a possible field for book conservation

A Possible Field for Book ConservationAuthor(s): Pierce ButlerSource: The Library Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Jul., 1942), pp. 399-403Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4302974 .

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A POSSIBLE FIELD FOR BOOK CONSERVATION

PIERCE BUTLER

E VEN the home-biding American bookman is aware of the gen- eral superiority of the antiquarian bookshops of Europe over those in this country. And usually when he first goes abroad

he is amazed to discover that their printed catalogs represent only a small part of their resources-in book stock, in scholarship, and in reasonable prices. Thus, in every European country not only institu- tional libraries but private students have access to an abundant and cheap market of scholarly books of every sort in secondhand copies. In this country neither libraries nor students have such facilities.

I

There are at least four major reasons for the difference. (i) In Europe the inherited stocks of available secondhand books are much larger than here in America. (2) The foreign scholastic habit is more favorable to the bookseller: European students are accustomed to buying many books which Americans ordinarily use in a library. (3) In these older societies the competition for academic appointment has long been so keen that many highly qualified scholars have been glad to enter the book trade. (4) The book market of Europe is not only a recognized and reputable branch of commerce, it is efficiently organ- ized-by trade traditions in some countries and by formal arrange- ments in others.

That the character of a nation's book trade is determined by such matters as supply, demand, personnel, and organization is demon- strable. Here in America there is one market where conditions are comparable to those abroad-namely, in the field of collectors' rarities. And in this realm our American booksellers and bookshops are un- questionably equal to any in Europe.

Hitherto the failure of our country to develop a normal antiquarian book trade has not been a serious matter for American scholarship. Our librarians and professional students have long been accustomed to purchase freely from. European dealers and agents. But now a new situation has developed. Trade with the Continent is wholly shut off,

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400 THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY

and even transactions with Britain are greatly retarded. Nor is the dislocation merely temporary; if the war were to end tomorrow, former conditions in the international book market would not thereby be re-established. Henceforth, new conditions will prevail. Many European libraries have been destroyed, and the wastage of dealers' stocks has been even greater. For decades to come the old libraries of Europe must be replenished and new ones established from the de- pleted stocks of antiquarian dealers. Therefore, it would seem in- evitable that, as never before, America must depend upon her own secondhand book market, both for the present and for the future. And accordingly every practicable measure should be taken that will conserve the antiquarian books which we already have and that will facilitate their free movement in the normal processes of redistribution.

II

There can be no question that here in America we already have an immense stock of antiquarian books of permanent scholarly value. There are, of course, no figures available concerning their distribution, but the number in private hands must be considerable. For genera- tions Americans have been going abroad for travel or study. Many of them have brought books home, and some of them have continued to purchase by mail from European booksellers. In every American college town, certainly, there are a few important collections of current and out-of-print volumes of European origin in the homes or offices of faculty members. Yet, except in a few metropolitan cities, there is no antiquarian market in our country through which such books may normally pass to new hands on the death of their first owner or when he no longer needs them.

Ordinarily, the disposal of such a scholar's working library will go somewhat in this fashion. On his death the bereaved family, knowing that considerable money has been spent on the collection, will have an exaggerated idea of its market value. If they can afford to do so, they will probably present it, with considerable formality, to the local college library. Otherwise they will attempt to sell it, but inevitably are shocked by the small lump sum that the dealers will offer. According- ly, the books are usually held for a period, unused, neglected, and de- teriorating, until something happens to compel their immediate disposal. When this crisis arises, the collection will be dumped suddenly in the college library or sold to the nearest dealer for whatever he offers.



a POSSIBLE FIELD FOR BOOK CONSERVATION 401

As such collections come, first or last, to college libraries they are seldom well handled. The books are first sorted into two classes: those not already represen ted on the library shelves and those that are. The volumes in the first class are automatically accessioned with no regard for their highly specialized character or their incongruity and isolation in the collection. (Actually, of course, no library should ever accept as a gift any volume which it would not gladly purchase at full market value if funds were available.) And the treatment of the duplicates in a college library is equally ill advised and unintelligent. Usually they are stored in a basement or attic under the worst possible physical conditions. Occasionally a librarian attempts to exchange them with other libraries, but usually at a cost in labor and attention that will far outweigh any real profit. More commonly they are al- lowed to accumulate until, in an orgy of housecleaning, someone in authority disposes of them to a local bookseller at about the price of wastepaper.

Whether the family sells the original collection to a dealer im- mediately or a librarian its remnants later, the price obtained always seems grotesquely inadequate. Yet, in fact, it may really be excessive in view of existing conditions. The dealer is probably a graduate junk dealer; he does a small business, and he has no facilities for the sale of unusual scholarly foreign imprints. His overhead expenses are excessive, and therefore the spread between his buying and selling prices must be enormous. To get his investment back, to say nothing of profit, he must depend on the quick sale of a comparatively few volumes. The rest of the collection will in all probability moulder for years in the corner of his shop until he or his successor sells it as wastepaper. In the meantime, if he has a good memory and reads lists of books wanted in trade journals, he may dispose of an occasional volume, but ultimately even he will forget what he possesses.

III Some day America may develop a new class of scholarly booksellers

who keep adequate records and use efficient sales methods. But of this there seems little immediate prospect. To establish himself, such a dealer would require not only a special education but also a considerable capital and an infinitude of ingenuity, patience, and industry. There is, however, one device by which a talented person already in the trade might facilitate the movement of scholarly antiquarian literature. This is to solicit his customers to supply him with lists of



402 THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY

books which they and their friends have and would sell for a reasonable offer. Then he could issue a catalog of this potential stock but actually purchase from the owner only the items for which he had received orders. This method would have certain advantages. The dealer would not have to make a large capital outlay and provide storage space for volumes which would sell slowly. With his overhead expenses thus reduced, he could offer more to the owner than he could otherwise. But at best it would be a slow and cumbersome process. Moreover, it would involve all the difficulties of securing biblio- graphical descriptions from untrained persons.

A more satisfactory method would be the establishment of a non- profit scholarly book exchange with an adequate working capital. Any imaginative bookman can picture such an institution. Its office and warehouses would be established in a small community centrally located and with good shipping facilities. At this center there would be a continuous receipt and dispatch of scholarly books. The sources of the incoming stream would be various. Libraries would turn over their duplicates for credit. The collections of deceased scholars would be offered here by their heirs at the suggestion of local librarians. Liv- ing scholars, on learning of the nature of the service, would deliver for either cash or exchange important books which they no longer needed. Booksellers all over the country would gladly sell cheaply at lot prices all the volumes in their stock which they themselves could not handle. And perhaps small public and college libraries might be persuaded to remove from their shelves learned works of no present utility in order to replace them by volumes that would be of local value.

The outgo would be equally various. Experts would segregate the junk and send it to its proper destination, the wastepaper market. Current American imprints and the like would be sold to dealers at wholesale prices. Collectors' items would be disposed of in a similar fashion or accumulated for periodic auctions. But scholarly works, especially those in foreign languages, together with serials and learned periodicals, would be sold at standard market prices to libraries or individuals who could use them. Two methods would be used for this redistribution: each incoming consignment of books would be checked against the desiderata lists on file; and the volumes not disposed of in this fashion would be listed in simple but accurate catalogs, which would be properly circulated in the scholarly world.



A POSSIBLE FIELD FOR BOOK CONSERVATION 403

IV Such a system, if it could be practically established, would render

many benefits. It would enable libraries to utilize their duplicates ad- vantageously. It would provide an honest and adequate market where the present and future owners of scholarly collections could dispose of them on reasonable terms. But, above all, it would conserve our present resources of valuable foreign books already in the country and provide for their proper redistribution where they would do most good. Moreover, it might, by the training of younger staff members, raise up a generation of competent antiquarian booksellers, of which the country is sorely in need. And, finally, it might prepare the way for co-operative instead of competitive buying by American libraries when, if ever, they again have access to European markets.



a possible field for book conservation

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