I cannot understand, after having been on this list for three years,
where there is suddenly all this yacketty yack about booksellers. In the
past I've addressed specific questions to this list about
computer-produced manuscripts in libraries, unusual sizes of paper in
books I've had to value for Australian libraries, queries about archival
journals I've had to assess and compiling bibliographies. I've also been
interested to see immediately booksellers' catalogues on journal price,
prices of law books, women's book lists and poetry book lists. I've
discovered things in specific catalogues and been able to send on
details of interesting items to people who were collecting/researching
in the area.
My personal queries have been frequently answered by booksellers as well
as librarians, and in some cases with more knowledge. As soon as a
thread starts that doesn't interest me I thrash the whole thread as it
appears. It takes no time at all and mostly the thread is compact and
runs for just a few days. The announcement of library and book group
meetings in the States is even more uninteresting to someone sitting in
rural Australia but I certainly don't expect them to be banned because
of the limited interest, even though they are
non-commercial...incidentally, some of them aren't because there's a
cost.
If people take exception to THE ANNOUNCEMENT of booksellers catalogues
on this list and I find it really hard to regard them as being earnest
in seeking book information in their own areas as nearly all the
specialist booksellers (especially small ones like Sheila Markham) I
have got on to through this list - and it has SAVED me time not wasted
it.
Perhaps booksellers should use a code in the subject line ALWAYS - such
as Poetry catalogue, Gay catalogue, Art catalogue, miscellaneous
catalogue. This who then did not want such information could either put
a filter on the word catalogue or just thrash it as it appeared.
This group has been one of the best I've encountered but I do not regard
it as just discussing rare books or the like. I think of it as a
book/librarian/bookseller/reader group and would be sorry if it devolved
into just discussing rare books. In fact, I think we have to rethink the
"rare books" in libraries. I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion we
should be establishing Museums of the Book and they should be things to
view and see in relation to the entire history of the book. I don't mean
a scholar should not be able to consult them in that environment - in
most libraries nowadays seeing them for any purpose is tantamount to
that anyhow.
Let's get on with worthwhile discussions. There weren't that many going
to before all this started. Louise Campbell