Rare Book Monthly
Articles - January - 2009 Issue
Reorganizing the Web for Bookselling
Endless searching diminishes interest.
passive and expects the buyer to be active but it simply happens less and less. Booksellers describe this phenomenon as the "death of traditional collecting" and to this they add, "there are no new collectors." They are half-right. New collectors abound but use their time efficiently and are less and less attracted to inordinately time intensive activities. The new mantra is 'waste my time and I'll go elsewhere.' Booksellers ask too much and as a result get less than they hope for. Too often today the bookseller is trying to sell to yesterday's customer.
To make the collection of works on paper easier [i.e. faster] the book business will adopt a subject-centric model based on online living bibliographies that are now possible because so much information is available. Many people are looking for specific subjects but it is not obvious to the world at large because they are not yet on the same page. They are on competing websites, dependent on their own knowledge and luck, spending their time searching rather than evaluating possible purchases. These new interactive bibliographies will be both complete and authoritative, bring a categorical perspective to each field and be neutral to all be they buyers or sellers. The communities they engender, built around shared interest in specific subjects based on an ever-increasing freely accessible bibliography that defines the subject, will significantly increase prices simply by aggregating demand. These bibliographies in time will include all books within a subject and date range. They will also include all known pamphlets, broadsides and ephemera. These Wikis will then everyday draw from across the globe all accessible material that matches or fits within the Wiki description and make it available to anyone who follows the subject: one place, always fresh, easy to follow.
Those who sign up to follow bibliographies will be able to track changes between sign-ins. Such memberships are free. Bibliographers have the option to maintain a blog, provide message boards and call for periodic [always voluntary] auctions based on rules provided by the bibliographer. Wiki communities are expected to attract a wide range of interest from 200 members on the low end to 2,000 on the high end and to take two years to reach maturity. Bibliographies will tend to be narrow because the material will potentially be deep. AE will support only one Wiki on any specific subject.
Wiki Bibliographies will rely on various databases initially and gradually evolve into a unique combination of authenticated discoveries including a significant amount of material that is undocumented today. Ephemera, broadsides and pamphlets will be as welcome and appropriate as books. Associations and collectors, auction houses and dealers will organize many of the Wikis for there are benefits to organizing them. For associations it is an inexpensive way to make collections accessible, broaden membership and encourage gifts. For auction houses it's a way to manage what will eventually be specialized sales both to the community at large and more importantly, the wiki's own community. For dealers it's the opportunity to lead a community that follows and collects the very material they specialize in. Irrespective of background, we expect many of the bibliographers to emerge as expert if not the expert in their fields.
