Sender: Rare book and manuscripts <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU>
>I have been purchasing the books of my specialty,
>which is 20th Century Eastern Europe, and
>creating my own library.
I have been doing the same in my area of specialization, particularly
since it is already very unusual to see the books on that topic in
public or academic libraries. I treat the books the way I do my related
ephemera - as things that people don't think they want now, but very
well may in the future.
>I haunt Amazon, Biblio.com, Alibris.com, and
>Half-Price bookstores when I can afford a trip to Dallas.
The next time you are in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, you may want
to visit Recycled Books in Denton, a large used-book store an hour north
of Dallas. Denton is a double-university town, so they get a lot of
unusual and obscure titles. I have made some remarkable finds there
over the years. They are definitely worth a trip if you are in the
area.
You may also want to haunt Addall.com (used.addall.com) - it includes a
number of rare book sources not covered by Biblio and Alibris. I have
found some very obscure titles there. I have had a lot of luck with
eBay, too, by creating standard searches for particular titles, authors,
and topics and having it email me a notice of any new items in those
categories that pop up.
>I intend to give my library in whole to a receptive museum/library
I'm doing the same thing - I have two specific archives in mind, and
have already spoken to the folks at one of them.
- Jesse