Rare Books on the Web


A List of Resources Compiled by Albert Masters

I. SOME FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT RARE BOOKS

Your Old Books

II. LIBRARIES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Repositories of Primary Sources (from The University of Idaho)
Special Collections On the Web (from The American Library Association)
Special Collections Web Resources (also from The American Library Association)
Early Printed Collections (from The British Library)
The Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room (from The Library of Congress)
Special Collections (from The National Library of Canada)
RBMS (The Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries)
The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

III. BOOKDEALERS AND BOOK COLLECTORS

ABEBOOKS.COM (Advanced Book Exchange)
ABEBOOKS.CO.UK
ADDALL Book Search and Price Comparison
ALIBRIS
The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association
The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America
The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of Canada
ANTIQBOOK
BIBLIO.COM
Bibliofind
The Bibliophile Group
BIBLIOPHILE.NET
Book Search Engines: An Annotated List
Book Collecting (from Rebecca Hanneman of About.com)
BOOKFINDER.COM
Books and Book Collecting (from Steve Trussel)
BOOKWEBSITES.COM
The BookWire Directory
Canadian Used and Rare Booksellers
The Digital Bibliophile Community
EUROLIBRI.NET
Fadedgiant Free Online Guide to Rare Book Values
IBCA (The International Book Collectors Association)
ILAB (The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers)
Sotheby's Guide to Collecting Books and Manuscripts
Syndicat national de la Librairie Ancienne et Moderne

IV. DIGITIZED REPRODUCTIONS OF TEXTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Manuscripts, Paleography, Codicology (from The Labyrinth at Georgetown University)
DScriptorium: Images from Medieval Manuscripts (from Brigham Young University)
Medieval History: Online Books and Images (from Melissa Snell of About.com)
The Göttingen Gutenberg Bible
The Aberdeen Bestiary
The Age of King Charles V (from the Bibliothèque Nationale)
Treasures of the British Library
The Early Printed Books Project (from Oxford University)
A Hundred Highlights from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek
American Memory (from The Library of Congress)
Digital Editions from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Early Canadiana Online
The Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia
Ex Libris Special Collections Directory
Rare Books Online (an essay about digitization projects in Europe and North America)

V.GENERAL SITES ABOUT RARE BOOKS, THE HISTORY OF THE BOOK AND THE BOOK ARTS

THE HISTORY OF THE BOOK

Literary Resources : Bibliography and the History of the Book (from Jack Lynch at Rutgers University)
Resources for the History of Books and Printing (from Daniel Traister at the University of Pennsylvania)
The History of the Book (from The University of British Columbia)
A Guide to the Book Arts and Book History on the World Wide Web (from Andrew Pace at the Catholic University of America)
Writing Materials & The History of Books and Printing: Some Related Links (from David Duncan at the University of Central Arkansas)
New York Public Library Guide to the History of Books and Printing
Penn State University Libraries History of the Book and Printing
General Book and Printing History (from Melissa Snell of About.com)
Book History Online (from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek)
Book, Manuscript and Printing History--Medieval History (from Melissa Snell of About.com)
SHARP Web (from The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing)
Paper, Leather, Clay and Stone (an online exhibition from Cornell University Library)
The History of the Book in Canada Project
Toronto Centre for the Book
Book History and Print Culture (a collaborative program at the University of Toronto)
A Medieval Manuscript Manual (from Central European University)

THE BOOK ARTS

The Arts of the Book (from Yale University)
The Book Arts Web (from Peter Verheyan)
The Center for Book Arts (New York, N.Y.)
The BookWeb (from The University of Alabama)
The Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild
Modern Fine Printing (from William S. Peterson at the University of Maryland)
The Book Arts Press at the University of Virginia

OTHER GENERAL SITES

Rare Books Around the Net (from The Boston Book Company)
Book Information Website (from Cor Knops)
Book Lovers: Fine Books and Literature (from Piet Wesselman)
BUBL: Book studies (from The Bulletin Board for Librarians)
BUBL: Manuscripts, Rare Books, and Other Rare Printed Materials (from The Bulletin Board for Librarians)
To Educate (from The International Association of Book Collectors)
The Rare Book School at the University of Virginia
Institut d'histoire du livre (Lyons)

VI. SPECIAL TOPICS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Bibliographical Society of America
The Bibliographical Society of Canada
The Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research (from The University of California, Riverside)

CATALOGUING

RBMS Resources for the Rare Materials Cataloger (from the Association of College and Research Libraries)
Descriptive Cataloguing of Rare Books (from The Library Corporation)
Cataloger's Reference Shelf (from The Library Corporation)
Cataloguer's Toolbox (from Memorial University of Newfoundland)
Latin Place Names (from the Association of College and Research Libraries)

CONSERVATION

Conservation Online (from Stanford University)

DEFINITIONS AND VOCABULARY

A Glossary of Bookselling Terms and Abbreviations (from Edward Ripley-Duggan)
A Book Collector's Glossary (from Carl Noe)
Glenn Larsen's Book Collectors Glossary
Glenn Larsen's Guide to First Edition Identification
Book Terms, Glossaries, Binding (from Steve Trussel)
Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology (from Matt T. Roberts and Don Etherington)
A Glossary of Common Latin Terms Found in Imprints of Early Printed Books (from Robert L. Maxwell)

EXHIBITIONS

Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web (from The Smithsonian Institution Libraries)
Virtual Exhibitions (from the Bibliothèque Nationale)

MAPS

Heritage Antique Maps
Historical Maps and Globes (from Harvard University)

VII. LISTSERVS

A good place to find LISTSERVS (Online Discussion Groups) on book-related subjects is The Internet Library for Librarians. Three LISTSERVS that might be of particular interest are EXLIBRIS (which focuses on rare books and special collections), SHARP-L (which focuses on the history of authorship, reading and publishing) and BIBSOCAN (which focuses on bibliography). LISTSERVS can be very useful when trying to answer a difficult question.

Links to other sites on the Web by Albert Masters

Rare Books on the Web: A Brief Introduction
Medieval Manuscripts on the Web: A Brief Introduction
Medieval Manuscripts on the Web: A List of Resources
Home Page

© 2000 albert.masters@utoronto.ca

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