Email the editor
| Table of Contents Email the editor |
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I'm most happy to report that Ken Fermoyle will be working with me through the remainder of 2003 and will be taking my place as editor of The IOBA Standard in 2004.
Ken has worked with me on the last several issues and has done a wonderful job. He's enthusiastic, dedicated, smart and very, very talented. He has tons of experience in editing and writing, and lots of contacts in the book and writing worlds. I'm absolutely positive Ken will produce an excellent magazine that just keeps on improving, changing and growing in value to its readers and to IOBA (note we've changed to 'magazine' instead of 'newsletter' due to the size of this publication).
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Terry Gibbs, an IOBA member with an extensive background in editing and publishing, also, will be acting as proofreader and assistant to Ken-thank you, Terry!
Now, a bit about Ken and his background:
“Ken Fermoyle has been a writer, editor and journalist for 54 years. His credits include more than 2,500 articles published in magazines ranging from Playboy and PC World to McCalls, MacWeek and Motor Life. He was auto editor of Popular Science, editor of Petersen's Wheels Afield and QX Connection, wrote the syndicated Ken's Korner column on computers from 1997 to 2002.
“A voracious reader since childhood, he wrote his first book reviews while sports editor of a large Michigan weekly paper in 1948. “I was also a reporter, feature writer and proofreader,” Ken reports, “but when I learned the book reviewer got to keep books reviewed, I took that on, too.” His book reviews have since appeared in newspapers, including The Detroit News and Los Angeles Times Book Review, various magazines, and book newsletters. He has edited and produced several non-fiction books; currently he and his colleague Tran Ngoc Chau are completing work on Hawks, Doves & The Dragon, a memoir of Chau's involvement in Vietnam from the 1940s to 1975.”
I've enjoyed very much being editor of The Standard, and I hope you'll all be as supportive of Ken as you have been of me-it has meant a lot, believe me. I thank you all.
See you once more in November!
Shirley Bryant, Editor
The upbeat tempo of Jazz, Zydeco, R&B and Cajun music, punctuated by mournful wails of the Blues, echoes through the streets of the Big Easy. The sounds might be slightly muted Uptown and in the Garden District but blare at full volume in the French Quarter. And the music seeps into the pages of mysteries by James Lee Burke, Julie Smith, Tony Dunbar, Sandra Brown and Tami Hoag, among others.
By: Ken Fermoyle
Photos by: Liz Fermoyle
New Orleans boasts a storied literary history. William Faulkner wrote his first book in a French Quarter room that now serves as the Faulkner House bookstore. Truman Capote, Lillian Hellman and Elmore Leonard were born there. Anne Rice lives in the city's Garden District today. Suzanne Brockman's Into The Night and Stella Cameron's romantic thrillers (French Quarter, The Best Revenge) are recent novels penned by Crescent City authors.
Grace King's handwriting |
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But I digress; my focus is the mystery genre, and in that category the Big Easy serves as a favorite setting for authors from Leonard and James Lee Burke to Julie Smith, Tami Hoag, Tony Dunbar and Sandra Brown, among others. Robert Crais hails from just up the road in Baton Rouge but he arranged for Elvis Cole to visit N'Awlins and to meet his ladylove, Lucy Chenier, there. The city even has a Mystery Street in the area called Mid-City, a 20-minute bus ride from the French Quarter, as reported in the Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1996.
And just as the strains of traditional jazz, Cajun and Zydeco music fill the streets of the French Quarter so does music permeate many of the mystery novels set in New Orleans. Proof? Check these titles: Burke's Black Cherry Blues, Dixie City Jam, Cadillac Jukebox; Julie Smith's The Axeman's Jazz, Jazz Funeral, House of Blues, New Orleans Beat, plus her latest, Mean Woman Blues.
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Crossroad Blues offers more than just a murder mystery set in New Orleans and the Delta. It is almost literally a primer on blues history, especially as Robert Johnson is concerned. It could almost serve as the text for a Blues 101 course!
Music first stirred my interest in New Orleans. Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven records from the 1920s captivated me as a teenager during World War II. Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory, Freddie Keppard, Johnny and Baby Dodds, Fate Marable, Jelly-Roll Morton, Earl Bostic and Lil Hardin Armstrong were in my pantheon of musical gods. Most of the Swing Era big bands paled by comparison.
Lil Hardin Armstrong, Louis Armstrong's wife |
A voracious reader from early childhood, I devoured books on New Orleans. The tale of Storyville, with its brothels, wide-open lifestyle and, above all, its statues as the incubator of many jazz greats, fascinated me. I learned about the famous funeral bands and how they switched from dirges going to the cemetery to lively jazz on the way back. “When the Saints Come Marching In” became my favorite song, with “Frankie & Johnny” and “St. James Infirmary Blues” close behind.
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I also discovered Julie Smith's books. They really honed in on the French Quarter. The Axeman's Jazz, second in the Skip Langdon series set in New Orleans, enthralled me. Music permeates this book about a serial killer with chutzpah. He tells the public that homes with jazz music will be spared in his murder spree, as he imitates the modus operandi of a legendary killer from the past. The later Langdon books continued to capture the ambiance of the Vieux Carre as few others have done. (Ms. Smith also turned me on to Ace Atkins' Nick Travers books, for which I am most grateful.)
No, you're not out in bayou country but in the lovely City Park, where the eclectic New Orleans Museum is located. |
Nor did I forget the mystery novels that lured me to the city. We sampled beignets at the Café Du Mond, perhaps at one of the same tables Dave Robicheaux and his partner Helen Soileau might have shared on a trip into the City. We listened to trad jazz from the house band and its Louis Armstrong sound-alike singer. We scarfed Po'boy sandwiches at some of the same spots Dave and Clete Purcell may have frequented in their NOPD days and muffulettas from the deservedly famous Central Grocery at 915 Decatur St.
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“I live in a three story townhouse in New Orleans built in 1830. It is so old -- everything breaks and plaster peels and yes, there is a ghost. The cat hates it. But the ghost smells wonderful! It smells like jasmine. I have never interviewed these ghosts. But the Psychic Network filmed an infomercial in our home.... They had many psychics here at the time.”
Ms Smith now lives in “a funk loft on the boundary of the French Quarter and the Marigny.” The Faubourg Marigny, which locals simply call "The Marigny," is the neighborhood immediately adjacent to the French Quarter across tree-shaded Esplanade Avenue. (We stayed in that area, at the Jean Lafitte House, 613 Esplanade Avenue, on our 2002 visit to New Orleans. Ms Smith has been kind enough to invite us to “come visit us for a drink” on our next visit.)
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Back in the Vieux Carre, we visited every bookstore in the area. One was Crescent City Books, just kitty-corner from the Quarter House on Rue Chartres. It surprised me to learn that the store had only a couple of James Lee Burke books.
“We can't keep 'em in stock,” the clerk told me. “They just jump off the shelves.” Other bookstore owners echoed his words.
Typical French Quarter building with trademark lacy ironwork galleries and, in this case, a lovely wrought-iron fence. |
On later trips we explored bookstores outside the Quarter, including a couple of nice ones on Magazine Street.
One I missed until I began researching this article is the Maple Street Bookstore http://www.maplestreetbookshop.com. Established in the mid-1960s, it's the oldest independent bookstore in New Orleans. Located uptown on (surprise!) Maple Street, just a short walk from the Cherokee stop on the St. Charles streetcar line, the store occupies a charming old house. Overflowing bookshelves fill six rooms and a comfortable back room tempts visitors to sit, relax and read. The store often hosts signings and is staffed by genuine bibliophiles, as I learned when I called to ask for information about local mystery writers.
I spoke with Becky Batchelor and Carol Antosiak, both cordial and well-informed ladies. They mentioned several local writers, including Tony Dunbar and Christine (Chris) Wiltz, and offered to relay a message to Ms Wiltz. Sure enough, I got a friendly e-mail from Chris just two days later. She informed me that hardcover and paperback copies of her Neal Rafferty mysteries are no longer in print. (I did find many used copies listed, several dozen at http://www.choosebooks.com and more at http://www.abebooks.com. They are offered in print-on-demand form from iUniverse. Titles in the Rafferty series include The Killing Circle, 1981; A Diamond Before You Die, 1987; The Emerald Lizard, 1991; and Glass House, 1994. Chris' latest book, The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld, recounts the life of Norma Wallace, a famous operator of a New Orleans bordello from the 1920s to the 1960s. This one is available in both hardcover and paperback.
Courtyard of the Jean Lafitte house where Fermoyle stayed during 2002 visit is just a sample of the hidden treasures in courtyards of the French Quarter. |
“LaRue carried a dull burgundy overnight bag in his left hand. That was the entire luggage he needed. Everything else was supposed to be in the van, unless Monk and his hillbilly partner from Mississippi had forgotten to bring it. New Orleans music seeped out of the intercom. At the moment it was Fats Domino [a New Orleans native] singing 'I am the Sheik of Araby. Your love belongs to me.' The chipper music did not add any bounce to Rue's step. His was a rigid composure that wouldn't crack.”
Music references pop up regularly in this and other books by Dunbar. I thoroughly enjoyed Shelter From The Storm and look forward to reading more in the Tubby Dubonnet series.
Another interesting source of books I discovered while researching this article is Britton Trice, owner of the Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans, famous as Ann Rice's neighborhood bookstore. Britton actually wears two hats since he also heads B.E.Trice Publishing, a small press operation that started after Doubleday stopped publishing The Plantation Cookbook --the Junior League of New Orleans cookbook
"The bean counters at Doubleday thought a couple thousand copies wasn't good enough and let it go out of print," Trice reports gleefully. "I begged the Junior League until they let me pick up the rights, and I published it in 1992. Since then, I've reprinted it three times, 17,000 copies so far."
You find street musicians scattered across the New Orleans landscape. They close off some streets in the French Quarter on certain nights of the week (sections of Bourbon Street on Saturdays) and musicians like this jazz & blues singer & her guitar accompanist play for tips from passers-by. |
We plan to report more on Trice's bookstore-cum-publishing operation as part of a series on small press publishers, that begins in this issue. We planned to meet at BookExpo-America as this was written and I hope to visit his New Orleans store this fall.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm in need of some R&R after this long session at the keyboard. I believe I'll put on a CD of blues and Dixieland tunes, pour a cup of coffee (Louisiana-style chicory blend, of course) and settle down with a good book. Let's see, will it be Ace Atkins' Crossroad Blues, Tony Dunbar's City of Beads, or Julie Smith's second Talba Wallis mystery, Louisiana Hotshot. Tough choices!
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The internet wasn't as popular then, and people didn't seem to be as familiar with searching as they are today. I'd been a book collector for most of my life, but as I started to put together a set of "tools" to locate the books I was looking for, I began to learn more and more about both books and collecting. I became more professional, learned about edition identification, dust-jacket condition, and book club editions. I discovered news groups and mail lists, search engines and techniques, the details of book sizes and specialized vocabulary, more and more.
I'd just been starting up my web site, Trussel's EcletiCity, to publish my various interests, and so it seemed natural to put up my "tool box" for book collecting, so that others could use it too. Well, of course, the more successful I got at collecting -- using these tools -- the more excited I got about the Books and Book Collecting site, and so I spent a lot of time working on it and making it more and more useful... and I hope that it still is.
But now, to some extent, times have changed, and users and search engines have gotten more sophisticated, the web grew, on-line book-dealing turned the used-book industry upside-down, and, somehow, Books and Book Collecting is still around. A few years back I made a little search engine, BookSeek, to index the online book catalogs that weren't listed with ABE or the "biggies," but now there doesn't seem to be as much meaning in it. For a number of years SetMaker has filled a little niche, helping people finish off sets with missing volumes, but now I have trouble keeping up the energy to maintain it...
Trussel's EclectiCity is my hobby, and takes up most of my free time. There are so many nooks and crannies, and my interest moves from one section to another, but undoubtedly the largest single theme is literature, with sites on Lafcadio Hearn, Howard Fast, Georges Simenon's Maigret, Prehistoric Fiction, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Og, Son of Fire...
My guiding philosophy has been to provide detailed information in small areas, and I've had a love of bibliography for almost as long as my love of books. One of my collecting areas is Howard Fast, and I created a website focusing on his works. I used my "toolbox" to locate long out-of-print magazines with stories and articles which had never been reprinted, and created a site which provided access to "new" stories - stories which wouldn't be easily found in a library... Bibliographies formed the center for many of my other literary sites.
I found other collections around the house, stamps for one, and I thought, "Why hide them in a closet, when I can display them to the world?" And so my stamp pages were born. My students' prize-winning speeches became another page, my interest in Ukiyo-e another... I kept discovering areas of my life that were no longer in the foreground, but which had consumed enough of my energy to result in something to show... and so, more pages.
The site has grown very large, and this past year the page that has captured my interest most is Inspector Maigret - perhaps because this year is the Simenon birth centennial year. But one of my all-time favorites is Og, Son of Fire. Og is an offshoot of my Prehistoric Fiction page, and it was originally almost impossible for me to locate any copies of any of the volumes of this "classic" prehistoric boy series. But as I did, and was able to dig deeper and deeper, locating the original Boys' Life magazines in which the volumes had first been serialized, well... another page was born.
I could go on and on with this, but a picture is, in fact worth a thousand words in this case, and so I simply suggest you visit EclectiCity for yourself, and share some of my world. Thanks for stopping by.
Steve Trussel
Editor's Note: Steve is too modest. His Books and Book Collecting site is almost the 'bible' of book sites-always has been and I suspect always will be.
If you put 'Charles Dickens' into the booksearch search engines, lowest price upwards, the first 19 entries cost one penny. Only at the 166th entry does the price finally reach $1.
If you repeat the experiment with 'John Grisham', you have to go to entry 390 before you get above one penny! And you have to almost reach the 1,000th entry before a whole dollar is charged!
What on earth is going on? Are these people making money?
The answer is no, they are not. They are deluding themselves that they are making money, as against actually making it. They are deluding themselves that 'making a bit on the shipping' and 'making a bit on follow on sales' are leading to a profitable business. They will have a long wait.
But you, dear reader, are already virtuously saying that you list nothing under $3, or $5, or even $10.
The point of this article is to make it clear that you, too, are deluding yourself.
With an apparent 20,000+ 'book dealers' on the web, ranging through ABE, Amazon, Half Com, and eBay, they cannot all be real.
Having followed BookFinder's 'Insider' for some time, it has finally dawned on me that the vast majority are not real book dealers - they do not understand bookselling and, more importantly, they do not understand business and probably never will. What it shows is that any fool can become a book dealer, but relatively few understand the business.
Before I get masses of hate mail from people challenging this arrogant posit, let me say that if you are a 'book dealer' for any of the following reasons, do not bother to read on - this article is not for you:
But if you genuinely want to understand why you are selling masses of books but not making any real progress, read on.
The root of the problem lies in business, not in bookselling. The harsh realities of business permeate everything and bookselling is no exception. And there seems to be a limitless capacity for people to delude themselves into thinking they are making money when they are not.
So they spend countless hours cataloging thousands of books at 1c or 50c or $1 or $3 or $5 and so on.
After a year, or two, or more, they wonder why little progress is made - they are selling lots of books, then why are they not making any real money? After all, in addition to their $1 sales, there were quite a few books that they sold for $20 or $30, and even the odd one at $200, where they made a huge 'profit'.
The clue may come from our own findings. We are established book dealers with a seven-figure annual turnover and, after careful research, we have come to the conclusion that listing any single book under the $30 mark causes us to lose money in real terms - the cost of the sale exceeds the genuine profit within that sale.
Having said that, we have thousands of books on our catalogue under $30, but they are all multiple-copy books where one catalogue entry (and just as importantly, a standard email template reply for automating the sale) covers many sales. Even then, anything under $10 starts losing money, but that is another (allied) matter and this article is focused on single-book catalogue entries.
The key to any successful business is margins. The key margin is the net margin - the total annual income less the total annual costs. This is where most people seem to fall down, by deluding themselves into conveniently 'forgetting' many costs in their drive to convince themselves that they are 'making' a 'profit'.
So now we come to the meat of this article: The real costs of selling books on the web.
Although the headings are obvious, the notes to each heading are the crux of the matter, for these are the areas where people delude themselves most.
The basic cost you know, because that is what you paid for it, but the subsidiary costs are just as real. These include the time and cost you spent negotiating, valuing, sorting, researching, packing, collating, transporting, etc. And don't forget to include the time spent on abortive purchases - these have to be paid for out of actual sales just like anything else. As have books on which you spent the same amount of time but never actually sell.
Many seem to cost the time it took to catalog the book and perhaps add a small amount for the listing fees and commissions and think that that is it. Oh no, it isn't! Every book you list has to be paid for whether you sell it or not. All the time it takes to conclude some sales - sending scans, condition reports, answering questions. And don't forget the time-wasters, intentional or otherwise: The cost of servicing enquiries that do not result in sales - once again, scans, extra information, answering questions, etc., - can be considerable, with no return whatsoever. All the hardware and software costs. All the uploading time and problems, database corrections and adjustments, emails sorting out problems, research, experimentation with different listing sites, website development - all have to be paid for.
Tremendous scope for delusion here - it's just the cost of the stamps plus a bit! No its not - it's the cost of the stamps plus a lot! A common misconception is that by using secondhand materials you are saving money. In reality it is costs just as much in time to mess around cutting, shaping, repairing, and modifying unsuitable packing materials than it does to buy new tailor-made materials in the first place (and you get a more professional looking result). And mail order costs do not end with the packing materials - the time it takes to label and document and achieve actual posting is not inconsiderable, not forgetting the cost of advertising material you may choose to include in your parcel. But even that is not the end of the matter - you have to add on the time taken in subsequent email correspondence when a parcels are late, claims, lost sales, returns, and occasionally a total loss parcel, be it legitimate or a customer being less than honest.
This is where all your background costs creep in. (Why should a customer buying a $5 book pay for those? Well, if they don't pay for it, who will?) All the office equipment, shelving, fixtures and fittings, space rental if relevant, accounting fees, general telephone and transport costs - the list goes on and on and all have to be paid for. All the books you never sell (a major factor in bookselling, be it a bookshop or a virtual bookshop) have to be costed in too.
I am sure I have laboured the point long enough (the list of costs can be extended further!) but when you add then all up, the conclusion can be startling.
We did just that. We added up the entire cost of running our mail order department for one year and divided that cost by the number of actual sales achieved in that year. There are areas where you cannot come up with exact figures, but the figure I am about to give you is pretty exact.
The unit cost for every sale achieved, when you take everything into account, averages out at around $10.
Sure, some individual sales cost less, but that hardly matters, because others cost more and the average keeps coming back to around $10.
Now, when the book being sold costs $100, or $500, or $1,000, this unit cost hardly matters - it can be absorbed nicely into the profit margin (although being aware of the unit cost helps set the margin). But if a significant proportion of the books you sell are under $20, there is cause for concern. And if you are heavily into the $5 area (or, heaven forbid, below) you are totally deluding yourself - your cost of sales is actually exceeding the revenue being returned. Supermarkets can run loss leaders for some of the time but they sure as hell don't run the overall business like that!
I can almost hear the murmurings of those who do not believe these figures: 'You've costed in WAGES!' Yes, of course I've costed in wages. Just because you do not employ anyone does not mean that you shouldn't be aiming to pay yourself as if you employed someone - preferably more! In any case, if you hope that your business will grow, sooner or later you will have to pay someone and if you haven't got your margins and price structures able to bear that, your business will collapse as soon as it has to take that strain - you never had a real business in the first place.
Another old chestnut is the line that it is better to sell the book for a few dollars than to have it sitting on the shelf doing nothing. Wrong! If selling the book is actually costing you money, it is far better that the book waits for the right customer to pay the right price than to be forever reducing your prices just to make your stock move. Yes, you create turnover, but you do not create profit and if it ignores the unit cost of selling a book, you are losing money.
One of the basic realities of bookselling that many people do not seem to grasp is that half the books you have will never sell. Just like advertising, the problem is that you never know which half. It is this reality that is one of the major factors in the need for the apparent high margins needed on the books that you do sell. (The other major factor is the labor-intensive nature of the business.) Which is why you have to make sure that the books that you do sell include a proper profit margin. This has always been true for the B&M bookshop and it is just as true for the virtual bookshop.
If I have convinced you, what can you do about it?
You can do nothing, keep on having fun, and enjoy the fact that you are part of a movement of thousands of others intent on driving the price of every book on the web down to a penny.
Or you can wake up and realise that there is a lot more to selling books than making a few good 'finds' and listing them a little bit cheaper than the other booksellers and therefore contributing to the downward spiral.
Start learning.
Start listing upwards, not downwards.
And wait for a future article where I hope to expand the theme further ……
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Stuart Manley, co-owner, Barter Books, Alnwick, Northumberland, England
http://www.barterbooks.co.uk
By: Catlin Rice
Can a standardized, scripted reading program meet the diverse needs of a class full of unique students? During my credential program at the University of California in Santa Barbara, I was able to observe a scripted reading class on a daily basis for six weeks while serving as an observer/student teacher as in a “Reading for Success” class.
This class was composed of students who tested below their grade level on the standardized language assessment test administered at the end of the previous year. These lower level readers and writers are placed in the “Reading for Success” class to develop their basic language skills.
The state of California has developed a basic phonics and vocabulary development program, called “Breaking the Code,” which relies on alphabet cards and scripted instruction to teach phonics, spelling and vocabulary. The “Reading for Success” class and its curriculum were based on the program, “Breaking the Code.”
The role of the teacher in a scripted reading class is dramatically different than that of a traditional teacher. The teacher gets all the materials necessary to orchestrate a lesson, as well as a script to follow. Prior to the first day of class, I met the teacher I would be observing. She was a young, fresh, excited teacher who had just earned the title of “reading specialist.” She was given the sole responsibility for improving the school's reading scores by implementing this new scripted reading program, a daunting task for one person, since the school had close to a thousand students.
On the first day of class, I entered the classroom prepared to “observe” every detail and learn from this woman the secrets of teaching kids to read. Needless to say I was disappointed.
She began reading from this script, which can only be described as bland and impersonal. The students never had a chance to get excited or interested in the class because from the first minute, it was as though they were watching an informational video. The teacher had no room to deviate from the dull and detailed script, which dictated instruction down to the minute.
I felt very disappointed that I would have to spend the next six weeks sitting in the back of this classroom watching this scripted program, instead of observing the fresh ideas and enthusiasm of this young teacher. I could not even begin to imagine how the students were feeling. I could not help but think about the best teachers I had in school. The most memorable teachers, the ones whose names I still remember, were the people with the most dynamic personalities. Those teachers were passionate about their subject matter and were effective in infusing students with a curiosity and desire to explore the subject.
This scripted program sucked all the personality out of the class because there were no opportunities or time for this teacher to incorporate parts of herself into the lesson.
The “Breaking the Code” program also provides materials for teachers to hang on their classroom walls to facilitate instruction. Among these materials were large alphabet cards, which were reminiscent of the alphabet cards found on the walls in kindergarten and first grade. Despite the students' below average test scores and inability to read and write at their grade level, many of the students expressed their belief that they did not belong in such a remedial class. I believe this is a direct result of the inappropriate level of materials used in the “Breaking the Code” program.
Although the students in the class definitely needed basic phonics, decoding and reading skills, the materials provided by the program were misguided and not geared to the proper age level of the students. The result was a classroom full of students who felt insulted by and frustrated with the base material.
The materials used in a classroom and the exercises used to develop student learning must appeal to the students' age level and interest. I am convinced that successful language development must present the material in an interesting and engaging way. Language development in scripted classes tends to focus on very basic skills and use mundane methods to practice those skills. Variety in terms of lessons, activities, and assignments are all necessary elements of any successful language development class. Unfortunately many state-adopted programs, like “Breaking the Code,” lack the mental stimulation and variety necessary to sustain student interest.
After spending six weeks observing this scripted reading class I would argue that such a standardized reading program is not an effective tool for teaching students to read or motivating them academically.
I have since had many conversations with veteran teachers who have been forced to teach scripted programs after years of experience developing their own curricula. I recently spoke with one woman who teaches at the elementary level. She eloquently equated teaching a scripted program with the feeling of being a butterfly trapped in a glass box, continually and futilely beating her wings against the glass.
She said she feels as though she is dying creatively due to the lack of freedom she feels in her own classroom. She has over 20 years of teaching experience and is no longer able to use that experience to design lessons or personalize instruction.
After listening to her frustrations, I was left with this question: Why are experienced teachers or even human beings needed to facilitate this type of instruction? It seems ridiculous to require someone to continue his/her education to enter the field of teaching if he/she will be required to read from a script and use only designated materials for instruction. In teaching credential programs, student teachers learn - and are urged - to use their love of a subject to design dynamic lessons that will effectively engage all students. A large component of teacher training in my experience at UCSB focused on child psychology, diversity of learning styles, creative lesson design, etc… Scripted programs do not require that teachers know or put any of this knowledge into practice.
The enthusiasm, experience and personality of the instructor are missing from scripted programs. How can teachers pass on their love of reading to their students if they are unable to personalize their lessons? Every student is different and has a slightly different learning style, which should be reflected in the instruction of any subject.
The personal element, which the “Breaking the Code” program lacks, is necessary to create a nurturing classroom environment. This program reflects some of the larger problems facing the educational system in America, which is moving away from personalized towards standardized instruction and assessment. As an English teacher, I feel this is a dangerous shift that will result in increased student apathy towards reading and writing due to lack of interest.
Catlin Rice teaches 9th & 10th grade English at a Northern California high school. She received her Bachelor's degree from UCLA, earned her Masters and teaching certificate at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Betcha didn't know that Sherlock Holmes had five different cookbooks? Bet he didn't know either, what's more I bet Mrs. Hudson didn't know. We all know about Alice B. Toklas' cookbook, but did you know that there's a Hemingway Cookbook? A Steinbeck Cookbook? How about a Jane Austen Cookbook? Mind you, NONE of these people spring to mind as people most happy puttering around in a kitchen. But that doesn't stop people from pretending or publishing for that matter.
This rant isn't really about literary cookbooks, those cookbooks that are a better read than most NYT hypermoderns (without them some of us would never get up at two in the morning to whip up a three egg omelet); it's about those cookbooks that masquerade as part of a writer's opus. Those that exist only to give the avid Aubrey & Maturin fanatic a Christmas present, something they can't possibly cook out of but that looks impressive as hell when they unwrap it.
By far the most cookbooks cum literature have attached themselves to kids book series like limpets. EVERY storybook series that warms the cockles of your heart also has recipes for self same cockles: Alice in Wonderland, Wind in the Willows, Wizard of Oz, Beatrix Potter, Secret Garden, Winnie the Pooh, Little House buy the cookbook, Anne of Green Gables cooks Cajun....Is it just me or does anyone else find Peter Rabbit's Cookbook a little unsettling? And just how many of these things have edible recipes in them? The thought of curds and whey makes me gag and unless Walker's Shortbread has gone out of business in the last ten minutes my guess is not many of these are going to ever see the top of a kitchen counter. Yet we buy them...well, cause they're cool.
At first glance there seems to be a cookbook for every fan base; Barbara Pym's, Frances Parkinson Keyes', Marjorie Rawlings', Mark Twain's, George Bernard Shaw's, Pearl S. Buck's, Len Deighton's. The mystery crowd seems to lean towards cookery at the drop of a corpse, Nero Wolf's and Lord Peter Wimsey's, and for some reason ones written by cats ...the Cat Who whatevered, Sneaky Pie's Cookbook (to me a cat lover's cookbook has a really bad ring to it). But upon further study I find there are some areas that aren't being catered to:
Where is my Mike Hammer Cookbook? "meat, potatoes, coffee, meat, potatoes, whiskey, cigarettes."
Where is the Proust Cookbook? "1001 Recipes For Madelines."
Where is my Sylvia Plath Cookbook? "preheat oven to 350, insert head, remove when done."
Where is the Tolstoy Cookbook? "potato soup prepared with or without weevils."
Where is Emily Dickinson's “Home Cooking for Agoraphobes.”?
And there just HAS to be a Agatha Christie Dinner Party Cookbook; how else would you ever get anyone to sit down with a detective at the table?
Hemingway and Steinbeck have cookbooks in their name but why not "F. Scott Fitzgerald: a Bar Guide"?
But then we would have to have one each for Brendan Behan, Charles Buchowski, and Dashiell Hammett.
I think Ms. Parker would prefer "How to Order Room Service....and Bar Guide."
What? no Tolkien cookbook? Is it because Hobbit's all taste like chicken?
What would a Hunter Thompson cookbook be like? I suppose just a DIY guide to psychopharmacology.
I would say there is as yet no Harry Potter Cookbook, but I haven't checked for one in the last twenty minutes, so I could be wrong.
Quick n Dirty list of Biblio-cookbooks:
Alice B. Toklas Cookbook, Toklas, Alice B.
Barbara Pym Cookbook, Pym, Barbara
Bookmen's Trio: Ventures In Literary Philandering, Blumenthal, Walter Hart
Books And My Food: Literary Quotations And Original Recipes For Every Day In The Year, Cary, Elisabeth Luther
Cat Who Cookbook, Murphy, Julie
Cross Creek Cookery, Rawlings, Marjorie
Dining With Sherlock Holmes, Rosenblatt, Julia Carlson
Gone With The Wind Cookbook, Mitchell, Margaret
Green Eggs And Ham Cookbook, Seuss, Dr.
Len Deighton's Cookstrip Cookbook, Deighton, Len
Lillian Beckwith's Hebridean Cookbook, Beckwith, Lillian
Lobscouse And Spotted Dog: A Gastronomic Companion To The Aubrey/maturin Novels, Grossman, Anne Chotzinoff
Madame Maigret's Recipes, Courtine, Robert J.
Mary Poppins In The Kitchen, Travers, P. L.
Mrs. Rasmussen's Book Of One-Arm Cookery, Lasswell, Mary
Mud Pies And Other Recipes: A Cookbook For Dolls, Winslow, Marjorie
Pearl S. Buck's Oriental Cookbook, Buck, Pearl
Peter Rabbit's Cookery Book, Emerson, Anne
Plots & Pans: Recipes And Antidotes From The Mystery Writers Of America Webb, Nancy And Jean Francis, Intro By Isaac Asimov
Sherlock Holmes Cookbook Or Mrs. Hudson's Stoveside Campanion, Wright, Sean
Sherlock Holmes Victorian Cookbook, Bonnell, William
Sneaky Pie's Cookbook For Mystery Lovers, Brown, Sneaky Pie
Star Trek Cookbook, Phillips, Ethan
Star Wars Cookbook Wookie Cookies & Other, Davis, Robin
Stone Soup To Bagels: A Children's Literature Cookbook, Amster, Barbara
The Alice In Wonderland Cookbook, Fisher, John
The Anne Of Green Gables Cookbook, Macdonald, Kate
The Beatrix Potter Country Cookery Book, Lane, Margaret
The Book Lover's Cookbook: Recipes Inspired By Celebrated Works Of Literature And The Passages That Feature Them
The Boxcar Children Cookbook, Blain, Diane
The Charles Dickens Cookbook, Marshall, Brenda
The Frances Parkinson Keyes Cookbook, Keyes, Frances Parkinson
The George Bernard Shaw Vegetarian Cookbook, Bates, Dorothy R.
The Hemingway Cookbook, Boreth, Craig
The Jane Austen Cookbook, Black, Maggie
The Literary Gourmet, Wolfe, Linda
The Little House Cookbook, Walker, Barbara
The Lord Peter Wimsey Cookbook, Ryan, Elizabeth Bond
The Louisa May Alcott Cookbook, Anderson, Gretchen
The Mark Twain Library Cookbook
The Nancy Drew Cookbook, Keene, Carolyn
The Nero Wolfe Cookbook, Stout, Rex
The Pooh Cookbook, Ellison, Virginia H.
The Secret Garden Cookbook, Burnett, Frances Hodgson
The Sesame Street Cookbook, Tornborg, Pat
The Sherlock Holmes Cookbook, Mills, Charles A.
The Sherlock Holmes Cookbook By Mrs Hudson, Cradock, Fanny
The Star Wars Cookbook Darth Malt And More Galactic Recipes, Frankeny, Frankie
The Steinbeck House Cookbook, Hillyard, Kay
The Storybook Cookbook, Macgregor, Carol
The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz Cook Book, Bayley, Monica
Walt Disney's Winnie-The-Pooh Cookbook, Illustrated By Color
Wind In The Willows Cookbook, Boxer, Arabella
Winnie The Pooh's Teatime Cookbook, Milne, A. A.
Wond'rous Fare, Stallworth, Lyn
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By: David B. Ogle, Proprietor of The Antiquarian Archive, Los Altos, California
Shortly after the turn of the last century, four men and one young woman were engaged in an unusual enterprise from their small suite of offices in Manhattan, little more than a stone's throw from the heart of the city's book publishing industry near Union Square. The location was no accident, since publishers were the most frequent buyers of their products. Known as The Decorative Designers, the firm had by this time established itself as a large-volume purveyor of a most unusual commodity--the graphic designs for decorated cloth book bindings.
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We have had many laudatory comments about the designs, as well as some inquiries from fellow book dealers who would like to sell them to their customers. As a result, we have developed an attractive discount schedule for resellers. The bookplates can also be used as premium gifts for important clients. Pricing and physical details can be found at the site above. Questions can also be directed to me personally at the address below. Happy viewing!
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We invite you to visit our interactive website at:
http://www.ippi.com/antiquarian-archive.html
Note: Accompanying photos are copyrighted in the name of David B. Ogle.
By: Felix Stenert
stenertfelix@aol.com
Editor's Note: Felix Stenert is a graduate student in Germany, and this article is a portion of his master's thesis (we will probably have other applicable portions of his thesis in future Standard issues, with Felix's permission). Felix is getting a degree in library science from Fachhochschule f|r das vffentliche Bibliothekswesen in Bonn (FhvBB) (University of Applied Sciences, Bonn/Germany) and he is writing his thesis on libraries using online bookshops and databases, and the advantages and possible risks to libraries in using them. I think this will give us online booksellers, in particular, important information about our business from the viewpoint of libraries and librarians and how to work with them. Footnotes and bibliographical references are available from Felix, at the email address above, if needed. Thank you, Felix, for allowing us to learn from your research!
The multiple offerings of the online antiquarian book market are already comprehensive and are an important innovation of this "fusty" and old-fashioned thought-of branch of bookselling. Not all of the possibilities and opportunities are utilised by the libraries, or the libraries aren't able to use them completely.
Today there is a splendidly constructed choice of online-magazines and publications on the (antiquarian) book market, like the IOBA Standard, The Bookologist or the German Aus dem Antiquariat - Onlinemagazin für Antiquare und Büchersammler. There is also the Insider mailing list of BookFinder.com, an often-attended forum for questions and suggestions in the world of books, collectors and booksellers.
All these publications are not limited to just the topic of antiquarian books and book-selling, but include a number of highly important things like history of books, distribution and printing, preservation of books and printed materials, book art and bibliography. All of these are things of interest not only for the bookseller, but also for the librarian.
A well-developed compilation and listing of antiquarian online-bookshops from all around the globe is available through the Bibliographischer Werkzeugkasten by the HBZ. The HBZ (Hochschulbibliothekszentrum) is the Online Utility and Service Center for Academic Libraries in North Rhine-Westphalia/Germany.
- Inquiry and order -
The internet brought a number of innovations and global contact by e-mail making international communication much more simple and much faster. But a number of libraries still use the traditional way of communication (by letter, by fax) to forward their orders to the bookshop or the library supplier - though the number of online orders or by e-mail is increasing in the last few years and is becoming more important. In a number of cases the order by a library is still an administrative act and all communication with the bookshop has to be in written or printed form, which excludes online-orders or orders by e-mails (or else they have to print hardcopy of all documents). Usually the library isn't in a hurry when ordering; however, it might be a good deal to contact the seller by phone or e-mail when the librarian finds a rare and long-wanted book to have it reserved so that nobody else is able to buy the book in the meantime.
In looking for the different possibilities the search for old, out of prints and rare books that the new media opens, there will be unknown ways so far that we are not able to use them.
Most of the publications written and printed in the last several decades and centuries are simple to find through the main search opportunities of the individual book-platform and could be ordered in a direct and easy way. Especially smaller (special) libraries are the winners in the new ways that the online-business provides. In the past there were these printed catalogues, arranged by an author, title or subject and all entries of a number of catalogues had to be looked through and proofed, before you eventually found the wanted book. Today there is the easy, clean and comfortable possibility to search not only one seller, but also nationally and internationally. That indicates a combination of the acts of bibliographic verification and ordering in just one simple step.
The systematical search for special subjects without any precise interest in single titles or authors or without a knowledge of concrete books for your enquiry is still not as simple. The different offerings like subject- or free text-search, or browsing though categories still isn't sufficient to find what you really want. Printed catalogues for special themes or subjects are often better and easier to handle - the results of the search are better and more precise. The browsing, one of the favourites of the layman, is not that important for a serious and professional search in the library.
Before a definite order there are several steps to do and, in a number of libraries, there is more than one catalogue to proof before the order will be placed. Not all of them are electronic or an OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue), but also card and book form catalogues (especially for smaller or very old libraries). The traditional print catalogue is in this case the easiest way; you can write in it, make notes and give it to your colleague next door. On the other hand the internet gives the opportunity to search trough the stacks of bookshops around the globe, never editing catalogues or sending them to your library as in the past.
As the main search menus are easy to work with and catalogues of individual book sellers are combined at larger platforms or search machines like the BookFinder or AddAll, the librarian is able to react immediately on current acquisition requests or inquiries by customers of the library. At the same time you can check the desiderata list of non-available books and are able to close gaps in the libraries' collections.
There are several antiquarian booksellers who search the OPACs of libraries and offer them books directly that are missing in the stacks of a (special subject) collection - but this will be only an exceptional case, only high-priced or rare books by an individual author or on a special subject will be offered that way.
Often an analysis or examination of the requests given by the libraries' customers for the inter-library loan may show gaps or deficits in the local collection - and most of the requested books are still available at antiquarian bookshops.
While reading reviews or critics on new books there will may be mentioned past editions or books printed in the past (mostly out of print) which have a certain similarity to the now announced publication that are even better or will complement each other, with the planned new purchase. So it might be better to acquire the important work from the past in a used copy than to copy the new one - via the internet you will find the one you are looking for and will have details (bibliographic dates, availability, price) in just a few seconds.
Your search might not be completely successful at all, but there is often the chance to receive an offer for the wanted book when you put out a request on a billboard or want list. This is probably not successful in every case, but it's often worth trying. Some of these boards are searched at regular times by automatic search robots or requests will be forwarded to a special subject book shop.
- Compare the prices! - A need? -
It's a wonderful side effect of the online-bookshops with all these antiquarian books that you are now able to compare the prices in just a second. Even if your library is traditional and still orders from the printed catalogues received by mail, it's enlightening and fun to compare the prices of different copies at different shops.
Almost all online-platforms for antiquarian books make it possible to sort the matching items by price - just to be right. This is definitely not a call for acquisitions as cheap as possible, though helpful in times of poor public budgets and stagnating or decreasing library budgets. But it's an observation that the price for the same book in the identical edition and condition differs in a relation around 1 to 3, or even higher.
It's not the inclination of libraries to buy the cheapest copy available; long-time business relations and trust between library and bookseller or a full-service procurer is certainly more important than a little savings. It is not worthwhile to invest time for a search just to find a copy a couple of pennies cheaper. But if there are noticeable differences between the prices - you have to use them, especially in times where public money is rare.
There is a special thing in the German speaking countries (Austria, Germany and Switzerland) not that known in the USA and the UK: price maintenance - one book : one price. There is only this one price for a new book at the shops, no discounts, no special price. The seller isn't allowed to sell it below this price.
But it's totally different in the second-hand or antiquarian market; the price will be calculated by the individual seller.
The customer hasn't got this choice between all identical copies as it is the case by a new publication, a used book has its own characteristics like condition, edition, provenance, inscriptions, etc. Every older book is a kind of unique copy with its characteristics, and the prices will differ depending on these characteristics.
The internet brought a never-known high level of transparency and the possibility to compare (the price, the condition, the individual copy). Prices of a publication are visible at a single look, but this is not the end of the "mystery of the prices" and the large number of internet marketplaces for books is not the end for local bookshops and auctioneers.
The seller with high-end prices now will have some problems to sell ordinary or regular items at the best prices. There might be a tendency to decrease the high prices and to increase the lower ones, building an average price for a book - and the bookshop in the middle of nowhere now definitely knows how to price a book, even if he has no shop on Madison or Park Avenue as through the internet he is able to contact customers nearly every place on earth.
In the market for old and very rare books, for exclusive copies and collectors' items, the prices may not differ that much or that blatantly, but it's worthwhile to compare, even for books worth a couple of thousands.
It is significant to see how many sellers react on catchwords like "first edition," "signed," "with a print," "collectors' edition" and include these words in their descriptions - while regularly posting a higher price for same. Often it's no odds it's really a scarce item; the first edition might be the only edition or all copies of a publication may be signed, so it's hard to understand why you'd want to pay a price two or three times higher than a cheaper offer.
Let's see one example :
On the other hand, there are books that are not available at the bookshops; this does not make them "rare" or "scarce;" maybe there are just no interested customers or the subject seems to be quite unattractive. In the worst case a book not available through the large search engines is just trash nobody looking for.
While you are often able to find a lower price at antiquarian bookshops, a few years after printing, a number of monographs, fictional books and exhibition catalogues, other things like reference literature, catalogue raisonnés or collectors' edition will become more and more valuable in this time and mostly unavailable at their original publishers price (in best condition).
Even if the library does not use all the possibilities of the online-bookshops for used and rare books and still orders from printed catalogues and lists, take a look into one or two internet-resources and do a critical comparison of prices.
Especially on the occasions of larger acquisitions (like collections) or expensive single works, it's a kind of need to make yourself familiar with the market and its prices. And don't forget the auctions; a number of titles could be better and even cheaper bought at auctions than in a bookshop with fixed prices. It's the responsibility of the librarian to use the financial resources in an adequate way and to hesitate before paying too high pricing. Saved money can be used for further acquisitions.
A number of libraries regularly receive gifts from the customers or from the public audience and some of them include scarce and rare books (most of it is just used paper and trash!). Not all of these books will enter the library's stacks, as they are still in the library, they are old-fashioned and obsolete, or their subject matter does not fit the library and its audience.
So the library might try to sell the better ones to a bookseller to raise money for the library (the other books may enter a charity sale or a flea market). The internet helps to find (special) shops who will acquire the books and helps to estimate the rare and scarce items between them - but it has to be clear that we will get only a part of the final price at the bookshops.
In difference to the acquisition of new books by libraries only a very few sellers of used, out-of-print and rare books have special discounts for institutional customers such as libraries. But a number of libraries order regularly and for higher sums and they are considered as reliable customers with good payment behaviour, and as with other booksellers ordering, many sellers give a special colleague discount at 5 to 15 percent. If the books are ordered directly from the shops and not via a platform like Abebooks or ZVAB, the shops don't have to pay fees for the sale, so they might give a discount for larger orders. The library has to ask for a discount and the seller should give it - support your customers, support the library!
- Online use for bibliographic checking -
No library will give priority to information or dates from bookseller listings or antiquarian platforms on bibliographic checking; there are the catalogues from the most important libraries on earth (Library of Congress, British Library and all the others) available online - most of them with an national library or national bibliographic character). The choice is wide and they will be used first.
But from time to time there is this observation: that you have a book, the actual publication, in your hands and you aren't able to find a single listing at any library (even the biggest and most important ones) at all.
Especially for non-book trade publications never seen at the bookshops it may be hard to find a library, although this object is cited in a text or is included in an important bibliography. Even with very poor details and only a little endurance you have the chance to find it with a free text search at one of the bookshops. I was looking for a Jasper Johns catalogue published by a New York Gallery in 1989 and found no entry at any library on both sides of the ocean, but it was quite easy to find a copy through BookFinder and Abebooks.
- To borrow or to buy : The inter-library loan -
If you take a look through the order requests for the inter-library loan by the libraries, customers might find a special interest in subjects or titles where the local library can not totally satisfy or locate a gap into your local collection. And most of the relevant books and papers printed in the last 200 years will be easily available for acquisition in the book shops.
And there is still another opportunity to use the antiquarian online-catalogues in the inter-library loan, more a "buy" than a "borrow."
Although the fees for inter-library loans are not very high, the internal costs for this service are expensive (too high). On the other hand, a number of clients using this service will also pay a little more to hold the book (and not have to return it after a couple of weeks) - so they will buy instead of borrow. Books published after WW2 are mostly available at a reasonable price. This will not only save human resources in the library, but make a number of people very happy, when they can hold a long-wanted books in their hands--maybe a picture book from the time of their childhood--and it's theirs, they don't have to return it! It's so easy to order, but so many people don't know anything about the today's possibilities in online-bookshops, so the librarian will order a copy for them at the information desk and the library-client will receive the book and the invoice just a few days later by mail - or you just give them advice and they will order independently on their own.
- From the virtual basket to the actual parcel: Order and delivery -
If any matching titles were found during a book search that the library wants to order for its collection, the possibilities to order are different: to order online or to order offline (letter, fax, etc.). Some online bookshops have an option to print an order slip (ZVAB.com does it). In many libraries any order has to be documented separately and step by step, so they need a written order beside the invoice papers; they print the e-mails or save them into their electronic systems.
It's still a problem to give the payment details in e-mail or online order windows as it's not 100 percent secure and most of the German or European libraries are not able to pay by credit card or automatic bank debit. Sometimes a registration is needed to order a first time, which is definitely okay, as it prevents the library and the seller from fraudulent use (packets never ordered and other things) - a single registration for the library seems the best way, with a contact to the acquisition department.
Most bookshops in Germany will send the books without any further notice by invoice to the library, and in contrast to some online sellers, they charge postage - the German amazon.de will deliver all new books and other orders Euro 20 and up without any postage charging. Most sellers will use the cheap book or media rate postage, heavier things by small parcel or packet. The German postal service gives insurance for all parcels up to Euro 500 and just for the very rare and expensive works is it necessary to insure separately.
Only very few sellers use other services like postal; some (but not many) use UPS or similar German firms.
Orders from overseas sellers are no problem at all, but details like payment and rates of shipment have to be clear, and it is no problem to contact the shop by e-mail, fax or phone. But the postage for larger and heavier works ordered abroad or overseas are high; often the charges and fees are higher than the actual book.
Especially when ordering from the USA, Canada and Australia, the library must decide whether it wants airmail or surface mail shipment. For large and heavy orders, the M-bag is a wonderful alternative way to send books overseas, but good wrapping is necessary. High valued items have to be documented and insured. For a single book ordered in the USA the charges between air and surface mail differ only a very little bit: The "Flat Rate Envelope" for global priority mail by the USPS (United States Postal Service) allows sending up to four lbs. at $9.00.
In any case, a written (typed or printed) invoice is essential and an email is not a full substitute for that; the invoice is the most important document in the libraries administration! There are sellers who send books without any invoice, just including a delivery note without the individual book price or the postage - e.g. Alibris never includes an invoice! Also a handwritten note on a post-it-sheet saying "Thanks a lot" is not the paperwork libraries need. Some sellers will send invoice and books separately, which is okay since all invoiced books will be send in one parcel.
The total absence of any papers, no delivery note and no invoice is additionally a problem for the library when the books were ordered abroad and customs will open the parcel…
- clearing and payment (the problem of credit cards at libraries) -
In the business connections between bookseller and library the clearing by invoice is the most usual way, as only a very few libraries can accept a payment requirement of cash in advance or automatic bank debit.
Some shops regularly only accept orders by bank debit (like the German Zweitausendeins, www.zweitausendeins.de
In the beginning of e-commerce there were a number of firms that did not allow any invoicing; nowadays most of them will ship this way (for private as institutional customers).
Most orders done in Germany will be sent with an invoice without any question. Sometimes you have to ask if the seller accepts new or unknown clients or requires payment in advance. A lot of booksellers in central Europe, like Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, also have German bank accounts, as Germany is the most important market in Europe, so there will be no problem with paying in such cases. Only occasionally will the library will be asked for any references and a deposit is not usually required or perhaps maybe only on rare high-priced items. But normally no such payment is needed.
But there is still the problem with orders from the non-German speaking countries and from overseas: most of these transactions will require a credit card. I'm not really familiar with the situation of US libraries, but only a very few German libraries have a credit card to order books.
On the other side, there are a lot of interesting things on the American continent and important acquisitions to fill blatant gaps in collections. The usage of private credit cards by members of the libraries staff isn't a satisfying alternative way. There are only a few of the larger sellers in the US with a German account, as they are also participating at German fairs and shows. Lame Duck Books and Arslibri, both housed at Boston, have this arrangement.
An international bank transfer will be used from time to time. It takes a long time and the fees are quite high, however. It may be a way for larger or important orders, but no library will order an ordinary book this way.
Other kinds of payment like cash on delivery (COD) aren't used in the practise.
In the last few years, more and more libraries in private hands (firms, etc.) and foundations as well as some public institutions, received credit cards to use responsibly for their orders and acquisitions programs.
Special transfer payments offered by book platforms to individual sellers, as abebooks.com does, are not available for libraries.
Let's hope that there will be other ways of e-payment and more credit cards available at libraries in the future.
- A resume -
Today there are a number of ways to use the online databases of the antiquarian booksellers for libraries.
The search for special authors or title will be so much easier than the "look-though-the-printed-catalogues-method.” Mostly you can now find a matching item in a few seconds. In the past you had to look through stacks of catalogues or ask booksellers - now you will save a lot of time.
The weak point at almost all online bookshops (for new as well as for used) is the search for individual subjects or thematical interests; the number of matching titles by browsing through categories is too large and is not satisfying, as a large part of listed titles is not relevant at all. Here some more future innovations are needed to make the subject or special interest search easier and more convenient - but this is a problem with most library-OPACs, too.
The enormously high number of individual books and titles in just one pool opens new ways of acquiring books - the chance to find a wanted book are higher than before, and now you can compare several copies of different sellers in condition and price.
Every library has to express its own criteria for acquisition, i.e., whether to buy from the cheapest seller, from the well-known seller with a long serious business contact, or on other points.
The bookshops will be used in the daily work and service of the library to acquire books, but also to find bibliographic dates and at the information and reference desk.
The term "out of print" and "unavailable or no longer available" has changed into "available in a used copy" or "look at the antiquarian seller," so knowledge about the most important places on the internet for books is a need and a must for all librarians, in the public libraries as well as in the research library!
It's hard to define the future for the antiquarian book market, but also for a number of years the classic store will be there, the collector will look trough the stacks, will touch the volumes, look at the binding and browse through the pages, not touched for a couple of years. Most of them are not interested in special titles, but just love books - the old school bibliophile.
The internet will be a second and very easy way for the seller to offer his books to millions of people throughout the world and the individual customer will find most of the books he is looking for.
But the internet business will not be the only way or the solution; scarcely a seller will offer rare and very rare offerings through the web. The most important works will never be sold online, as the customer will still want to feel it with his own hands and see it with his own eyes before he will pay a cent!
And it's hard to imagine seeing a multi-thousand dollar book just beside a penny-priced novel paperback - but you will find them in the internet: books for a single cent and books with a five digit price. Some of the sellers have serious problems with putting their important books into this virtual flea market… and they are right. Special platforms are needed for special (rare, signed, collectors' edition, etc.) books - http://www.bibliopoly.com and http://www.worldbookdealers.com may be examples for a higher than the average market.
At libraries and at bookshops the future won't be either classic style or virtual, but will be “as well as.” Only the combination and close connection of both ways, of old and new, will be the future!
About the author
Felix Stenert, 25, is a librarian. He studied at the Fachhochschule für das öffentliche Bibliothekswesen Bonn (University of Library Sciences, Bonn/Germany). This text is an excerpt from his diploma thesis. The complete text is currently available only in German. Comments and suggestions are always welcome at stenertfelix@aol.com.
By: Shirley Bryant
I've been musing about something, brought on by the reactions of my husband and my sister to some of my risk-taking behaviors in buying books (they're horrified; wouldn't dream of risking the amounts I do but have grown used to my ways and seem to now feel I'll guess right 90% of the time--probably). Granted, most of the time, those behaviors have a 'sort of', halfway, educated guess behind them (maybe that 'book sense' Aimee spoke of), but some of my behavior is just flat willingness to take a financial risk on books.
I suppose some of you are just straight business-people and books 'could be' any other product. That you never buy without knowing ahead of time that you can make a profit on what you buy. But for many of us the main attraction to selling books is the fun of the hunt, the thrill of finding sleepers and, most of the time, learning something new about books or some esoteric subject. And we each have a personal threshold of risk tolerance that we're comfortable with. For me, depending on the state of my bank account, the level is $500-$1,000. I'm willing to lose that much money if I guess wrong on book buys (yeah, it has happened). I'd be horrified to lose that much gambling in Vegas or betting on the horses though I operate much the same way with that type of gambling-decide ahead of time how much I'm willing to lose and come back grateful for the fun I've had and happy if I bring any money home. The levels are just much, much lower with the horses or Vegas.
But…with books, I guess that's my personal form of gambling, my addiction. Even if I buy books I'd never personally read, I still feel like I have something with value-even if the market tells me differently. It's not the same as buying artwork by unknown artists (which I've certainly done) just because the object pleases my eye or speaks to me; a slightly grubby book that I think is a jewel in the rough doesn't have much visual appeal. In fact, much of the time, when buying books, I look for the obscure, the weird, the truly odd that may, in some cases, be personally ho-hum or even offensive. I do, of course, buy my bread-and-butter books, those I know I can sell and for what amount. But to stick to only those would soon become so boring I'd abandon bookselling-like I've abandoned other careers when they became boring.
So, what is it? Do antiques dealers have the same addiction? Do sellers of any object that has no absolute value have the same addiction to the hunt? Is this the same addiction people have who shop compulsively? Do we get an emotional 'rush' from the idea of finding that sleeper, or are we hooked on the buying, itself-and use books to channel that buying into an acceptable behavior? Or are we mental gadflys, who constantly need a knowledge fix and books are our route to that end?
And, for us online booksellers, I think we're actually exposing ourselves-willingly-to two addictions. Do you get withdrawal symptoms if your computer goes down, or if your ISP goes offline for a day? I panic, no doubt about it. And that addiction has progressed (a bad sign in addictions!). So, not only am I addicted to buying books (or buying, period), I'm also addicted to the internet and my contact with other addictees (is that a word?) and access to the unlimited world of knowledge out there.
It seems to me that our addiction, at least in buying books, differs in a couple of important aspects from more traditional addictions. It doesn't necessarily progress; we don't necessarily (though I'm sure all of us at one time or another have done so) do without necessities just to acquire more books on a given day. We are also willing to let go of our 'finds' and to share knowledge among ourselves-knowledge that cuts into our own chances of making more finds (though perhaps that is to get others hooked?). Granted, we normally want money in exchange for that letting go, though most of us have been known to give away more than a few books, and most of us give away knowledge every day. So maybe it is just the excitement of the buy that has us hooked. Or the smell or feel of the books. Or perhaps it is the endless quest for knowledge.
As for my internet addiction, I don't quite know what to say about that one. I like being able to reach at least semi-like minded people 24/7, I like knowing I can find almost any obscure information (notice I'm not saying I'll understand it all) 24/7. I even like the speed at which I live now, though I gripe about it. The other side of the coin is that maybe, just maybe, some of us are better equipped to deal with people via the internet. We always have the choice of not answering emails immediately-who's to know if we're at our computers or not? So we don't have the same instant demands made on us that interfacing with people in the 'real world' requires of us. Plus there is the attraction-very real for me, anyway-that we're dealing with other people in a mind-to-mind direct manner. No physical, cultural, ethnic, age, sex, geographical or social considerations really enter into our internet relationships unless we choose to have them do so. Political and religious-yes, sometimes, but hopefully kept to a minimum just as they are in the physical world unless dealing with someone you know well. But if you find a person interesting online, do you stop to think of how old that person is, what they look like, whether you like their kids, etc.? Or do you just relate to that person's ideas and intellect?
So, is it part and parcel of the type of people we are? Are we evolving or regressing as humans? Or have some of us oddballs just finally found a warm and fuzzy environment for ourselves? Or am I all alone on this??
By: Kathleen Gonzalez
sales@booksmaps.com
A bookseller is always either making decisions or postponing them.
About five years ago I attended an auction and acquired a station wagon load of books and ephemera. This would not be an auction that would fade from memory. I bought someone else's memories and I still have some of them.
Even before I drove down the driveway, I acquired another memory that also won't go away. I stuffed my little wagon and could not fit it all in. I had to make decisions about what to leave behind. I sorted and resorted then told the auctioneer I had to abandon six boxes. The staff was nearly ready to leave, rain was starting, and I made the mistake of looking out the side view mirror to see a helper heave the boxes in a dumpster. This auction was held in the 'suburbs of a small town.' How would any salvager know to look there? If found and I hadn't sorted carefully, someone else could profit or enjoy. But, this probably wasn't a road frequented by curious dumpster-peekers and the approaching clouds were black. Those rejects weren't even going to make it to the dump. It was very hard on a recycler.
I took all the ephemera. In the following weeks, I started going through the books, then the ephemera with the letters last. I had already learned that the father in the family manufactured a product of relevance and held patents. He must have been important in this town -- he was an employer. He was able to travel to Washington, correspond with some politicians, and attend an Inaugural. The town was also home to a very famous American who was not hyped by the auctioneers so I wasn't expecting anything, but I hoped I would come across something. All I found was an envelope with the famous person's name on it.
Instead, I became fascinated by a letter from a soldier to a home town girl, a daughter in the family (or the daughter in the family). I read another, then another, then sorted every letter from him to her. There were all kinds of other letters and all were easy to toss. Not his. I saved his. I couldn't explain my actions.
The time period was in the 1950's. I knew some of those years well. Crinolines, carefully ironed blouses with little collars, hair close to the head and sometimes held with bobby pins. There was an obsession with the social life of the school and post-graduation theorizing about what was going to happen to everyone and sustained gossip. I shouldn't have been interested in these letters as I hold turn-of-the century and up through the thirties interests, but there was something about his letters that chronicled his attempts to correspond and the hope he held of winning her interest. He was lovesick. She didn't seem to return the sickness, but kept writing to him.
I tied the letters together and found an appropriate box.
While I was reading, I started wondering if a publisher might find them interesting. They were one-way letters. There were only hints of what she wrote to him. And no hints of what she said to him while he was home on leave and before the letters started up again when he returned to his base. It appeared there were some not-so-frequent get-togethers while he was home.
I remember the letters were light on news about his military life and more focused on her. Wouldn't any girl like the attention even if he wasn't a candidate?
I thought there must be all kinds of little stacks and boxes of letters of so little importance all over the country. Why would a publisher be interested? There was no hero. The damsel wasn't in distress. But, if I was fascinated, why wouldn't someone else be?
About the time I was getting ready to move I came across the letters and knew I was going to have to decide if I would bring them along. I thought I'd check the internet to see if either of their names came up. I think I found him living in a larger sized town not that far from his hometown.
I had very little time to devote to the decision, but in the time I did take before the move, I wondered what permissions would be required to attempt to publish them. I thought about camouflage. I wondered whether the dates, names, and the locale could be changed. I somehow knew that changing anything would ruin it. Though this young guy graduated from high school, he must have been off fishing in his head during grammar classes. No one should correct the errors. All the names were just right; no one should substitute any. The circumstances and happenings were just right, no one could improve on the simplicity.
I thought about what might happen if I contacted him for permission. Would he be stunned? Would he stare? Would he be suspicious? Would he remember writing them? Would he be uncomfortable? He would certainly ask me how the heck I got them. He might be silent and I could leave not knowing anything. Would I get stuck listening to stories? Or would I listen and not call it stuck?
I thought about searching her out. I was sure the auctioneer would remember the auction and provide a clue. I could check civic records. Any older person would remember the family, there might even be brothers and sisters around.
I thought about who the letters belonged to? She had owned them, now I owned them.
He only wrote the letters. They were only his words. It was only his heart.
Then I thought, what if he had kept all her letters to him?
Next, I thought what if…what if…she was living in the same larger town…with him? Married for forty plus years?
I thought I would check out all the legalities when I had time. I wasn't fired up to contact him. I wasn't fired up to throw them away. I didn't have time to do any further research. The letters moved with me.
What I will do now is reread all the letters in time and in sequence to see if they still hold appeal.
All I know is that she saved them. Now, for some reason, I'm saving them.
Postscript:
In using the 'free legal opinions of the internet', it appears permission is required to publish letters and heirs must be found and contacted if the principals are no longer living.
On the letterhead of the Butte Saddle Mining Syndicate
Offices in the Bacon Building, Oakland
April 2nt, 1909
This is a memorandum for you,
I have this day put in escrow 100,000 shares of the Butte Saddle Mining Syndicate Stock owned by me with a like number of shares owned by each Mr. John R. Richards. And Mrs. Josephene Chick. This stock being pooled was put in the Security Bank and Trust Co. Oakland, Cal., for safe keeping. For three years. Mr. Richards. And Mrs. Chick have each signed over to me there proxy, to vote there stock for the next three years.
N.B. Williams, Pres.
I have looked at this particular memo many times (copied here with its original spelling and punctuation) and wondered about the story behind it. N.B. Williams was my great grandfather, and he spent at least the last twelve years of his life in California, far away from his Rhode Island wife and four children. Because the family back home kept some of his letters and papers, there is a collection of ephemera that keeps on tantalizing me. The collection reveals only bits and pieces of the story and raises far more questions than it answers.
The problem with inheriting a family ephemera collection is that the people who could have helped you understand it may already be gone. I used to love to listen to my grandmother, Mary and her sister Ruth, two of those children back home, talk about the old days. I remember them talking about their mother Essie and their brothers Ira and Ralph and their brothers' wives Alice and Gladys. I remember talk of the Esmond Mills, where some of them worked, and family friends like Josie Keefe, but I don't remember them talking about their father. If I had known about him and his gold mine, I probably would have asked a question or two. The main one that comes to mind is, “Why aren't we rich?”
As a child, I wouldn't have thought to ask them questions that occur to me today like, “How was it for your mother, on her own for all those years? How was it for the two of you?” And to my grandmother, “Did he get back for your wedding?” (My grandmother's wedding was in 1910.) But my grandmother and her sister Ruth had both been gone for many years when these papers came into my hands.
Following are some of the parts of the story, told through the papers I have. I still know few details except that we are not rich and that my great grandfather died with a few dollars in the bank, a gold watch and $10.00 of new underwear, some of which was sold to a rag man for 35 cents and some of which was stored.
In the following quotations I have preserved the original spelling and punctuation, but anything in bold face type is my own emphasis.
From the Prospectus
Butte Saddle Mining Syndicate
Page 3: The Butte Saddle Mining Syndicate was duly organized and incorporated under the laws of the Territory of Arizona on the 25th day of January, 1909.
Officers: President: N.B. Williams; Vice-President: A.G. Schindler; Secretary and Treasurer: G.W. Wheeler; Superintendent: O.E. Anderson
Directors: I.W. Bridenbacker; S.T. Chapin; G.W. Wheeler; A.G. Schindler; N.B. Williams
Depository, First National Bank of Oakland, Cal.
Page 7: Large deposits of very rich ore were continually encountered during the operations of the former owners, and we now have many fine samples at our offices taken from this vein that will run from $10,000 to $40,000 per ton, which we will be pleased to show to anyone who may be interested.
Page 11: OPPORTUNITY: Buttes Saddle Mine will prove a wonder. She is the King of the Sierras. The $48,000 taken out is just enough to prove the great worth of the property.
Page 13: In order to raise a small amount of money with which to complete the equipment of these works by installing the rock breaker and concentrator before referred to, which will not only more than double the capacity of the mill………..the Directors of the company have decided to offer for sale a few shares of the Capital Stock at ground floor prices, and those who would like to secure a few shares of this dividend-paying stock should apply early, for it will soon be taken up, and after this block is taken no stock can be obtained for less than $1.00 per share. Don't fail to secure some of this stock before the supply has been exhausted. While it lasts it will be sold at bed-rock prices. Call early at the offices of the company and inspect samples of ore, and obtain prices and further information regarding this wonderful mine.
February 4, 1909:
Stock Certificate
1 share of Capital Stock of the Butte Saddle Mining Syndicate
April 2nd, 1909
Letter from Newell B. to his wife Estelle
My Dear Essie,
……………Now Essie, you don't see how I can stand it to stay away from home so long. I know I could not stand it to stay home as things are now, so I just have to stand it and stay away… I think I have been away now two years on April 1….I will go home for a little. But not to stay for the west looks better to me than R.I. and I want to have you arrange to come back with me and stay for at least 2 or 3 months….Essie, I would like to help you a little and will as soon as I can, that you know. I have something more than $300 coming to me and it is good.
I have pooled my 100,000 shares of stock of the Butte Saddle mining Syndicate with Mr. John R. Richards and Mrs. Chick and signed there Proxy over to me to vote as I think best for the next 3 years. I do not know as yet what I will do with these papers but will let you know later on. Now you can see that I hold and will own 1/5 of the mine when sold or when paid for. We are going to try to put it in shape to sell for about 2 or 3 million and think we can do it inside of 3 years………..Net that would give me $100,000. That would not be bad for a 2 or 3 years trip to the west. Well this may be all a air castle but things look very bright and we must dig and hope………If this comes my way I can see where I can make it a million in something else I know of….I guess this is all for this time from Your Hubby Newell in the West.
September 21, 1909
Letter from Newell to my grandmother
My Dear Kid Mary D,
I have been thinking how much pleasure it be to me if I could have you all out here for at least the next six months so that winter would go by and you would not know it….The winter is no colder than many days that we have in the summer…I would like to have Ruth go to the Berkeley College. I understand they have about 3,000 this term on beautiful grounds….
From Your Pa Williams in the West
October 15, 1909
Two certificates for Capital Stock, 100 shares each, issued to N.B. Williams
February 11, 1910
One certificate for Capital Stock, 50 shares, issued to N.B. Williams
Undated:
A list of the shareholders of the Butte Saddle Mining Syndicate and the number of shares held by each
Undated:
Letter from Newell B. to his wife Estelle
Dear Essie,
I do not think these papers are of any use and I am sending them home. I hope some day I can look them over and tell you a long and interesting story about this mining venture.
N.B.Williams
California State Board of Health
Bureau of Vital Statistics
Standard Certificate of Death
Full Name: Newell B. Williams
Date of birth: 1876
Date of death: March 3, 1921
Age: 45
Cause of death: Pneumonia Lobar & myocarditis & acute dilation of the heart
Letter to Estelle Williams from F.W. Swigart, on the letterhead of F.W.Swigart Real Estate and Insurance
March 9, 1921
Your letter of March 4th to hand, in reply I will say, I have known Mr. Williams for about 5 years, and for the last one and a half years he has been a salesman in this office, am glad to say he was one of the squarest men I ever had around me. He took sick on February 24th and on the 26th we took him to the Providence Hospital. I saw him every day. We settled up all of our business before he got serious, he seemed to think he would never get out, I tried to cheer him up, at the same time I saw he was loosing, he died on March 3rd just one week after he took sick with Pneumonia….
Mr. Williams and I were very warm friends and on the morning he died had the nurse phone me to come down to the Hospital soon as I could as he was getting worse fast, I went down as soon as I could get there and he was gone before I arrived, I am sure he would want me to take charge of his affairs and if I had he would have been burried before this, as it is I can do nothing, but if I am aware of the time he is to be burried I shall certainly see that it is him before he is laid in the ground………….
Yours very respectfully,
F.W.Swigart
Undated:
Dear Madam:-
In cleaning out some papers and letter left in Mr. Williams room at our house I found the enclosed letter and am taking the liberty of writing to you to find out if you are a relative of his, or could locate them anywhere……….He was living at my house when he was taken sick & I thought perhaps they would like to know the situation as near as I can give it.
Yours truly,
Maude L. Silvester
March 14, 1921
Letter from a name I can't read. Looks like Roch W. Chirch
Dear Madam:
Your letter of March 9 just received. Mr. Williams was taken sick on a Thursday of one week and died Thursday of the following week. I saw him about 3 o'clock of the afternoon before his death: he died about 8 o'clock the following morning. At his request I interviewed the bank where he did business and ascertained that his balance in the bank was $507--. He wished us to draw the money and expend it in meeting the expenses of his sickness and funeral expenses. He had talked about his desires in case of his death: though thinking that death was so near I suggested to him to wait a day or two and if no change in his condition for the better appeared we could arrange as he desired then. It was his request that he be buried in an inexpensive lot with environments in the cemetery in this city……..
Remaining at your service
Yours truly,
Roch. W. Chirch
March 18, 1921
Letter to Estelle Williams from F.W. Swigart
Mrs. N.B.Williams
Esmond, R.I.
Dear Madame:
Your letter of March 14th to hand, I thought I ought to write you once more and explain a few more things.
Mr. Williams had a few articles that I think you and his children ought to have, for instance, he had a gold watch, gold chain, an extra gold watch fob with sliding buckle, the ribbon had worn out and I made him a leather ribbon as I used to be a leather worker, and while he was in the hospital I bought him about $10. worth of new underwear, all these things should be sent to you and if you write Mr. Hill the Public Administrator and demand them I think he would send them.
Yours very respectfully,
F.W.Swigart
Letter from Maude L. Silvester to Estelle Williams
March 23, 1921
Dear Mrs. Williams:-
Your letter of the 18th just received…I know you are anxious to hear from me…We only took over this place on Jan 1st so was not very much acquainted with Mr. Williams. He had a room here in our basement and done his cooking there too. He first complained of being ill on the 24th & came home from his office…My husband and I put two plasters on him, one on his chest & one on his back…I took his temperature on Friday the 25th & told him he should go to the Hospital where he could get proper care, but he said he didn't have any faith in Hospitals…Then his partner came up and brought him some oranges & some milk-he kept getting worse…there was no way to take care of him down there as I had carry all the slops upstairs. So we done the best we could for him until Sat when I took his temperature again and it was 103 so I said he must go to the Hospital and must have a Dr…The Dr. wouldn't even steady him to the Automobile, for we help him up and he took him thro the cold to the Hospital instead of calling an Ambulance…. I went to see him on Tuesday the first of March, (but we had phoned every day) and he was very low……I knew then that he was dying…….I was just beginning to go out on Thurs. when the Public Administrator came to get his papers, letters, etc. and said that he had passed away. He took everything that was of any importance in the way of letters, etc. and Mr. Williams watch and I think you should have that. There were a few clothes he had had when he worked in the shipyards. Mr. Hill said to burn them up but we sold them to a rag man for 35 cents-his best suit was used to bury him in. I will find out from the Administrator what became of his watch and let you know…….I'm sorry I cannot tell you more, but I thot you'd like to know that we don the best we could for him……
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. M. L. Silvester
August 24th, 1921
Letter from John A. Hill, Public Administrator of Alameda County
Re: The Estate of Newell B. Williams, Deceased
Dear Madam:
Regarding the correction of the Death Certificate, we regret to say that nothing can be done at this time. It will be necessary for you to write direct to the State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Sacremento, California, sending to them the enclosed Death Certificate and also the corrected one which you have made out……
Regretting that I could not correct this for you, I remain,
Yours respectfully,
Public Administrator of Alameda County
April 3, 1923
Letter from Bertha Heck, law firm of Dunn, White & Aiken to Mrs. Martha Williams Wood, Long Beach California, sister of Newell B.
Dear Mrs. Wood,
I have your letter of March 29th relative to the personal property belonging to the estate of N. S. Williams, deceased.
The attorneys have filed, on behalf of the administrator, a petition to set aside the entire estate to Estelle L. Williams, widow of deceased. The matter comes up for hearing on April 12th…
As the entire estate consists of a small amount of cash and personal property consisting of one yellow metal watch and compass-the personal property could be sent to you by express or parcel's post to whatever address you may send us as soon as the Order has been obtained and Receipt gotten from Mrs. Williams.
Mr. Hill examined the package which is at the store room of J.A.Munro & Co., belonging to your late brother. He states the contents, consisting of old shirts, underwear and socks, is absolutely valueless. There are no papers or letters.
Assuring you that we will do all in our power to bring the matter to a speedy conclusion.
Sincerely,
Bertha Heck
So there it is, excerpts from a set of documents spanning 14 years, raising many questions I will never be able to answer.
Did Newell ever get back home? See Essie again? His grandchildren and grandchildren? It seems unlikely, although his sister Martha (Mattie) seems to have made regular trips back and forth from California to Rhode Island.
Do I have distant cousins in California? Possibly, but Wood, Newell's sister's last name is awfully common, and it would probably be difficult to track the missing cousins down.
Did they get the right man in the coffin? Probably, but if not, it's too late to do anything about it now.
What is the error on the death certificate? I believe that his birthdate is misstated, perhaps a number reversal. Everything works out better if he was born in 1867 not 1876. If he was born in 1876, he was having children before he was a teenager, which is unlikely. He probably died around age 54, not 45.
What happened between 1910 and 1921? I don't think I will ever know, not without an awful lot of research.
I am certainly well informed about the cost and fate of my great grandfather's underwear, something I don't really need to know. (Message to self: Call the lawyer who has done my estate work and have him put language in the estate documents that says “disposition of underwear is confidential and private.”).
Over the years I have made sporadic attempts to learn more.
Early on we had the Smythe Company evaluate the stock certificates. They are worthless except to someone who collects old stock certificates. On par with the $10.00 underwear sold to the rag man. Nevertheless, way in the back of my mind, there is always the thought that there really is a family fortune. Those stock certificates are still there in a safe deposit box no one has paid for in a bank that no longer exists, and they are worth a fortune. Maybe that's that same kind of feeling that drove my great grandfather's search for gold. His daughter, my grandmother, herself married a man (my grandfather) who invested in gold mines and he too hoped one day to make a fortune. I have some documents about that too, but nothing as tantalizing as the Butte Saddle collection.
A few years ago I went to our public library and tried to find the surnames of some of the shareholders in the Oakland phone book. Not that I expected people who were shareholders in 1909 to still be living, but if the families stayed in the area, they might know more than I did about the mining venture. I believe I found a few familiar names, but I never followed up.
The advent of the Internet has made everything easier, and I did learn that the Butte Saddle Mine eventually produced gold, evidently in good quantity, but apparently not in my great grandfather's time. http://www.museumca.org/goldrush/dist-sierracity.html
I have researched surnames of the shareholders online, hoping to locate relatives of the shareholders, but with little luck.
I contacted the Oakland Public Library, which has mining archives, and they were extremely helpful, but I learned no specific details about Butte Saddle. I know that I will never know the personal stories of the people, but I might be able to locate the business records and find out what happened to Butte Saddle Mining Syndicate.
I have, on and off, used Ancestry.com but again with no particular luck.
It has always seemed to me that to get to the bottom of this I would have to go to Oakland and spend some time in the Oakland library or go to the town of Sierra City itself, just to get a feel for the area, or maybe research the corporation records in Arizona.
Last spring we had the opportunity to go to Oakland and San Francisco and maybe even visit Sierra City where the mine was located. I underestimated the time it would take to do this job in any kind of thorough way though and came back knowing little more than I had known before. Our vacation was just too short. I think doing a thorough job would involve quite a few hours of looking through old newspapers and other kinds of records. Maybe next time.
One thing we did do was visit Serendipity Books in Berkeley. Just as I have that feeling in the back of my mind that there still is a safe deposit box with valuable stock certificates, I expected to find a book there that would help me, maybe “The Rise and Fall of Butte Saddle Mining Syndicate.” If any place had it, it would surely be in Serendipity Books. Of course no such work exists, and although I did purchase two books on mining, and both were books I would have had difficulty finding anywhere else, neither helped specifically with Butte Saddle.
I suppose there is some kind of monetary value to the archives I have, but I wouldn't think of selling them. I will keep them for future generations to puzzle over.
###
I was asked to write an article about the history of Internet bookselling and the interaction between on-line bookselling and a proper bookstore, what in internet parlance has been called a “bricks-and-mortar” store but what will always, in my mind, simply be called a bookstore.
To be honest, I am not sure what I am going to say.
I started scouting books when I was about 16, being lucky enough to meet a couple of professional booksellers who became good friends of mine and showed me how they made their living. There is a popular misconception that booksellers buy cheap and sell high, that the primary source for books is the garage and church sale. I've been to thousands of these sales over the years, and turned up maybe a hundred worthwhile books. Piles of useful stuff, but there's only so many five-dollar books that you can buy for a quarter before you get sick of five-dollar books.
The best books I have ever bought I bought through bookstores--in fact, many of the best books I have ever bought came from high-end bookstores and not at high-end prices, either. Every bookseller has books that come to him by accident, or were on the periphery of a collection that he was focusing on the center of. That's always a good way to buy books--an important dealer's junk is usually way better than the best books in a low-end store. But I've just started to write this and already I feel that I am rambling.
The internet has changed the way we do business, and I am not so sure that it is for the better. Databases like ABE are operated on the “bigger is better” philosophy; the more books, the more booksellers, the better for the website. I disagree. ABE and many of the other on-line databases-- Alibris, Amazon, even eBay (although it's not a book database, it is an important aspect of on-line bookselling)--are full of five-dollar books for a reason: these books can be bought cheaply, by anyone, and the market to sell them exists. It used to be that if you wanted to open a bookstore, you had to invest a great deal of time and money, securing a location, buying stock, building shelves, buying reference books… the whole routine. Nowadays, in order to become a bookseller you need to do none of this. You just need to go to a few good book sales, buy a bunch of stuff, get a computer, download a free book cataloguing program, type in a few ISBN numbers and off you go. It's bookselling for dummies. A bookstore looks bad and has a hard time paying its bills when it's loaded up with 5-dollar books. A computer can hold thousands of 5-dollar books at virtually no cost and they don't even need to be shelved; they can be piled up in boxes in your basement!
I published my first print catalogue in 1984, and I opened up my first bookshop in 1986. I've used a computer since about 1985. My first few catalogues were typewritten, but starting with Catalogue Seven, I used an old Morrow CPM computer with absolutely no memory. I've published over 25 printed catalogues over the years, mostly done on computer, and because I always had a computer on my desk (usually just to play tetris), and I hooked up to the internet in the earliest days. I have watched it go from a few of us selling books in the usenet groups and on the earliest of book lists - the Biblio list - from Interloc to the formation of the first online websites--The Virtual Bookstore--and I was there at the beginning when ABE first started up as an online version of Interloc. I welcomed these changes with open arms, as I was always looking for new ways to sell books, and for new ways to create new customers.
I never foresaw what would happen.
The simplification of bookselling is threatening our trade. As more and more bookstores listed their books on the internet databases, more and more bookshops closed their doors to walk-in trade. And as fewer and fewer bookshops exist, more and more cus