Regarding Ray Smith's message and letter to Abebooks a week ago (below),
thanks, Ray, for bringing this up. I have also noticed used-book sites
peppered much more with mega-distributors these days, and it is not
always clear if a particular title they are selling is original or print
on demand, or the edition one needs.
I know many of the smaller dealers I regularly use are still in business
and listing on these sites, but they are sharing the real estate with
much larger entities. What drives my choice is often based on the
information the dealer lists about the edition, content and condition of
the book, something small dealers are much more likely to provide
instead of general caveats about their stock. This ultimately saves us
time and money because we have a better idea of what we are getting.
Mary Wassermann
Librarian for Collection Development
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Box 7646
Philadelphia, PA 19101
[log in to unmask]
215-684-7654
215-236-0534 fax
Ray's message:
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 11:10:49 -0400
From: Raymond Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Flood of "Print-on-Demand" offerings on book search sites
I'm wondering if librarians are feeling beseiged as I am by the spate of
non-books (i.e. "Print on Demand offerings) when searching a title on
ABE. From a specialist bookseller's perspective, it's totally
frustating to have to sort out this type of material from actual books
and original vintage publications, though such unprinted material,
inferior in quality, is often much higher priced then the original, and
even though the buyer must wait sometimes weeks for its arrival as
compared to prompt mailings by legitimate booksellers of real books in
their inventory.
I'd like to share a letter I've written to ABE about the situation.
I doubt that much will be done, but I think if buyers, especially art
and rare book librarians who recognize the value of of an original over
a "Print-on-demand" edition, protest to ABE, perhaps something can be
done.
Raymond Smith / R.W. Smith Bookseller, New Haven
R.W. Smith letter to ABE:
Regarding your recent proposal to flag "Print on Demand copies", I find
that my original edition of The Nicolas Roerich exhibition is flagged as
"Print on Demand" (see below) though I specifically state that it is not
to be confused with inferior print on demand copies. I have deleted
this statement in my description though I have not yet submitted my
updates, so that is why mine is so tagged. However, as you can see
below, there are at least thirteen copies for this title offered by
Print on Demand outfits (Nabu Press, Pranava Books, General Books, and
Biblio Bazaar) which are Print on Demand books, but which are not so
flagged.
I originally wrote my statement to distinguish my actual rare book
inventory from these cheesy speculators, who are ruining ABE with their
flood of Print on Demand Books, some in a ratio of 50 demand books to
one real one.
Even with the flagging, the searcher is bombarded with
Print-on-Demand editions and so called "reprints" which though not
stated are also printed on demand, and the flagging does nothing to
guard the searcher against this harassment by non-booksellers and
speculators in unpublished material.
How to did ABE get to this state, where these outfits have
essentially highjacked ABE's original purpose to provide books to the
reading public? In ABE's effort to derive income from these outfits, it
has lost its way and sold out. It's most discouraging what has happened
to ABE - this policy of "flagging" does not work and has attracted the
scorn of most legitimate booksellers and severely compromised ABE's
reputation. It's time to eliminate these offerings entirely instead of
mixing them up with real books, or at least putting them in a separate
category where the searcher is not barraged by these non-books and can
find an actual original.
Sincerely,
Raymond Smith
Mary Wassermann
Librarian for Collection Development
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Box 7646
Philadelphia, PA 19101
[log in to unmask]
215-684-7654
215-236-0534 fax
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