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.
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