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Book Collecting

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Photo of old book
Photo by Pierre Bamin on Unsplash

This guide will help you to find resources on collecting rare books and on the book arts in general, including bookbinding and the preservation and conservation of rare books.

Useful Websites

Useful Website Description

Advice on beginning or sustaining a book collection.

Useful Website Description

A FAQ about rare and older books from the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Useful Website Description

Compare prices on over 150 million books on sale.

Useful Website Description

An online marketplace for used, rare, and out-of-print books.

Useful Website Description

A cooperative of independent booksellers specializing in used, rare, and collectible books, magazines, and ephemera.

Useful Website Description

Bookstores are listed by region, then alphabetically.

Useful Website Description

Includes a directory of booksellers and a list of upcoming antiquarian book fairs.

Digital Library Resources

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Language and Literature Subject Icon

Provides publication information on millions of books, ebooks, videos and audiobooks.

Access:
Everywhere for Vancouver residents
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General Reference Subject Icon

CBCA is a Canadian-focused database that offers access to newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals and reference sources. *Also suitable for research at the elementary, high school and undergraduate levels.

Access:
Everywhere for Vancouver residents
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General Reference Subject Icon

Provides access to 47 databases across all major areas of study through: journals, newspapers, market reports, news wires and case studies, many of which are full text.

Access:
Everywhere for Vancouver residents

Recommended Titles

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Cover Image for Modern Book Collecting
Wilson, Robert A.
Call Number
094 W75m1
Publication Year
2015
A introduction to book collecting: what to collect, who to buy from, auctions, bibliographies, care, fakes, investments, donations, definitions, and more.
Remote Media URL
Cover Image for Phantoms on the Bookshelves
Bonnet, Jacques
Call Number
027.1 B71p
Publication Year
2012
Bonnet offers musings on the habits of collectors past and present and their techniques are learned, his advice on cataloging may even save the lives of those whose books are so prodigiously piled as to be hazardous to one's health.
Remote Media URL
Cover Image for Rare Books and Special Collections
Berger, Sidney E.
Call Number
025.17 B49r
Publication Year
2014
Berger, a veteran of rare book and special collections, offers a landmark examination of this field, aimed at practitioners in the library field, instructors teaching courses on the subject, booksellers, private collectors, historians, bibliophiles, and others involved in rare and unique materials.
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Cover Image for Second-hand Stories
Spero, Josh
Call Number
090 S74s
Publication Year
2015
A unique memoir that celebrates not just one life, but all of the lives connected through the past ownership of second-hand books. Every second-hand book tells two stories: one within its pages and another of the life it lived before changing hands.
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Cover Image for The Book
Houston, Keith
Call Number
094 H84b
Publication Year
2016
Reveals how books and the materials that make them reflect the history of human civilization, tracing the development of writing, printing, illustrating, and binding to demonstrate the transition from cuneiform tablets and papyrus scrolls to the mass-distributed books of today.
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Cover Image for The Shakespeare Thefts: In Search of the First Folios
Rasmussen, Eric
Call Number
822.3 Er2
Publication Year
2011
“The first edition of Shakespeare’s collected works, the First Folio, published in 1623, is one of the most valuable books in the world and has historically proven to be an attractive target for thieves. In his efforts to catalog all these precious First Folios, renowned Shakespeare scholar Eric Rasmussen embarked on a riveting journey around the globe.”