BookFinder.com Journal

Collected Books contest

Our friends at AbeBooks.com are giving book collectors (or anyone with the slightest interest in book collecting) a chance to win a signed copy of Collected Books: The Guide to Identification and Values by Allen & Patricia Ahearn.

The book, now in it's fourth edition, is a fantastic reference for over 20,000 titles explaining publication dates, issue points, print runs, number of volumes and other vital bibliographic data.

AbeBooks is giving away one signed copy of the 2011 edition Collected Books.  If you want to enter simply email contests@abebooks.com and tell them about the most prized first edition in your book collection. In the entry explain why the book is so special and describe its condition.  AbeBooks say they may use this information in a feature highlighting first editions.

As usual don′t forget to include your name, hometown and state or province in the email, and include "First editions" in the subject line. It appears the contest is only open to US and Canadian residents and ends August 31, 2011. The winner will be selected in a random draw (the odds of being drawn are dependent upon the number of eligible entries received) and will have to answer a skill-testing question.

The Library of the Future with robotic shelving system

Apparently the future is now and it's library is the University of Chicago’s new Joe and Rika Mansueto Library.  You enter into a 8,000 square foot dome called the Grand Reading Room, which is nicely lit and contains a vast number of tables with chairs and computer terminals.  The thing you won't find in this dome are bookshelves. 

The books themselves are housed in an underground storage facility located directly beneath the dome, and when you want to pull one of the 3.5 million books you just make a request on your computer terminal and a computer activated robotic crane pulls the book and sends it up to the circulation desk.  The whole process apparently takes about five minutes, which should give you enough time to get up and walk to the circulation desk.  The same crane system re-shelves the book when you are finished with it too.

There are a few more details as well as a neat video showing some of the underground storage in this article from Singularity Hub

 

When a book is not a book

When it's a BookBook.  Hide your laptop inside this bookish carrying case.  Be the envy of the next book fair.

They look REALLY cool, but they're not cheap.  I'm betting you could make one of these out of an old tattered hardback without too much trouble, which would also be good if you have a PC laptop.

History of the Book

I had someone point me towards this on the Fast Company blog today...

The pen is mightier

or at least this one is (Via BookNinja)

Worlds most interesting bookstores

Check out this great photo tour of some of the worlds most visually appealing bookstores.  I think my favorite might be the El Ateneo in Buenos Aires, which was converted from a Theater. (via. Quilblog)

                                   

[Now reading: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett]

Notes from all over

I’ve been waiting to do a big dump of links I’ve been enjoying…

Used books up, new books down?

• “Bargain Hunting for Books, and Feeling Sheepish About It” (New York Times)
• “Second-hand book sales up” (London Telepgraph)

Library consortium OCLC changes policies, draws ire:

• “Stealing Your Library: The OCLC Powergrab” (Aaron from Open Library)
• “Why libraries must reject the OCLC Policy (part 1)” (Tim from LibraryThing)
• OCLC policy change overview (Code4Lib)

Bay Area indie bookstores, dead and alive:

• Stacey’s Bookstore in San Francisco shutting down
• But wait, not every Bay Area indie is dying!

Book rental in the news:

• Chegg raises $25 million round from Kleiner, others
• Chegg CEO interview

Yay, reading:

• New NEA study shows US reading rates on the rise
• Britons think reading is sexy

More notes from all over:

• Barnes & Noble does mild cutbacks
• Slate calls BookFinder.com “the Google of dead books”
• Ebook pricing arguments

Posted by Anirvan

German market news

I’m pretty interested in German used and rare bookselling market. It has one of the most developed ecosystem outside of the Anglophone market, and looking at what’s happening offers a great set of data points to understand where our industry’s at. I was excited to came across a number of great stories covering the space in boersenblatt.net, a German book trade magazine. Here are some of the pieces I found.

(All of these articles are in German. To translate them, use Google’s handy 1-click translate bookmarklet. For English, you can drag this link to your browser toolbar —> View in English. Then click the button whenever you want to see a page in English.)

ZVAB:

• New pricing model
• Early history
• Peter Zylla exits
• Interview on pricing model, etc.
• ZVAB on shipping regulations
• Site relaunch

AbeBooks:

• New Italian site
• Reaction to Amazon acquisition, parts 1, 2, 3
• New pricing model
• Gojaba launch
• Market positioning overview

eBay:

• eBay.de’s new shipping policies
• eBay business model changes
• More fixed price listings on eBay.de

Smaller marketplaces and services:

• Prolibri on shipping regulations
• Buchfreund pricing model changes
• Interview on Oxfam Germany used bookstores
• ILAB rethinking Rockingstone relationship
• Eurobuch redesign
• momox-books buying used books en masse

Market-wide news:

• Antiquarian year in review series
• Overall used book sales trends

Law:

• Booksellers and child porn laws
• AbeBooks comments on bookselling law
• Online content labeling requirements

Posted by Anirvan

Holt Uncensored returns

I used to be a big fan of Holt Uncensored, an email newsletter on publishing and independent bookselling written by former San Francisco Chronicle book editor Pat Holt. For years, she was one of the very few voices really telling it like it is. After a long gap, I’m happy to see Holt Uncensored return in blog form.

• Holt Uncensored blog
• “Holt Uncensored: The Beginning”
• “Holt Uncensored: Now”
• Archives from 1998-2007

[Now Reading: Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future by Cory Doctorow]

Posted by Anirvan

Ohio rare book thieves caught

I just heard about the arrest of three Ohio thieves who stole two rare books from the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library, including a copy of the rare Maxwell’s Code, the first major legal code for the Northwest Territory:

“McCarty and Bays visited the library on June 27 and asked to see the Laws of the Territory of the United States North West of the Ohio, also known as the Maxwell Code…McCarty eventually was seen leaving the women’s restroom with the books and was confronted by a staff member. The couple left and the employee recovered what he thought were both books. It wasn’t until early September that staff members discovered that the Freeman Code, a 32-page pamphlet, had been removed from its cover…On Aug. 25, Scranton visited the library and asked to see the Maxwell Code. He was unable to provide identification, but he agreed to turn over his backpack as collateral. When library staffers were distracted by other business, Scranton fled with the book. The backpack was found to be stuffed with paper towels…Investigators said McCarty sold the Freeman Code to a collector in England for $35,000 through a rare-book dealer in Philadelphia. He told the dealer he also had a copy of the Maxwell Code.”

Yecch. McCarty was apparently also convicted for forging a check stolen from Textbooksrus.com. Apparently it’s not clear whether the books have been recovered.

Read the whole story.

Posted by Anirvan