• Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    Printed Books, Maps & Ephemera
    Printing Woodblocks by Thomas & John Bewick
    12 December 2024
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 12: Gell (William). The Topography of Troy, and its Vicinity, 1804. £2,000 to £3,000.
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 12: Low (David). The Breeds of the Domestic Animals of the British Islands, 1842. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 12: North America. Moll (Herman)..., This Map of North America..., circa 1725. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    Printed Books, Maps & Ephemera
    Printing Woodblocks by Thomas & John Bewick
    12 December 2024
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 12: Bible [English]. [The Holie Bible conteynyng the Olde Testament and the Newe, 1568]. £3,000 to £5,000.
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 12: Chaucer (Geoffrey). The Workes of Our Ancient and Learned English Poet, newly Printed, 1602. £1,500 to £2,000. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 12: Cuffee (Paul). Memoir of Captain Paul Cuffee, A Man of Color, Liverpool, 1811. £300 to £500.
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    Modern First Editions & Illustrated Books, Playing Cards, Toys & Games
    13 December 2024
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13: Milne (A. A.) The House at Pooh Corner, signed limited edition, 1928. £3,000 to £5,000.
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13: Huxley (Aldous). Brave New World, limited signed edition, 1932. £2,000 to £3,000.
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13: Orwell (George). Animal Farm, 1st edition, 1945. £2,000 to £3,000.
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    Modern First Editions & Illustrated Books, Playing Cards, Toys & Games
    13 December 2024
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13: Rowling (J. K.). Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1st edition, 1st impression, 1997. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13: Tolkien (J. R. R.) The Lord of the Rings, 3 volumes, 1st edition, 1954-55. £2,000 to £3,000.
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13: Wells (H. G.) The War of the Worlds, 1st edition, 1st issue, 1898. £1,000 to £1,500.
  • Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Discover Upcoming Auctions
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 9: Coronelli, Vincenzo Maria. "Epitome Cosmografica." With the 6 circular celestial and terrestrial charts. 7,000 – 10,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 9: Hurley, Frank. Collection of 69 photographs taken during Ernest Shackleton's Endurance Expedition. 80,000 – 120,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 10: Sendak, Maurice. Original artwork for the inaugural "New York is Book Country" poster, 1979. 300,000 – 600,00 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 10: [Brontë, Emily, and Ann Brontë] — Ellis Bell and Acton Bell. An outstanding survival of the sisters' debut novels Estimate. 90,000 - 130,000 USD
  • Bonhams, Dec. 18: A Very Fine Composite Atlas Magnificently Illuminated and Heightened with Gold in a Fine Contemporary Hand Throughout. $300,000 - $500,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Saint-Exupéry's Revised Ending for Wind, Sand and Stars. $40,000 - $60,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Edith Wharton's Gold Medal from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1924. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Salinger on the Glass Family and on Detachment. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Fanny Burney's Groundbreaking First Novel. Evelina, Or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Kafka's Earliest Extant Piece of Writing. Autograph Note Signed ("Franz Kafka"). $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Wagner Signed "Ride of the Valkries." $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Dickens on the Death of Little Nell. $5,000 - $8,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Sylvia Plath's Copy of Joy of Cooking. $4,000 - $6,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Walt Whitman and Friends: Whitman to James Russell Lowell. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Walt Whitman and Friends: The Genesis of his Lincoln Lectures. $6,000 - $9,000
  • High Bids Win
    Bookbinding & Letterpress & Antiques Auction
    Dec. 4 – 19, 2024
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 67. Book Press
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 68. J. W. Daughaday Printing Press
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 69. C. & P. Pilot Press
    High Bids Win
    Bookbinding & Letterpress & Antiques Auction
    Dec. 4 – 19, 2024
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 73. Vandercook Cylinder Proof Press
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 76. Showcard Proof Press
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 80. C. & P. Printing Press
    High Bids Win
    Bookbinding & Letterpress & Antiques Auction
    Dec. 4 – 19, 2024
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 81. C. & P. Printing Press
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 82. Kelsey Star Printing Press
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 83. Pilot Press
    High Bids Win
    Bookbinding & Letterpress & Antiques Auction
    Dec. 4 – 19, 2024
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 212. Kelsey Letterpress
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Wood & Metal Type. Many fonts and faces.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Print Shop Miscellany including type, tools, and equipment.

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - November - 2024 Issue

Library Technology: Report Reviews Digitizing Ancient and Fragile Materials

Digitizing ancient and fragile materials is the subject of a recent report by Primary Research Group.

Digitizing ancient and fragile materials is the subject of a recent report by Primary Research Group.

Digitizing Ancient and Fragile Materials is the subject of a recent report by Primary Research Group (PRG), a New York City firm specializing in data analysis related to libraries, higher education, law and other fields. Though the sample was small: 25 mainly American institutions, the participants ranged from some as large as Duke University Libraries, the Jewish Theological Seminary and Brigham Young University, to much smaller repositories such as Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis. Those who participated included staffers with the job titles: Library Directors, Archivists/Digital Librarians and Special Collections Directors.

The 112-page study looked at how these libraries are tackling the issue of digitizing materials including ancient manuscripts, fragments of documents and other hard to handle items. The report also provided information on the types of digitizing equipment considered most useful, personnel training budgets and practices, insurance and transport issues. It compared outsourcing vs. in-house digitization, as well as what and how much institutions expect to digitize in the near future.

Data in the report is broken out by type and size of college or university, by public and private status, and by the personal characteristics of the respondent, such as work title, age and gender.

A few of the key findings were:

No special collections librarian in the sample reported that more than 30% of their stock of ancient, rare or fragile materials had been digitized.

44% of respondents are unsure if their institution has insurance for damage incurred during digitization. Only 16% report having insurance that would cover accidents during digitization.

60% of respondents in institutions with more than 23,000 students FTE had an in-house training program in digitization skills.

Respondents from schools with higher tuition ranges were more likely to plan to digitize most of all of their ancient or fragile items.

40% of respondents believed that flatbed scanners were almost always important in their digitization efforts.

There were multiple questions about equipment and software preferences. Some of the options mentioned included Overhead Scanners, Flatbed Scanners, Book Scanners, Automated Page Turners, Multispectral or Hyperspectral Imaging, DSLR Cameras, Tesseract (OCR Technology), GIMP (Image Editing Software), ABBYY FineReader, Transkribus (Handwritten Text Recognition).

The perceived importance of Photoshop was high with this sample:

Photoshop is highly regarded, with 36% rating it as almost always important.

- Library Affiliation:

- Special Collections Directors: 62.5% rated Photoshop as almost always important.

- Archivists/Digital Librarians: 40% find it often important.

- By Enrollment: Institutions with 8,000+ students consider Photoshop important, with 57.14% finding it almost always essential.

The overall finding stated,

- None Digitized: 12% of institutions have not digitized any materials.

- Less than 5% Digitized: The largest group, 36%, reported digitizing less than 5% of rare or ancient materials in their collections.

- 5% to 30% Digitized: 44% have digitized between 5% and 30%.

- More than 30%: 8% of libraries have digitized between 30% and 50%, with none reporting over 50%.

Respondents from larger schools in higher tuition ranges were more likely than others to plan to digitize most of all of their ancient or fragile items. All of those planning to digitize the complete collection of such items were private colleges, of which 18.18% had such plans. Also, all of those who planned to digitize everything were men.

It was interesting to note that the level of funding earmarked for digitization efforts varied widely and not surprisingly the bigger schools with higher tuition put more resources into their digitization effort. The data breakout by gender suggested libraries were more likely to invest in training men than women employees and spend more on that training.

In general,” the report said, “much remains to be done and most ancient or fragile materials remain not accessible through digital means. No library in the sample reported digitizing more than half of their ancient or rare holdings.”

The report also contained comments from a number of Archivists/Digital Librarians. A few examples are:

- Digitization has greatly improved public access to fragile materials, with one library reporting that 70% of its fragile materials are now publicly available. Digitization also facilitates preservation by limiting the physical handling of materials.

- Libraries report digitizing thousands of pages annually, uploading collections to digital repositories, and receiving frequent requests for digitized content from scholars worldwide.

- Digital materials are promoted globally, with some libraries experiencing over two million views per year and regular requests for publication use of digitized items.

Special Collections Directors/Managers mentioned:

- For some, digitization has drastically expanded the reach of their collections, particularly for medical books, which are now accessible to thousands of users worldwide. One institution reported 205 digitized works being downloaded over 200,000 times across nearly 200 countries.

- Others are restarting digitization projects after early initiatives were discontinued or planning future promotions of newly digitized materials.

- During the COVID-19 pandemic, digitization became essential for maintaining access to collections, and libraries saw an increase in both web traffic and user engagement.

James Moses, Research Director for PRG, the firm he founded in 1994, said the company uses both staff and freelancers to compile reports. It issues about 65 new ones each year in their various specialty areas. He said the company currently has licenses for a total of 800-900 reports which are available individually or by subscription.

Two other PRG 2024 publications of possible interest to those in the library world are:

Survey of Academic Library Leadership, Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence, 

Survey of Academic Library Leadership 2024, Hiring Practices & Plans



Contact info: James Moses

Primary Research Group Inc.

2585 Broadway #156

New York, New York 10025

jmoses@primaryresearch.com

212-736-2316 (phone)

212-412-9097 (fax)

www.PrimaryResearch.com



Reach writer Susan Halas at wailukusue@gmail.com

Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €5,500 to €7,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Rare First Edition of a Classic Work. [Stafford (Thos.)] Pacata Hibernia, Ireland Appeased and Reduced…, 1633. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Signed by author, limited edition. €1,250 to €1,750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Fishing: Literal Translation into English of the Earliest Known Book on Fowling and Fishing, Written originally in Flemish and Printed at Antwerp in 1492. London (Chiswick Press) 1872. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Fishing: Blacker's - Art of Fly Making, etc., Comprising Angling & Dying of Colours..., Rewritten & Revised. Lond. 1855. €250 to €350.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Joyce (James). Finnegans Wake,, London (Faber & Faber Ltd.) 1939, Lim. Edn. No. 269 (425) copies, Signed by the Author (in green pen). €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Synge (J.M.) & Yeats (Jack B.) illus. The Aran Islands,, D. (Maunsel & Co. Ltd.) 1907, Signed Limited Edn. €4,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Meyer (Dr. A.B.) Unser Auer -, Rackel-Und Birkwild und Seine Abarten, Wien (Verlag Von Adolph W. Kunast) 1887. €2,500 to €3,500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Carve (Thomas). Itinerarium R.D. Thomas Carve Tripperariensis, Sacellani Maioris in Fortisima iuxta…,, Moguntia (Mainz) impriemebat Nicolaus Heyll, 1639. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2 vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. First Edition. €3,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Heaney (Seamus) & Le Brocquy (Louis) artist. Ugolino, D. (Dolmen Press) 1979, Signed Limited Edition No. 87 (125) Copies. €3,500 to €4,500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Heaney (Seamus). Eleven Poems, Belfast (Festival publications - Queens University) [1965], First Edn., (First Issue) Signed. €2,500 to €3,500.
  • Bonhams, Dec. 17: Kelmscott Chaucer: The Finest Book Since the Gutenberg Bible. $60,000 - $90,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Inscribed by William Morris to Edward Burne-Jones. Poems Chosen out of the Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Morris's Original Manuscript Title-Page Design for Rosetti. Ballads and Narrative Poems. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Printed on Vellum: The Founding of the Kelmscott Press. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Inscribed by William Morris to Edward Burne-Jones. Voragine, Jacobus De. The Golden Legend. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Inscribed by William Morris to Edward Burne-Jones. Lull, Ramon. The Order of Chivalry. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Inscribed by William Morris to Swinburne. Morris, William, translator. Tale of King Florus and the Fair Jehane. $4,000 - $6,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Printed on Vellum: One of Only 15 Copies. Morris, William, translator. Of the Friendship of Amis and Amile. $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Inscribed by William Morris to Rudyard Kipling. The Book of Wisdom and Lies. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: William Morris Association Copy in Fine Binding. Morris, William. Child Christopher and Goldilind at the Fair. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Morris, William. 1834-1896. The Earthly Paradise. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Nuremberg Chronicle. Schedel, Hartmann. 1440-1514. $30,000 - $50,000

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