Ten Days To Go

It was almost 5 weeks ago that we announced the dates for our first viaLibri Virtual Showcase.  Antiquarian Booksellers from around the world were invited to display on our virtual shelves a selection from their best and most desirable recent acquisitions. 

Once that call went out the suspense began – at least for me.  Our platform was ready, but who would show up to present themselves on it? What would they bring to show? Would there be items to interest everyone? Would most of the sellers and buyers be familiar faces or new contacts? Would the best things be early or modern?  Expensive or cheap?  Or both?

The eager buyers would just have to wait to fia nd out. But as I thought about it I realised that there was already calculation I could generate that might satisfy some of my curiosity as well as the interest of collectors waiting for the Showcase to open.  For example, a query of our early numerical data tells me that the median year for the books uploaded so far is 1882. A scan of the items that have been loaded so far tends to confirm that figure and reassure me that the things I find in the showcase will be mostly antiquarian in nature. 

Statistics on prices can also be generated. For those we have 2 different figures  of possible interest.  The items that have been entered so far have a median price of $1203. That is probably  the most useful figure for us since it reduces the distortion from books with extreme prices. A “mean” or “average” price of $3534 can also be calculated. That number will seem impressive, but is largely a  reflection of the inclusion of a handful of very expensive items. 

I wouldn’t suggest for a moment  that these simplistic calculations are useful for anything other than the kind of idle speculation that easily entertains the likes of me. A knowledgeable bookman knows that the most valuable information to gather before the opening of a book fair – live or virtual –  is a list of who is exhibiting.  Use it to identify and locate the booksellers you know and buy from, then check out their offerings as soon as you can. Equally important, after that, is to identify the dealers you don’t know but whose specialties suggest that they may have the type of things you are looking for. 

To help you with this we have just added a list of exhibitors that you will be able to consult while waiting for the showcase to begin. You will find it in a long column on the right side of our showcase home page. If you go there I promise you will find many booksellers you know well along with many whose books you have never seen before.  I hope you will visit them all and find many wonderful things.

If you are a bookseller and think you might like to join them you still have 10 days to register and prepare your display. Over a thousand items have already been chosen to appear in the virtual showcase. If you want to add yours to them please let us know

https://www.vialibri.net/showcases/december-2024/

 

Another Addition To Our Exhibitors List.

I was pleased to learn today that Justin G. Schiller (BATTLEDORE LTD) will be joining all the other distinguished exhibitors participating in the inaugural viaLibri Virtual Showcase on December 12, 2024.

Since showcase registration began 23 days ago I have been pleasantly surprised by the general stature of the exhibitors who have signed up so far (though not all of them with Justin’s 64+ years as a bookseller).  I am anticipating  more.

If you were concerned, rest assured that we do not require 60 years experience from our exhibitors.   And if you want to know more  you can find out here.

 

viaLibri Virtual Showcase – Your questions answered

It has already been two weeks since we opened registration for exhibitors in our forthcoming virtual showcase. Since then we have have been asked a variety of good questions regarding how our showcase operates and what you can do with it. Anticipating still more questions to come, I thought it might be useful to compile and answer a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) that addressed many of the things our exhibitors, current and future, may want to know.

The list that Al and I came up with will be found below. If you have any other questions that have so far been overlooked please don’t hesitate to send them on. An FAQ Chapter 2 will surely follow.

FAQs For Virtual Showcase Exhibitors

Is there a discount for viaLibri subscribers? How do I make sure I qualify?

Yes, there is a 20% discount on all registration fees for viaLibri Premium Services subscribers. If you are a subscriber and you are signed in to viaLibri with the correct account then this discount will be applied automatically when you register for the showcase.

Can I increase my item count after I’ve signed up?

Yes. You can upgrade at any point until 48 hours before the showcase opens. All you will need to pay is the difference between the price of package you currently have and the price of the package you’re upgrading to.

See our help page for more details on how to do this.

Can I replace items once they’ve sold?

No. Once the showcase opens you will not be able to replace any items that have sold. You will be able to remove an item from sale if needed, but you will not be able to substitute a new item in its place.

Does Libribot also look for matches that appear in viaLibri Virtual Showcases?

Yes, the viaLibri Virtual Showcase is fully integrated into the rest of the viaLibri system.

Libribot is our wants matching service. Over 175,000 sets of search criteria have been saved in our database by our registered users, and every one of them will be checked against the listings in the showcase. Any users whose wants match items in the showcase case will be emailed a list of those items just before the showcase opens.

Normally there are limits on how many wants are searched per day for each user, depending on subscription level. We are waiving those limits for the showcase, so all wants will be checked against showcase items, regardless of subscription level.

Are there any limits on the number or size of images that can be uploaded?

Not that you’ll notice, no. You can add up to 100 images for each item, and each image can be up to 50MB in size. As long as you’re uploading normal JPEG photo files you shouldn’t have any problems.

Can I import items from my own website?

Yes. If your website listings are already included in viaLibri’s search results via our Harvest service then they can easily be copied over to the showcase. See our help page for instructions on how to do this.

How do payments for items in the showcase work?

viaLibri will not take any payments as part of the Virtual Showcase checkout. When someone buys an item from the showcase you will receive an email notifying you of the purchase. It is then your responsibility to get in touch with the buyer in order to specify the final postage charges and arrange payment.

Will buyers be able to reserve items?

Yes, buyers will be able to reserve items by clicking a button on the item page. This reservation will only last for 20 minutes: long enough for them to do some further research, but short enough that it shouldn’t get in the way of another sale if they’re not a serious customer.

Exhibitors can also reserve their own items (i.e. put them on hold) via the Exhibitor’s Dashboard. There is no time limit on these reservations.

When do I have to add my items by?

All items must be added 48 hours before the start of the showcase. After this point you will still be able to edit items and add images, but you will not be able to add new items.

Will items still be visible after they’ve sold?

Yes, items are still visible in the showcase once they have been sold. They will be clearly marked as “Sold” and their price will be hidden.

Can I set the order that items are shown on my profile page?

Yes. Once you’ve added your items in the Exhibitor’s Dashboard you can drag them up and down to set the order of items. These changes are saved automatically so there’s no need to press a button once you’re done.

How many categories or tags can you assign to each item?

There is no limit. You can use as many categories as you need to effectively describe your items.

What can I do if my item doesn’t belong in any of the existing categories?

You can easily create your own more useful categories and add them to the large selection already provided.

Do item listings include the name of the exhibitor?

Yes. Every item found when searching or browsing will have its seller clearly identified.

Can the Showcase translate items into foreign languages?

Yes. Located at the bottom of each item page there is a “translate” link which can translate item descriptions between 33 different languages.

Does the Showcase convert prices into foreign currencies?

Yes. Prices can be displayed in 13 different currencies.

To browse all the items in the showcase do I have to view each exhibitor’s items separately?

No. One click is enough to browse all items. To facilitate browsing, those results can then be sorted by year of publication, price, author, title or exhibitor.

Can descriptions of items of interest be saved for later reference?

Yes. On each item page there is a link labelled “Add to clipboard.” Clicking this link will save the item to your viaLibri “clipboard” where you can easily find it again later, even after the showcase has closed.

Can items be purchased directly from exhibitors without using the showcase checkout form?

Yes. You do not have to make a purchase using the showcase checkout form. However, if you know that you want to buy something it is to your advantage that the item be marked quickly as sold so that no one else can buy it before your order has been received by the exhibitor.

Register as an exhibitorLearn more

Mark Your Calendar

Our patient readers should be pleased to hear that we have now set the date for the opening of our first viaLibri Virtual Showcase. You can mark it on your calendar for December 12, 2024 and set your alarm for 15:00 GMT.

The showcase will stay open until December 15 at 22:00 GMT.

Registration for exhibitors is open NOW!

If you are a collector you will, of course, still have more than six weeks to wait, but I’m sure you can find something else to keep you busy until then. If not, I would suggest that you should spend some time adding to your want list and refining your search filters there.

As a potential buyer this could prove especially interesting since our Libribot will also be checking your want list and alerting you to any fresh items of interest the moment the virtual doors open. If you have ever thought about expanding and refining your want list this would be an ideal time to do so.

On the other hand, if you are a bookseller you can now register to become an exhibitor and spend your free time preparing the special items you will be displaying before all the viaLibri users in attendance around the world.

viaLibri Virtual Showcase. Sign up now

Something new will be coming soon to viaLibri.

As we all know, one of the unexpected side effects of the recent pandemic was the wave of Virtual Book Fairs arriving in its wake. These were a logical and welcome response to the vacuum that resulted when lockdowns had suddenly erased physical book fairs from the calendars of bibliophiles everywhere.

It seemed obvious to me that a new online bibliophilic marketplace was in the process of being created and, in particular, that viaLibri was in a unique position to host and support it. The benefits and opportunities, for both consumers and vendors, were compelling.

They could not be ignored.

We set to work immediately designing and building our own online platform for virtual bookselling. We wanted something more than just another internet book fair. We wanted something that would fully leverage the power of the internet to provide an online marketplace focused specifically on the needs of bibliophiles, whether buyers or sellers. We wanted something that would be more than just a digital facsimile of a traditional book fair. What we wanted was a Virtual Showcase for old and rare books, enhanced with tools that will, we believe, enable serious collection building in new and exciting ways.

As ever with projects like this, it has taken us much longer than we had planned. New possibilities continued to present themselves. Our vision of what the future of online bookselling could become quickly expanded as we went forward. But a finish line is now in sight.

We are currently completing the final touches before the official launch and we’d like to invite you to join our new viaLibri mailing list, which we have launched today. It will keep you informed of future plans as they are announced. 

Join our mailing list

If you are curious to read some of our previous blog posts regarding this subject you can find them here:

Our thoughts on virtual book fairs

 

viaLibri now searching Getman’s Virtual Book Fairs

Attentive users may have noticed that we recently added another new source for items to be included when searching for books and ephemera on viaLibri. We were already searching 160 different sources, and are always looking for more, so in January we again added to the count and began including books and ephemera from Getman’s Virtual Book Fairs – the oldest, largest and best known virtual book fair platform.

I’m confident that our customers will be pleased to find these books now included in their results when they search for them manually.

This will be especially good news if you are among the many viaLibri users who let the Libribot automate searching for the items listed on their want lists.

As we all know, when a virtual book fair opens its imaginary doors there is always a virtual rush to find and claim all the choicest items first. That can be difficult if you have a variety of interests and wants, all of which need to be searched for separately, one after the other. With a Getman virtual fair, however, viaLibri can do the searching for you and then email you a notification when matches have been found. The Libribot does all the work for you before the doors open.

This will also be good news for the exhibitors. viaLibri has over 160,000 active wants. All of them will be matched against the items in each new Getman’s Virtual Book Fair and then continue to be included in active viaLibri searches until the fair is closed on Sunday.

The next opportunity for all this to happen will be the Greenwich Village Virtual Antiquarian Book and Ephemera Fair, open to everyone on Saturday February 24th at 12 noon ET.  A paid charity preview will also take place on Friday at 12 noon.

Our thoughts on Virtual Book Fairs

It has not gone unnoticed that this summer has marked three full years since the first virtual book fairs suddenly arrived on the bookselling scene and attempted to fill the vacuum created by COVID 19. At that time there was widespread concern within the book trade that the resulting universal closure of book fairs would bring in its wake the end of bookselling as we knew it. Much panic and moaning inevitably ensued.

In retrospect we can see that the COVID-related anxieties of June 2020 proved to be a bit inflated, at least with regard to antiquarian booksellers. There is, of course, no published statistical data on the subject. Looking at our own data, along with the anecdotal information we were receiving from others, tells me that the first year or two of lockdown was, in fact, profitable for many and manageable for most.

This pleasant surprise was due, I think, to the fact that while nearly everyone we knew had little or no trouble imagining the likely disastrous outcomes that would result from cancelling the fairs, few had yet anticipated the many good things that would occur when all the complications and constraints of physical book fairs were removed and alternative events arrived to take their place. It did not take them long to do so.

In the beginning the tactile and olfactory pleasures of handling old books were regularly cited as an essential feature of bibliophily. These are, of course, fine things and no one denies them, but the opportunities for appreciating them is restricted to those lucky collectors who are fortunate enough to find themselves regularly within travel distance of the locations where traditional book fairs regularly take place.

For booksellers who regularly exhibit at book fairs, geography also places constraints. To sell books you must travel. For the smaller fairs there is loading and unloading; packing and unpacking; petrol and, as often as not, a rented place to sleep. For the large international fairs convenient hotels are expensive while the merchandise will usually need to be shipped globally at an ever mounting cost.

In other words, physical book fairs are expensive, not to mention a lot of work. But in spite of it all, they were almost always popular, and even profitable – bearing in mind, of course, that many exhibitors are there mostly because of the opportunities to buy rather than sell.

Before COVID, all of this was taken for granted. Once the closures and quarantines had begun many collectors and dealers cautiously turned their attention to the internet where they soon began to notice that there were definite benefits to hunting for books online.

Librarians and archivists were especially responsive to the benefits of virtual fairs. They rarely have the time or budget for the kind of travel that regularly attending live book fairs requires. None of these restraints apply when the book fair is taking place right on your desk, or wherever it is that your other professional obligations may require you to be.

Of course, this applies to collectors as well. They have their own set of frustrations. Among these is the awareness that, while the retail customers are patiently waiting outside for the doors to open, the exhibitors inside have already been busy buying and trading for hours, if not days. I don’t fault them for this. The time required to unpack and prepare one’s booth makes it unavoidable. But it does give the insiders a tactical advantage over those who must wait patiently for the doors to open before they can begin.

There is much else that can be said on this topic. Shortly after the first wave of virtual book fairs went online in June of 2020 I published a blog post on this subject (https://blog.vialibri.net/did-you-go-virtual/). I was curious to hear from our users whether or not they were happy with this sudden innovation and so solicited their opinions about what had just taken place. I was also curious to hear what suggestions they might have to offer regarding what they would like to see when next era of virtuality has arrived.

I think that this time has now definitely come. I don’t have an official count showing how many virtual fairs are currently taking place, but what statistics I do see all show that attendance at individual digital fairs is significantly larger than at comparable live events. This is certainly the case in the U.S. and I expect that the trend will continue in other places as well.

We now have more than three years of experience with virtual fairs built on a variety of digital platforms.I cannot help being curious to know what an updated survey would tell us about how our users now feel about the current state of digital bookselling and the future direction they would like to see it take.

But I must confess that I am motivated here by more than mere curiosity. If, as I believe, online virtual events will be an increasingly crucial part of antiquarian bookselling in the future then this is something that viaLibri will want to participate in. And we have plans to do just that. As you may guess, this is an important motive behind soliciting input from our users today.

If you are like us and have your own ideas about what the next transformation of internet bookselling should look like then please share your thoughts with us here.

Artificial Intelligence Writes an Anthem for viaLibri.

For those who may be curious (or frightened) about how the development of artificial intelligence may find application in the world of antiquarian bookselling our CTO Alasdair North has asked ChatGPT to “Please write a song about viaLibri in the style of Guns and Roses.”  This is the result:

In the realm of knowledge, where words come alive,

There’s a place that stands tall, where bookworms thrive.

A digital haven for literary souls,

viaLibri’s the name, where the story unfolds.

(Pre-Chorus)

With a click of a button, the world’s at your feet,

A treasure trove of wisdom, where history’s complete.

In the shadows of libraries, where legends reside,

viaLibri’s the key, to the secrets they hide.

(Chorus)

viaLibri, take me on a journey, let my mind ignite,

Through the pages of the past, we’ll rock through the night.

Oh, viaLibri, where the written word will roam,

In this world of vintage books, we’ll find our way back home.

(Verse 2)

Lost in the whispers of forgotten tales,

viaLibri whispers back, lifting the veils.

From ancient manuscripts to modern first editions,

The rhythm of knowledge fuels our addictions.

(Bridge)

Oh, the shelves are lined with stories untold,

As we dance with the words, our hearts unfold.

viaLibri’s the rhythm, the soundtrack of our souls,

Guiding us through eras, where time unfolds.

(Chorus)

viaLibri, take me on a journey, let my mind ignite,

Through the pages of the past, we’ll rock through the night.

Oh, viaLibri, where the written word will roam,

In this world of vintage books, we’ll find our way back home.

(Guitar Solo)

(Verse 3)

Axl, Slash, and Duff, they’re the rock ‘n’ roll kings,

But viaLibri’s the stage where knowledge sings.

In the spotlight of wisdom, we’ll stand tall,

Together we’ll rock, one and all.

(Chorus)

viaLibri, take me on a journey, let my mind ignite,

Through the pages of the past, we’ll rock through the night.

Oh, viaLibri, where the written word will roam,

In this world of vintage books, we’ll find our way back home.

(Outro)

viaLibri, the rhythm of our quest,

With every turn of the page, we’re truly blessed.

Let the words guide us, as we march on,

viaLibri, forever, our knowledge anthem is born.

(It’s nice to feel appreciated, even if it’s only a machine)

Welcome Uniliber

We are pleased to announce another increase in the number of  bookselling databases we now search. Our latest addition is the Iberian website Uniliber.com, which currently offers 5.4 million items from 278 Spanish and Catalan speaking booksellers.

It was formed  in 2005 by the Asociación Profesional del Libro y Coleccionismo Antiguos with members from nearly all the Autonomous Communities of Spain.  It operates as a non-profit association owned and controlled exclusively by its members.

We are very happy that they have decided to join us and will now look forward to introducing them to the customers who have been searching for their offerings in the global marketplace for old and rare books.

 

A new and clever way to use viaLibri

It was a pleasant surprise yesterday when I discovered that one of our customers was using viaLibri in a clever way that had not previously occurred to me.  The user, Denis Gouey, is a well-known bookbinder from Connecticut.  Naturally, he is interested in promoting his skills on the internet. You can find him on Facebook  where, on Friday, he published a post that links to a viaLibri search result listing all the books on viaLibri that match on the keyword “Denis Gouey”.  As a result, anyone visiting him on facebook can click on this link and see pictures of lots of books bound by him and currently for sale online.

This was actually a fairly simple thing for him to do, since the booksellers who are offering examples of his work are happy to mention Denis in their descriptions and should be eager to do anything that might increase exposure for items they are offering for sale.

One interesting thing to note is that when I first saw Denis’s post yesterday there were 79 items, or “puppies” as he called them, that appeared on his list. Now there are only 70. I would be very curious to know what happened to those books.