"Angela Grauerholz's work is unanimously textual, whatever her medium of the moment - photography, installation, assemblage, design. She was the co-founder of Artexte, it may interest you to know. She was born in Hamburg, but moved to Montreal in 1976, and has been teaching at UQÀM's École de design since 1988."

"As an exemplification of her love affair with text, you may recall Grauerholz's fantastic series Privation, part of the Biennale de Montréal 2002, which she made shortly after a fire ravaged her entire private library. Out of the disaster, the book-collector artist erected a homage to her charred treasures by photographing them and thus imbuing them with a whole new beauty in their new state of being."

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"Fifteen months after Google announced a book-scanning project of biblical proportions -– an effort to digitize the entire book collections of the New York Public Library and Harvard University libraries, among others -- the company is still secretive about how they are solving key technical problems and won't say how much they've accomplished so far."

"However, a similar if smaller project -- the Million Book Project at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh -- has been underway for about seven years. It could provide some clues. The project's director, computer scientist Raj Reddy, says he and his colleagues have no more knowledge about Google's methods or progress than anyone else, but they are tackling many of the same challenges."

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"Some books are not only rare, they are beautiful. A good example in the rare books collection of the Special Collections Research Center is The Aurelian: A Natural History of English Moths and Butterflies, together with the Plants on Which They Feed (London, 1766) by Moses Harris."

"Like some other rich Londoners, Moses Harris (1731?-1785?) collected insects. Entomology was a popular pastime in an era in which new exciting specimens could come in from the British colonies. He produced The Aurelian, which was first published in 1766 and reprinted in an updated version by John Obadiah Westwood in 1840. There were charges of plagiarism of the work of Jacob L'Admiral against Harris, whom Westwood defended in the reprint. "

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"Driven by literary taste, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today took a substantial time out from his busy schedule and spent over three-and-a-half hours at Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library perusing rare manuscripts."

"Kumar went through the rare manuscripts including Shahnama written by Hussaini in 16th century, 11th century Arabic Manuscript Kitabul isais containing pictures of over 300 Zari butti and their ayurvedic qualities and badshahnama of Mohammad Amin Kazwini among others, library director Prof Imtiaz Ahmad said."

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" AUSTIN -- A collection of historical items including exceptional documents marking the birth of the Lone Star State have been gathered for an auction dubbed the Texana Auction of the Century."

"The Texas State Historical Association is auctioning 183 lots of rare artifacts to raise funds for a project to digitize all the books and magazines it has published since the late 19th century."

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"CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Andrei Codrescu, a social critic and radio commentator, is coming to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to open and celebrate the Andrei Codrescu Collection."

"A prolific poet, novelist and essayist, Codrescu gave his collection of hundreds of Romanian books, periodicals and other materials – many of them rare – to the University Library last year. It will be his first visit to the collection since he made the donation."

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"Rodney Davidson's collection - books, papers and maps that tell the story of early Australia - is up for sale and antiquarians rate it as the finest of its type in the world. Jane Sullivan investigates."

"THE CURIOUS CASE OF the Batman papers first surfaced when Rodney Davidson, one of the country's most avid collectors of Australiana, was reading an old book on early Victoria."

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"Antiquarian booksellers and library staff in Southern California have been talking for years about starting up a rare book school on the West Coast."

"Now, the talk has ended."

"UCLA will open its classrooms in July and August to students interested in the newly founded California Rare Book School, a UCLA Department of Information Studies project. "

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"NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia The bloody battles of World War II never reached this picturesque city at the juncture of the Volga and Oka Rivers, but a treasure of Hungarian books dating back to the 15th century, a collection that has returned home after six decades here, serves as a painful reminder of the war."

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"Squeezing through a hallway with more room devoted to book storage than pathway, Riepe pointed out a few that jumped out to him: “The Essays of Montaigne,” “The Life of Delacroix,” a well-worn Sanskrit-English Dictionary."

“'Here’s a history of Herodotus, if you want to read it,'
Riepe offered."

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"Wait — maybe a library is more than just a food- and noise-free environment. Maybe a history on Pittsburgh’s 110-year-old library system is worth a read. Bear with me, and I think you’ll learn that libraries aren’t as boring as they sound. Who knows, you might even wind up wanting to get a library card."

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"Some of the library’s greatest treasures are on display, including an illuminated Book of Hours dating from the 15th century. Drawings, watercolors and prints from the E.A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection include works by John James Audubon, Mark Catesby, Edward Lear, Elizabeth Gould and Margaret Stones. First editions of “Principia Mathematica,” Lewis Carroll’s “The Game of Logic” and John Quincy Adams’ “Lectures on Rhetoric” exemplify the breadth of Hill’s Rare Book Collection."

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"Thousands of books — torn, tattered, spines broken — were lumped into literary mountains on a Gaithersburg parking lot, men shoveling them into two green, 10-ton Dumpsters."

‘'‘I won’t let my children watch,” Stepanov said, pointing to her toddler son, facing the opposite way in the back seat of her car. ‘‘It is horrible. It’s like Hitler.'”

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"A letter written by William Faulkner complaining to his agent about being conned into a screenwriting contract with Warner Bros. sold for almost $18,000."

"The letter, estimated to sell for between $2,500 and $3,500 fetched more than expected, said Catherine Williamson of Bonhams & Butterfields."

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"If you're a book lover, and have always considered starting a collection of rare or antique titles, you can do it — even if you don't have a lot of money to spare."

"'There are all kinds of different levels at which is can be done,' says Fred Baron, the owner of High Ridge Books, an antiquarian bookseller based in Larchmont. 'It's mostly a matter of finding what you like, learning about it and trying to add to that collection.'"

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"More than 600 rare books on British history have a permanent home in Carol Grotnes Belk Library thanks to a gift from New York residents Bill and Maureen Rhinehart."

"Bill Rhinehart is a graduate of Appalachian, earning a bachelor of science degree in 1956 and a master of arts degree in 1957."

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"Comic Book Collection Made Easy is a new website designed to help all of those individuals interested in starting or maintaining a comic book collection. With the up surge of all the new comic book superhero movies coming out of Hollywood recently, there are many more individuals interested in this genre than most realize."

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"Reflecting his legal training, Sondheim answers questions methodically. Even his decision to focus on rare books, as opposed to art, shows a judicious attitude."

"'It’s pretty hard to falsify a book,” he said, adding, “they’re not as likely to be stolen. If you have a thief in the house, they’re more likely to steal a silver menorah.'"

Maybe it matters, too, that Sondheim attended the University of Chicago in the era when that institution still featured the Great Books courses.

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"The aim of the magazine is simple. We wanted a general magazine about illustration - the artists, the collectors, the collections, the exhibitions, the history, the philosophy and the key events relating to this subject. We wanted to discuss the work of great artists from the past as well as new graduates currently coming out of college."

Read about this magazine here.

"A 100-year-old book signed by an Antarctic explorer and former Birmingham University vice chancellor is expected to fetch £10,000 at a London auction today."

"Published in 1909, The Heart of The Antarctic was written by the legendary polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackle-ton and the copy on sale at Christie's in South Kensington is one of 300 signed by the author and every member of his 1907 to 1909 Antarctic expedition team."

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"The smell of old books is enough to reel me into ecstasy," says Wornom, who collects rare volumes on English history. "Sometimes [the books are] musty, sometimes with a strange maple smell. Some smell of incense from being stored in a monastery for hundreds and hundreds of years."

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"The library, housed in the Ortigas Building in Pasig City, has one of the most comprehensive Filipiniana collections in the country, assembling the collection of Morton Netzorg (for decades the foremost dealer in Filipiniana books in the United States) with the personal reference library of historian Dr. Gregorio F. Zaide."

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"The Karger’s Library’s historical collection boasts rare manuscripts like the Basel Haggada and other valuable documents from the 16th and 17th century. These Hebrew manuscripts, which were mainly written by Christian specialists of Hebrew language and published by Sebastian von Munster, are primarily grammar books and lexicons. "

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"First of all, it's not a cage."

"The gate that divides the archives from the rest of the second floor of Beeghly Library is not there to keep students out -- or as a minister once joked, to keep the librarians in."

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"The Penn Library marks Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday with an exhibit on the history of Philadelphia-area schools - Educating the Youth of Pennsylvania: Worlds of Learning in the Age of Franklin. Organized by Rare Book and Manuscript, the exhibit is on view now through May 31, in the Rosenwald Gallery, 6th floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library."

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"With a unique treasury of American, European, and other global 19th- and 20th-century fairs and expositions, Alfred Heller's collection cut a wide swath on October 11, 2005, at Christie's in New York City-a celebration of both popular and serious books, publications, engravings, photographs, stereoviews, artworks, maps, advertising, and ephemera of historic accomplishments, and dreams."

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"Terry Belanger, honorary curator of special collections at the University of Virginia, is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow."

"The call came last September. I was among 25 people who had been selected for a MacArthur fellowship in 2005. A panel of experts had decided that my work at the Rare Book School, which I founded more than 20 years ago, is worth supporting. The no-strings-attached grant will pay me quarterly installments of $25,000 for the next five years."

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" Current clients, whose book choices she discretely declines to name, include a current Bull, a former Bear and singer Billy Corgan, the frontman for Smashing Pumpkins. What they have in common with other regulars is a feeling that 'when you sit holding a rare book, something intimate happens.'"

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"Cornell University librarian Sarah Thomas figured it was a scam."

"The chance to become one of the world's top Native American history libraries - at a bargain-basement price - doesn't just fall into your lap."

"But in November 2000, the state ttorney general's office was looking for a way to keep a Native American collection of 40,000 books and thousands of manuscripts within New York state. Thomas checked with Cornell's rare book experts and concluded the opportunity was legitimate. "

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" To get a better sense of the task at hand, I decided to consult the original scrapbooks, one of which was in the Visitor’s Center at Monticello, where I first came across Golden’s book. Tourists visited the center every day and viewed this newspaper scrapbook from behind plexiglass. The secret was in plain sight. When I tried to take photographs of the volume, however, I was discouraged, which only whetted my desire to get a letter of permission to consult the original. The other volume, in the rare book room at Alderman library on the campus of University of Virginia, was more readily accessible, but had also been ignored. And this had occurred at Jefferson’s own university, where a life-sized statue looks down on the students who assemble in the academical village he designed."

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"Visitors may browse the Eileen J. Garrett Library collection, whose books focus on an array of subjects, from ghosts and magic to immortality and spiritual healing. A rare book room, which will be under lock and key, will include such finds as a book of dreams dating to 1562, bound in pigskin and written in Latin. The site will include a periodical section and an audiovisual room. Coly hopes to hold four lectures a year on varying topics, as well as two seminars and a yearly conference. A bookstore will be located at the front of the space, where some of the foundation's own published materials will be available for sale."

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"Rare books, notes, photos and letters — including John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to “A Day in the Life” — will be available for public viewing starting today, before being sold to the highest bidder in the coming weeks.>

"The 300 items offered by auction house Bonhams & Butterfields are diverse and span hundreds of years of history. Early Judaica from 1705 shares space with a 1950s to-do list from Marilyn Monroe and notebook pages on which Albert Einstein used pencil to explore the unified field theory."

"The Lennon lyrics are expected to bring $2 million or more, according to Martin Gammon, a book and manuscript expert at Bonhams & Butterfields"

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" Naper Settlement Executive Director Peggy Frank said the journal was worth the "tens of thousands of dollars" the society paid for it. She declined to disclose the exact price, but if the Heritage Society didn't buy the book another collector surely would have, she said."

"'This is a document that would be of interest to any collector of Americana. It is very unusual to get this kind of insight in as good of condition as this is,' Frank said."

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"Most New Yorkers know the Strand Bookstore as a place to browse for bargains, roll their eyes at rude employees, and pick up a paperback for a dollar on a cart outside. But on January 28th, one anonymous industrial figure plopped down a more significant sum for a book— $100,000 to be exact."

"The William Shakespeare Second Folio he purchased was published in 1632 and had been in the Strand’s rare book collection for over twenty-five years."

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"n 1905 the University of California purchased historian Hubert Howe Bancroft's personal library — a "massive accumulation of books and manuscripts," as its caretakers describe it today. But it was not until early May 1906, following the earthquake and fire of April 18, that its contents were ferried across the bay to Berkeley. Fortuitously, the Bancroft Library, then located on Valencia Street in San Francisco, was the only library of any note that did not burn to the ground during the disaster."

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"Dunbar's parents, Joshua and Matilda, had been slaves in Kentucky. His father escaped slavery and served in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry Regiment during the Civil War. Paul was born June 27, 1872, in a house on Howard Street in East Dayton. His parents separated in 1874."

"A copy of Dunbar's modest first book of poems, the 1892 Oak and Ivy, today could bring $5,000 to $6,000, rare-book dealer Don Leet said. The young poet paid for the first edition and probably could afford only 300 copies."

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" That's where Duke University's Trent Collection of Whitman manuscripts and books comes in, along with the Walt Whitman Archive, a free online compendium developed by a university consortium that includes Duke."

"The core of the Trent Collection was given by Duke family scion Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans and her first husband, Dr. Josiah Trent, and has been augmented by Duke since then."

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"Moscow: - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill approving the return of the Sarospatak Reformed College's book collection to Hungary."

"The books have been kept in the archive of the Lenin Scientific Library in Nizhny Novgorod. They were brought to the Soviet Union after World War II."

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" Although there are many indicators of prestige among modern educational institutions—from Nobel prizes to faculty ratings to research dollars and private donations—university libraries remain one of the enduring benchmarks of excellence in higher education."

"Among the many library gems at the University of California campus in Berkeley, the most unique and precious may be the Bancroft Library."

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" Here is a first edition of D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rainbow.” Carmin holds the oldest book in the collection, a pocket Bible from 1250. Next he digs out the three-volume “Les Roses” by Pierre-Joseph Redouté, which features hand-colored copperplate etchings of the roses Napoleon’s ex-wife Josephine grew while in exile at Chateau Malmaison. Also in the collection are Beatrix Potter’s first kids book, a limited edition of Seamus Heaney’s “Glanmore Sonnets” from 1971 and a poem, “Mountain Blue,” in a book that folds out into the shape of Mount Rainier."

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" Master engravers and artists such as Albrecht Durer and William Hogarth designed book-plates that are invaluable today. Paul Revere also tried his hand engraving book-plates."

"After books became readily available to other than universities and the nobility, their designs changed from earlier armorial styles. Instead of the family crest, mottoes and quotations, as well as landscapes became popular. Often the book-plates reflected the decorative styles of the times. Ornamental and neo-classical designs harmonized with the prevailing styles of Hepplewhite, Sheraton and the Adam brothers. Some had witty rhymes of ownership. "

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"“It is my fortune that I visited this unique library today. I am very happy to see that rare manuscripts have been preserved here so carefully. These treasures are more precious than all diamonds taken together. These manuscripts keep us abreast with our culture and history,” the governor who went to visit the Khuda Baksh library after the swearing-in ceremony."

"The library, a central institution, has an impressive collection of old Islamic works on literature, culture and history and also stores a seventh-century handwritten manuscript of the Quran."

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Charles Darwin. "The deciphering of the notebooks and letters has been an exquisite labor for many distinguished scholars over the past century, and a great deal of effort has been expended on reconstructing the chronology of these writings in search of key junctures and influential events. A whole intellectual cottage industry has sprung up to interpret Darwin's writings, to probe his psyche and to explain many curious aspects of his life (most notably why he waited more than 20 years to publish his ideas on evolution and natural selection)."

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"n a secluded corner of the Newberry Library, archivists slowly take apart the yellowing book considered the Mayan Bible for its epic narrative of the Sovereign Plumed Serpent and other gods creating the world."

"Like other Newberry treasures over the years--a Shakespeare first folio, letters from Columbus--the Popol Vuh attracts scholars."

"But unlike any other rare text at the library, the Popol Vuh also draws immigrants from Guatemala and Mexico, descendants of the Mayans who make their way to the library so they can reverently page through the 188-page book full of elegant script, in Spanish and the Mayan language of Quiche."

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" Mike Glenn of Atlanta has been collecting African Americana only since 1997. But he figures it already would be tough to replicate his assemblage of photographs, artifacts, and some 2,000 rare books. "I have things that are unavailable now and that if I could find, I could never afford," says Glenn, a former pro basketball player who is now commissioner of the minor league World Basketball Assn."

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"When Jack Hamilton posted the inventory of his closed rare-book store on eBay, he didn’t really expect to get any bids."

"The listing, asking for $495,000 for the collection of more than 75,000 items, is more of a classified ad than a real item up for auction."

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"AS a historian he is expected to be well read, but years spent trawling car boot sales buying thousands more tomes for his book collection have driven his wife mad."

"Falling over books stacked up in every room in the house, including the toilet, became such a nuisance that Margaret Rothwell decided to set up an online auction to get rid of her husband Victor's clutter. "

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"ARLSBAD – Yet another gem has been added to the treasure troves at the Gemological Institute of America, which this year is celebrating its 75th anniversary."

"Two manuscripts dating back to the late 19th century were donated to the nonprofit educational and research institute late last year."

"The books contain more than 2,500 personal notes and business letters written by American diamond-cutting pioneer Henry D. Morse during the 1870s and 1880s. "

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"Dallas, TX: Heritage Auction Galleries will present an incredible collection of Lincolniana, manuscripts, autographs, rare books, and Americana in their February 21 & 22 Signature Auction in Dallas (with simulcast in New York City). Anchored by the Henry Luhrs & Lincoln Library Collection, this spectacular $5 million event contains one of the most significant offerings of Lincolniana in decades, but is also remarkable for the wide range of material included - from a leaf of the Gutenberg Bible to a JFK pardon for a Marijuana conviction! According to Americana Director Tom Slater, "The Luhrs Collection is one of the most significant and extensive to be auctioned in years, and will almost certainly be the most important manuscript event held in 2006."

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"Rare and valuable books, including a Shakespeare first folio, are to be housed at Lancaster University's archive."

"The university has been chosen as the deposit for the books – the earliest dates from the 11th Century – by Lord Hesketh whose family has long had links with Lancashire, their original home being Rufford Old Hall."

"The books belong to the trustees of the late second Baron Hesketh, and they will retain ownership.
The jewel of the collection is John James' Audubon's wonderfully illustrated Birds of America (four volumes), housed in their own ornately carved bookcase. This represents one of a few held in libraries in the UK and is considered by Sotheby's to be the finest the company has seen. The collection also includes a Shakespeare First Folio, in excellent condition."

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"He purchased the Archie Givens Sr. Collection, which he said is a “living collection of African American culture,” and worked with Archie Givens Jr. and Josie Johnson to give it to the University."

"He said the rare book collection, in the Andersen Library on the West Bank, is invaluable in terms of what it represents as it will encourage other ethnic groups to create literary offerings which the public can see and learn from. "

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"A few individuals give new meaning to the idea of spending forever in the library—their skin binds three of the books in Harvard’s 15-million-volume collection."

"Without extensive genetic testing, Harvard librarians still do not have the “foggiest notion” of how many volumes wrapped in human hide exist throughout the system, says Director of University Libraries Sidney Verba ’53. But they have identified three such volumes in the Langdell Law Library, Countway Library of Medicine, and the Houghton Collection. The three books range in content from medieval law to Roman poetry to French philosophy. "

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"When renowned bookseller Harry Schwartz of Milwaukee learned he was gravely ill, he selected "War and Peace" to reread. He declared, "This would be a good book to die with." Books, and the ideas they carry, are serious business to many people."

"In 'Every Book Its Reader,' Nicholas Basbanes recounts how reading influenced the lives of many of history's greatest thinkers in all fields of endeavor, from Leonardo da Vinci through Helen Keller, Thomas Edison, Malcolm X, David McCullough and many others."

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"The center court has a modest collection of pre-colonial earthenware from the Calatagan, Batangas, excavations of the 1960s and it leads to a gallery dedicated to Jose Rizal and another gallery for rare books and maps. At the very end of the museum is the library -- the heart of the museum -- with a sizable collection of Filipiniana books and periodicals (most interesting being pre-war magazines and the pre-martial law photos and newspaper clippings that provide a window to the recent past)."

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"Dick and Patsy moved back to Clinton following his retirement and he spent much of his time restoring old volumes at the Hamilton College library. In June of 1999, Dick and Patsy were honored during the school's Alumni Weekend in recognition of their $1.5 million endowment to fund the position of a librarian. That was in addition to the Williams-Watrous-Couper Foundation that supports academic pursuits and the Couper Fund, which provides for the purchase of rare books for the college library."

"In one of the letters I received from Dick after he fell ill, he remarked that he was reading Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton."

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