
Introd. Introduction.
ISTC Incunable Short-title Catalogue (pp. 135, 202).
Ital. Italic letter.
Lev. Levant morocco.
Lge. Large.
Ll. Leaves.
L(o)C Library of Congress.
L.P. Large paper.
L.s. Letter (not autograph), signed (p. 34).
m. mint.
Mco., mor. Morocco.
M.e. Marbled edges (p. 87).
MS(S). Manuscript(s).
NCBEL New Cambridge Bibliography of English
Literature.
N.d. No date.
N.f. Near fine.
N.p. No place, publisher, printer.
NUC National Union Catalog (p. 155).
N.y. No year.
Ob., obl. Oblong.
OCLC Online Computer Library Center.
Oct. Octavo.
O.p. Out of print.
Or., orig. Original.
p. poor (this is very rare).
P., pp. Page(s).
Pict. Pictorial.
Pl(s). Plate(s).
PMM Printing and the Mind of Man.
Pol. Polished.
Port. Portrait.
P.P. Privately printed.
Prelims. Preliminary leaves.
Pres. Presentation.
PRO Public Record Office.
Pseud. Pseudonym(ous).
Pt. Part.
Ptd. Printed.
Pub(d). Publish(ed).
Q. Quotation (p. 34).
Qto. Quarto.
R.e. Red edges (p. 87).
Rev. Revised.
RLIN Research Libraries Information Network.
Rom. Roman letter.
S.a. Sine anno, undated (p. 154).
Sgd. Signed.
Sig. Signature.
S.l. Sine loco, no place of publication (p. 154).
Sm. Small
S.n. Sine nomine, without name of printer or
publisher (p. 154).
SOED Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.
Spr. Sprinkled.
Sq. Square (in shape).
STC Short-Title Catalogue (p. 202).
Swd. Sewed.
T.e.g. Top edges gilt (p. 87).
Thk. Thick
T.L.s Typed letter, signed.
TLS Times Literary Supplement.
T.p. Title-page.
TS. Typescript.
Unb.,unbd. Unbound.
v.d., v.y. Various dates, years,
v.f. Very fine (copy).
v.g. Very good (copy).
Vol(s). Volume(s).
W.a.f. With all faults.
Wing Wing’s Short-Title Catalogue of English Books,
1641–1700 (p. 231).
Wr., wraps. Wrapper(s).
Y.e. Yellow edges (p. 87).

Abbreviations for SIZES OF BOOKS (see format)
Fo., Fol., 2º Folio.
Qto.,. 4to, 4º Quarto.
Oct., 8vo, 8º Octavo.
12mo, 12º Duodecimo (twelvemo).
16mo, 16º Sextodecimo (sixteenmo).
24mo, 24º Twentyfourmo.
32mo, 32º Thirtytwomo.
64mo, 64º Sixtyfourmo.

Carter, John & Nicolas Barker
ABC's of Book Collecting. 8th Edition
New Castle, Delaware : Oak Knoll Press, 2004

Buy a copy

The "ABC's of Book Collecting" on Book Patrol

John Carter's ABC For Book Collectors has long been regarding as the most informative reference book on the subject of book collecting. Now comprised of upward of 500 entries it remains, to this day, a seminal reference book for booksellers and collectors alike. Originally published in 1952, The ABC's has been revised and updated over the years by Nicolas Barker. It is now in it's Eighth Edition and includes additional words and terms created by the introduction of web-based collecting.

Book Patrol is pleased to present The ABC's of Book Collecting, one entry at a time.

For the Twitterites among us - we will be posting a tweet to coincide with the latest entry. It will look something like this: ABC's of Book Collecting - title of the days entry- link to the post

We would like to thank Oak Knoll Press, the publishers of the Eighth Edition, for their kind permission.

Attack of the Library Cat!

Perkins, the library cat at “Bloggington-on-Sea Carnegie Library on the dockside of Bloggington harbour” is the host of the Good Library Blog, part of The Good Library Guide website, an ombudsman for libraries in the U.S. and the U.K.

Perkins can generally be counted upon to provide library news found nowhere else and insightful commentary that never fails to scratch below the surface and leave a keen, plump hairball of perception in its aftermath.

Recently, however, Perkins – in a fit of delirious feline pique inspired, perhaps, by underindulgence by his caregivers or overindulgence in a kilo of catnip, or both – posted an item that fairly screams Separation Anxiety and proclaims him as the poster-cat for self-absorption:

“This blog is against people reading books. They waste your life and lead you to unproductive ways. Here you learn of duplicity and mendacious behaviour. They have never done any good for anyone (aside from the rapacious distributors who salivate at the idea of a book which becomes widely popular). They are worse than the most destructive drugs. Away with them; keep them out of the hands of our innocent children and out of the sight of our cherished veterans who will only sadden their lonely last days among the covers. Be political, be of the public officer class, be business like-- destroy the libraries now. They are bringing this great nation to its knees- the newspapers are full of the end of our civilisation. So don't read them either.

“The three stages of intoxication are 'the dignified', ''the quarrelsome', and 'the amorous'. Such information could only be obtained either from a book, or a bottle, which makes plain the need to prevent indulgence of these kinds. Fiction- pah!”

One hopes that this patently Me! Me! Me! meow is just the transient ouch of a prissy gib still smarting after separation from his testicles and not something more sinister. If the latter, the librarians at Bloggington-on-Sea Carnegie Library on the dockside of Bloggington harbour may be forced to turn the case over to Bruno, the Library’s sergeant-at-arms and alpha-male of the Library’s K-9 corps, who takes no guff from grimalkins with a bitter gripe.

Golden Handcuffs Review. A Talk with Lou Rowan

The 2009 Spring/Summer issue of Golden Handcuffs Reviewis now out. The issue features sections on 'Nathaniel Tarn at 80' and Luisa Valenzuela at 70' along with contributions from more than forty artists and writers, among them Rebecca Brown, Pedro Calderon, Gwendolyn Diaz, Alice Notley, Pat Nolan, Toby Olson, Brian Strang, Rosemarie Waldrop and Raul Zurita.

I had a chance to check in with Lou Rowan, the editor and guiding light of GH, to find out more about the history of GH and how things are going as a publisher of a literary/visual magazine in these times.

Book Patrol: Merriam Webster defines Golden Handcuffs as: special benefits offered to an employee as an inducement to continue service. How did that end up on the masthead?

Lou Rowan: I decided to call it that because of a walk I took with Toby Olson in Philadelphia in the early 80's. I regaled him with business terminology (we'd been colleagues as writers and teachers, and I moved into business in 1980, as the "barbarians at the gates" were taking their stances), and he particularly liked "golden handcuffs," saying that if I ever did a magazine again, I should call it that. And he helped me start it with work of his, and introduced me to Robert Coover, who contributed to the first issue.

BP: What brought about the Golden Handcuffs Review? Something you always wanted to do or did you perceive a hole out there that needed to be addressed?

LR: For me the "hole" was a well-circulated journal consistently printing experimental work. There are journals "open" to the new: I wanted to do nothing but. We encourage scientists to experiment, and don't ask them to dumb things down. Literature should be as much an of exploration as any other serious calling. I love entertainment, and we're scarcely prissy about what we call literature, but just as one has to do some work to see modern art, read philosophy, or come anywhere near string theory, so serious writers can demand an imaginative engagement with their work.

BP: One thing that stands out for me about GH is that it is as much about offering writers and artists a forum to respond to each others' work as it is to share their own work; offering a more holistic approach to the creative life. Do you see this as the one of the "special benefits" of GH?

LR: Indeed, the "Response" section is what I work hardest to fill up. I always have in mind the "general reader," and I'd like that elusive being to know as much as possible about what goes into a story, poem, essay--but to know it from a fresh source, not from conventional and academic criticism, which historically has been uncomfortable with much of the best contemporary writing, especially in this country.

BP: I noticed that the latest issue begins with a "Plea" for advertisers and subscribers. Clearly, with the economy in the tank these are not the easiest of times to be publishing a literary magazine. Are you working on any creative solutions to get through these times?

LR: We shall become a 501 C3 non-profit, to encourage donations. We shall search for grants. Also, if we could get a few hundred more subscribers, we'd be in good shape. I can't tell you how many people crow over Golden Handcuffs without bothering to write a check for $20. Also, I would like to sell the GH archive and that of a journal I did in the '60s and '70s to a library.

BP: Economics aside. What's on the horizon for GH?

LR: The next couple of issues will include Italian fiction. Addressing literature and politics: it's rare anything in Golden Handcuffs takes on politics directly, but when Bush and gang began to wall off our southern borders, I thought it time to include as much Central and South American work as possible, and have done so with the capable guest editing of Mark Axelrod. And the cover of #8 took on our ignorant and un-generous (un-Christian?) attitudes toward the foreign. I anticipate issues partly devoted to Asian and African work also. We shall continue to explore contemporary photography--a wonderful Frenchman Gilbert Garcin will appear soon. The next issue will be dedicated to two greats who died recently: Robin Blaser, and the artist John Manning.

There's only so much you can do with a semi-annual journal, but we'll continue to mix the two or three generations of contemporary U.S. and Canadian writers and artists with the same from around the planet.

*******************

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Book Sort

Living With Books. Ink Jet on Paper 22" x 30"

Book Sort is an exhibition of 25 large photographs by Theresa Rae currently on view at The North Bank Artists Gallery in Vancouver, WA. The series, which is part of Rae's larger body of work titled Questions of Identity, documents Rae's process of unpacking and re-shelving her library after a move.

Communion

Rae says:

Everyone has their own way of finding answers. I had to rebuild my world through sorting and solitude. Book Sort documents four days of living with my books as they transitioned from storage to shelves in my home. Because these books have contributed so much to my identity,
I needed to re-bond with them en masse and give myself a sacred time and place to rediscover them individually, in order to decide which ones would remain with me. As an artist, I gave myself permission to step away from conventional methods and experience this transition in my own personal way, without judgment or parameters. I let the project evolve according to its own needs. The camera allows me to be “in the moment” and build my own context. The quietness of the barn, an hour from town--on the hillside by the river, the closeness to nature, time to think and be, personal time with idea people and their books—gave me room to grow and become myself. I am building my life by my choices.

Identity

On the Closing of a Bookshop

Storefront of Valley Book's previous location

ERRATA: Nat Herold, referred to below as an employee of Valley Books, is actually the co-owner of Amherst Books.

****************

After 34 years Valley Books of Amherst, MA, one of the oldest used and antiquarian bookshops in New England, is closing.

Owner Larry Pruner says "Every good thing has to come to an end, and when it's no longer a good thing, it comes to an end sooner."

He then shares this:

"The used book business is like an ecosystem that's been thrown off balance by e-books, the Internet and the recession. It's hammering away at a world that used to exist but doesn't in the same form anymore."

Nat Herold, an employee at Valley Books added this nugget:

"The Internet has made everyone more cosmopolitan, but it has made Amherst more parochial"

This really is, in many ways, an unprecedented time in the history of bookselling.


Full story at Amherst Bulletin

On Selling Off Rare Books To Pay the Bills at University of San Francisco

Yesterday, PhiloBiblos wrote Selling Off Rare Books To Pay the Bills in protest against the decision by Rev. Stephen Privett, president of the Jesuit’s University of San Francisco, to sell items from the rare books and art collection of USF’s Gleeson Library.

This action has many dissidents.

I have many friends who are university librarians. The work that rare book/special collections director-curator-librarians do is extremely important and the ability of some of the best to identify a heretofore unexamined subject and acquire material related to it is one of the great illuminating services they offer to students, scholars and the public.

Philobliblos, who I do not know but admire for his book blog, writes:

“As I've said many times before, deaccessioning - legitimate deaccessioning - is a necessary part of an institution's business, but doing so in this form and fashion is completely beyond the pale. Not only is selling off prize items from the collections just cutting off your nose to spite your face, it's also an incredibly short-sighted way to deal with financial difficulties.”

In fairness to USF’s president, what is “legitimate deaccenssioning” if not to raise money? What other reason would an institution have to sell books from its collection, aside from getting rid of duplicates?

Has anyone considered that USF, a private institution with endowments invested in the equities markets along with virtually every other institution, may likely have experienced a precipitous decline in its investments that absolutely required some very painful decisions to be made? For all we know, USF may have invested some of its money with Bernard Madoff.

In an ideal world, the Library wouldn’t have to sell anything from within its holdings. At this time the economy is far from ideal and the need to raise cash, and fast – whether as an individual or institution – is a prudent survival strategy in a time of sharp financial downturn.

PhiloBiblos further reports, “History professor Martin Claussen is leading the charge against sales from the university's collections, telling the student paper ‘Selling parts of the library collection in order to pay current costs is like burning the furniture to keep warm.’ He disagrees with Privett's statements that any proceeds from sales would go to the rare book room: ‘Selling items in the Rare Book Room to pay for renovations that would keep them safe? That logic sounds odd.’”

It sounds odd to Classen because he’s conflating selling some books from the Rare Book Room to selling every book. There will be plenty of rare books left for the renovations to protect and keep safe.

As far as his analogy - “selling parts of the library collection in order to pay current costs is like burning the furniture to keep warm” – goes, it doesn’t hold. Equating the sale of an object to the destruction of an object is drama, not reality. But even if the analogy were strong, burning a few chairs (not the house) to keep from perishing during a cold night is not something that anyone freezing would give a second thought to; Granny’s 100 year rocker has got to go – after all, the chair isn’t actually Granny, it’s her chair. And who said anything about burning every stick of furniture? The issue is not akin to the burning of the ancient library at Alexandria.

The for-sale items that have drawn the greatest ire of the dissenters are woodcuts, engravings or etchings, which is to say, they are not one-off, unique pieces. But there is anger that the collections’ integrity will be compromised if pieces from it are sold. There is some truth to that but to require that institutional collections be sold in toto to preserve their integrity would put an overwhelming burden upon university librarian-curators and their ability to be flexible. The biggest compromise to the integrity of the collection seems to be the selling of a print (not the original engraved plate) of Dürer’s St. Jerome in His Study. PhiloBiblios quotes a source of Terry Belanger, founding director of the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia and University Professor and Honorary Curator of Special Collections:

"In a down market, only the Rembrandt and a few of the Dürers sold [Specifically of the St. Jerome print]. St. Jerome is the patron saint of librarians whose feast day is September 30th. Traditionally, every September his engraving was exhibited in the Gleeson Library to bring blessings and protection to the Library itself, to the librarians who selflessly work there, and to all those who research and patronize it. Whose or what image will now bless and protect USF's Gleeson Library? Perhaps, come next September, some one will hang black mourning cloth where once the image of St. Jerome was displayed."

Or, perhaps, a picture of USF president Stephen Privett who had the courage to make a decision that was guaranteed to royally piss off purists but guaranteed that the integrity of the Library as a whole would survive.

Let’s be honest. The decision making process at any institution can be a long, drawn out, grueling and exhausting ordeal. The financial peril USF faced must have been acute. Had Privett taken the issue to committee for discussion, they’d likely still be discussing, arguing, protesting, revolting six months from now.

Is it unfortunate that the Library has had to sell a few items? Indeed. Is it a catastrophe? No.

A last word. The items from USF’s Gleeson Library were sold at auction. To the public. To be recirculated to private collectors. In other words, out of the confines of an institution and back out into the light of day to be dearly appreciated by a real, live, passionate person, not a cold abstract like “the public.”

The policy of the Gleeson Library's rare book room:

“The Donohue Rare Book Room and the collections housed there are open to the University Community and other qualified users.” Meaning the books and artwork are not really, after all, available to the general public, which is as it should be; rare artifacts require careful conservatorship.

Whether antiquities belong to the public or anyone who can afford to own them is another subject for another time. I do know, however, that as much as university librarians love, appreciate, and value the books in their collections – tens of thousands – they do not have the time to lavish attention upon each one of them, in contrast to the private book lover with a relatively small collection who has the pride and exuberance of ownership.

I also know that eleven years ago, after putting it off for as long as I could, I sold the vast majority of my book collection. I desperately needed the money. For years I had put so much of myself into the books that to sell even one would have been like selling a kidney to pay the rent.

It wasn't a kidney. I survived. In fact, as a consequence, I thrived afterward. It is almost as if, by fetishizing my collection, I had become a prisoner to it. To be possessed by one's possessions is to close one's self off. After a brief period of mourning, I felt a sense of elation, of liberation. Life went on; it even opened up and improved.

The Gleeson Library will survive. With the influx of cash, it may even get better. And if those who feel that without St. Jerome in His Study to bless and protect the library they are doomed, let me reassure them that, from what I know of Christian theology, St. Jerome with be there to bless and protect the library whether or not Dürer's engraving is publicly displayed once a year. In fact, I suspect that God might be offended by all the rending of clothes:

"Thou shalt not worship graven images."

For the Books : The Wedding of Scott and Diana

In March of 2008 writer and librarian Scott Douglas and then library assistant Diana Vizcarra got married. From the invites to the table settings their book love paved the way to what had to be an event to remember.

Image by Jack Rodriguez

Now that looks like fun. No reason the theme shouldn't become part of the arsenal for any wedding planner.

Diana shares the experience - How to Have a Library Themed Wedding

Scott shares his thoughts on the event and some pictures here

Photography Books at Christie's

from Nakaji Yasui and Tampei Photography Club. Lot 42

On May 19 Christie's will be holding an auction of Photobooks. The 191 lot event features many of the 20th/21st century's leading photographers.

About the auction Sven Becker, the photography specialist at Christie's, tells Book Patrol:

The selection is representative of the broad trends in photobooks from about 1900 to the present: from Henry Emerson's Marsh Leaves (1895) right up to Christieen Meindertsma's Pig 05049 (2007). The auction includes fantastic copies of great rarities: like Bellmer's Les Jeux de la Poupee (lot 55) or Jack Smith's The Beautiful Book (lot 75). But it also includes special copies of more readily available books: like Paul Fusco's hommage to Bobby Kenedy, RFK Funeral Train, inscribed by the photographer to Norman Mailer, who had contributed the introductory text (lot 187). The auction is especially strong in Japanese photobooks, which are almost all in irreproachable condition; but close to home there's also a copy of the deluxe issue of Stephen Shore's seminal Uncommon Places, issued with an original photograph (lot 149)

Hans Bellmer's Les jeux de la poupée -- The Games of the Doll Lot 55

View auction and bid here

For an electronic, 'turing the pages' version of the catalogue, click here

Bridget McNulty's "Strange Nervous Laughter"

To coincide with the release of the American edition of her first novel Strange Nervous Laughter author Bridget McNulty has embarked on a blog tour. Book Patrol is pleased to be a part of the event and has invited McNulty to share an excerpt and her thoughts and hopes for the book.

"Set against a sweltering South African summer, McNulty’s heady debut twines her characters’ unusual circumstances as they construct and destruct the joy and displeasure of love’s erratic consequences" - from the review in Booklist, the magazine of the ALA.

The book is also as much a testament to place as it is to the vagaries of love. The city of Durban, South Africa, the backdrop for the novel, figures as prominently as the six "rather quirky" characters.

From Strange Nervous Laughter:

"After a few moments the panic subsided. The smell of not-so-fresh fish and sun-ripened meat hit Pravesh across the face. He hardly noticed. Men with Polaroid cameras mimed taking his photograph, shouting, 'Passport photo! Passport photo!' Women with babies strapped on their backs displayed their tables full of underpants, safety pins and hopes while children with torn pieces of cardboard and stray dogs played make-believe with the breeze.The children were the only ones to stare openly. Dazed, Pravesh randomly chose a direction and stumbled down the street, bumping into people and being pushed off the pavement into the open gutter, which was swimming in a murky film of liquid. The heat that lay like a blanket over the city wrapped him up, and he broke into a feverish sweat. Mini-bus taxis hooted at him, drivers cursed from still-moving cars, and one or two people on bicycles rode over his toes. Nobody seemed to notice him, too intent on running the red robots that confronted them at every turn."

McNulty says:

"I grew up in Durban South Africa, and I've always thought of myself as a Durbanite, through and through. Durban is a difficult city to get into - Johannesburg is the business capital of South Africa, Cape Town is the cultural capital, and Durban is kind of the forgotten cousin. It's the odd one out. But once you get under its skin, Durban is an addictive city... warm and muggy and ripe, like a mango in mid-summer.

The problem with knowing a city inside out is that there's a heavy responsibility to do it justice. All the places, the colours, the people, the smells of Durban were so deeply ingrained in me that I didn't want to paint a half-hearted picture of them. I wanted Strange Nervous Laughter to be saturated in. And I think it is... Overseas friends tell me it made them homesick. I take that as the highest compliment.

Now, though, Strange Nervous Laughter has grown wings and is being released in the USA today! The 12th of May 2009. Oh happy day!) And I have to wonder if that essence will translate into the hearts and minds of American readers... If you have no direct relationship to a place, can you be transported there? I hope so.

And, if my reading history is anything to go by, I believe so. I've never been to but many of the Indian novels I read make me feel as if I've walked down her colourful streets in a sari, sipping on a lassi. So my hopes are that once readers have finished Strange Nervous Laughter, once they've put the book down and walked away from it, their minds will be filled with sense memories from the city that I love... They'll be able to feel the crackling of electricity in the air as the oppressive heat of the day explodes into a violent thunderstorm at sunset. They'll be able to taste a curry roti from Grey Street, and hear the mynah birds' raucous song at the end of each day. They'll feel the salty sea water against their skin, sense the chaos just behind the order of Victoria Street Market, and feel, even if only for a moment, the deliciousness of a night so balmy it seems the stars have come out to serenade you. That's my hope for Strange Nervous Laughter. To capture just a little of the essence of Durban."



Cover of the first edition released in South Africa in 2007

Visit Bridget McNulty's website which features her blog and podcasts introducing the six characters in the novel.

Watch the book trailer.

Buy the book here