Dear
Sarah:
I am aghast and horrified at the idea of
crossing off a book's ownership
indication with an ugly (and often smelly)
black marker. Please, in respect
for the book, do not put a black magic
marker line or any other mark across
a previous owner's bookblate or
inscription. Also, please do not clip the
corner or cut out the front
free end paper because a signature or
inscription is on it. To the
collector or even the experienced reader,
these are anathema. I have
been to hundreds of booksales in my thirty year
career in the profession, and
if I saw suich markings I would not want the
book either for myself or for
any potential customer. Such a mark would be
the kiss of death to the
book.
I have never heard of anyone worrying that a book would be returned
to him
because of a previous owner's bookplate or signature. These are
part and
parcel of the book's history. The tens of thousands of people
who frequent
library book sales are not concerned with such
issues.
Also, if you are selling off books which have
no library marks in them,
please do not stamp them with your library stamp,
as this would mar an
otherwise nice copy.
However,
if you are de-accessioning duplicates with your library stamp
or bookplate
inside, a discreet "withdrawn" or "duplicate" stamp on the
library bookplate
would help avoid confusion as to whether it still belongs
to the
library.
Also, boookplates themselves are often
attractive and collectible. The massive bibliography of bookplate
literature attests to their interest ad to their appeal. I advise against
removing the donor's bookplate despite the suggestion of another
librarian. Not only is it a lot of work, but the remnants of the
plate or the glue residue are offensive and ugly, compared to an
attractive handsomely designed bookplate.
Raymond Smith
R.W. Smith
Bookseller
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sarah Quimby"
<
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To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 10:59
AM
Subject: [ARLIS-L] Book sales and owners' signatures in
books
Dear ARLIS-Lers,
We are in the process of getting ready
to sell many of our duplicate art
books and unaccessioned donations. One
question we need answered before
selling the books is what to do with donated
books that have donors'
signatures and/or bookplates in them. None of these
books are rare or
otherwise worth keeping, and the donors are all ordinary,
unheralded people
like you and me.
The question has arisen because one
donor was worried that someone would buy
a book, see his bookplate, and try
to return the book to him. My colleagues'
experience in other libraries has
ranged from not caring at all about
previous owners' signatures, to going
through each book with a black marker,
to recycling outright any book with
any mark of ownership.
I would be most interested to find out what other
libraries do when
de-accessioning books with markings made by previous
owners.
Sincerely,
Sarah Quimby
Associate
Librarian
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
[log in to unmask]612-870-3182
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