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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.

The early history of Online Bibliographical Tools and Marketplaces.

Anyone with an interest in the role of antiquarian bookselling  in relation to the broader study of  rare  books, bibliography, and early printing will want to read an article recently  published by Fabrizio Govi in the Italian scholarly journal TECA entitled “Online Bibliographical Tools for the Antiquarian Book Trade.  Their History, Use and Impact.”

A well established and highly respected Italian bookseller from Modena, Govi  explores his subject broadly from both economical  and historical perspectives.  As the origins of online antiquarian bookselling slip further into memory the latter of these has become increasingly of interest, at least to me.

Sharing that interest, Govi began his research by identifying 17 different international websites that have focused primarily on the used and rare book market. He then attempted to contact  all of them to request information about how they started and what information they might offer about the online book market as it exists today.  Only three of these chose to respond.  Nevertheless, Govi was able to dig through a variety of primary and secondary sources to  compile a significant amount of interesting data on the origins of the antiquarian market and how it became what it is today. He tells me that what he has just published is only a preliminary study.  I’m encouraged that there  could be even more to come.

You will find the article here:

https://teca.unibo.it/article/view/14345/14505

Seller’s location filter now available in Libribot

It’s been almost a year since we launched the redesigned version of viaLibri! Time has flown by, but rest assured that we’ve been constantly working behind the scenes on improvements to viaLibri.

One of the new features that we added when we redesigned the site was the ability to filter search results by the location of the seller. This can be very useful for those wanting to avoid costly international shipping charges, among other uses.

Today we are making this feature available in Libribot, our saved search system. Your wants can now make use of the seller location filter too.

If you’d like to add the seller’s location filter to a large number of wants then please get in touch with us. We’ll be happy to update your wants in bulk for you.

A Paperback Filter At Last.

It’s been on our to-do list for a long time, so we are now especially pleased to be able to announce the addition of a paperback filter to our advanced search form.

Over the years since our launch in 2006 there have been few added features that have been more often requested than the ability to exclude paperbacks from our search results.  The delay was not due to a failure to understand how valuable this feature would be.  Our hesitancy was due chiefly to the difficulties involved in implementing it in a way that did not create more problems that it solved.

What we have done is different from anything similar you might find on other sites.  Many other sites present you with an option for limiting your results to either hardcovers or paperbacks.  This would seem like a logical choice if it were not for the fact that a significant number of the books that are offered on antiquarian book sites are not described by their sellers as either. Binding type is not binary, so many sellers will leave this information blank and give a proper binding description in the full text of their cataloging comments.

This is fine, except for the fact that many of our users only want first or early editions and are seriously annoyed by the quantity of cheap paperbacks that are returned in their search results.  If they try to avoid them by checking a binding option for hardcovers only then there is a real chance they may miss something they would want.

My assumption is that the customers who choose “hardcover” as a binding option are really doing so because they want to filter out all the cheap paperbacks that they would get otherwise.  So we give them an option that does that instead.  It filters out what they don’t want and leaves everything else. It’s not perfect.  There will always be a few paperbacks that slip through the cracks, but most of the junk will be removed.

Of course, there may be those who search on other sites for paperbacks only because they want the cheapest copy available of an ordinary book.  In that case all you need to do is sort your results with the least expensive first. That should give you the best choice of what you want.  And you might even find a hardcover copy selling for less than all the others.  Stranger things have happened.