"I
have an old book..." | Our Oldest Book
| A Miniature Book
Guide to providing a sound environment
for paper-based material
Secondhand book searches online | Book Prices Tutorial
The State Library provides a rare books-related information and research
service for all Queenslanders, based on a reference collection and
two special collections, the History and Art
of the Book Collection and the Eber Bunker Maritime
Collection. The service and the collections are located in Arts reading
room at the State Library's Cannon
Hill building.
Information & Research Service
A statewide speciality information service in rare books is provided
by staff in the Arts reading room at Cannon Hill. Trained staff are available
to help you locate any rare books-related information, including how to
access book price records, information on the publishing of a book, or
information on the history and techniques of book production.
Specialist librarians are available Monday to Friday, 10 am to 5 pm.
Visitors to the Library during these hours should ask for assistance at
the counter.
At other times when other Library venues are open, you can seek assistance
from the non-specialist staff there, or leave enquiries with them to pass
on to the specialists.
If we can, we will answer your enquiry, or show you how to find the information,
on the spot. However, if this is not possible, we undertake to:
- devote up to two hours working on it for free, although usually not
straight away. Enquiries previously received have priority over those
taken later.
- provide an answer within 3 to 5 working days. Those inquiries more
difficult to answer may take longer, but we will let you know if this
is going to be the case.
Clients unable to visit the Cannon Hill building are
welcome to contact us in other ways with their
enquiries during normal working hours, as listed below.
Internet resources for rare books information
Arts Unit staff have selected web sites which you may find interesting
and useful. They include links to: Secondhand
book searches online | Book arts | Book
related societies | Bookdealers' associations
| Books online | Online
exhibitions | Preservation of books
Secondhand book searches online
- abebooks.com
- A source for out-of-print books. Searchable using the Quick Search
or, for more search options including publisher, click on the Search
tab.
- Alibris
- Search for out-of-print books, used books, and rare books, including
first edition books, children's books, science fiction books, ephemera
and much more. Note that Alibris add a percentage on top of
the bookdealers' prices. Also you have no direct point of
contact with the bookdealers.
- Antiqbooks
- Book search service is provided by NAN (Netherlands Antiquarian
Booksellers' Network). The focus is on European books.
- Bibliofind
- Thirty-five hundred booksellers from around the world offering
eight million books for sale.
- BibliOZ
- BiblioOz.com, the Book Search Wizard, is one of the world's leading
sources of out of print and collectable books with more than 20 million
items available online from bookdealers all over the globe, plus a
free booksearch service for any hard-to-find books. An Australian-based
service, they also have particular strengths in Asian, Pacific, Antarctic
and British Colonial material.
- BookFinder.com
- This is a book shopping search engine that scans bookseller databases
to find new, used, rare, and out of print books.
- Books and book collecting
- Try Trussel's EclectiCity site with its links to new and out-of-print
book search services. It also has a free Set Maker service to try
to link up odd volumes with incomplete sets of reference books,
collected works and other multi-volume editions.
- International
League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB-LILA)
- The League "...speaks for twenty nations and 2000 leading
booksellers throughout the world. Its emblem stands for integrity
and professionalism in the rare book trade worldwide."
- Online Book Exchange
- The Australian site is primarily intended for use by University,
TAFE and secondary students wishing to trade second hand textbooks.
- World Book Dealers
- a joint venture between UK and the USA bookdealers and [TOM|the
OTHER media] limited.
You may like to read "I
have an old book", a guide to the print resources the State Library
of Queensland holds to assist with secondhand book price records, with
links to other useful Web sites.
- The Book Arts Web
- Set up by Peter Verheyen, binder/conservator who founded Book_Arts-L.
- Book_Arts-L
: The electronic meeting place for all facets of the book arts
- A mailing list based at Syracuse University, and managed by Peter
Verheyen. Among the subscribers are practicing bookbinders, book-artists,
marblers, papermakers, printers, collectors, curators in libraries,
and people just interested in our wide and varied field. Includes
a searchable archive of messages to the mailing list.
- Book Information
Website
- devoted to all aspects of books, bookarts, book history, letterpress
printing, fine printing, book schools, paper and papermaking, book
artists, history of printing and more.
- Information
about the Book and Book Arts Community
- Contains resources for people interested in the history of the
book, bibliography, the book trade and the book arts. Provided by
Oak Knoll Books (US).
- The Bibliographical Society of
America
- Its principal objectives are to promote bibliographical research
and to issue bibliographical publications.
- Bibliographical Society of
Australia and New Zealand (BSANZ)
- The Society has as its province all the studies that form part
of or are related to physical bibliography: the history of printing,
publishing, bookselling, typefounding, papermaking, bookbinding;
palaeography and codicology; and textual bibliography. The Society
also has an interest in the general field of reference bibliography,
and has been enthusiastically involved in efforts to document the
holdings in Australia of pre-1800 books through the recently completed
Australian Book Heritage Project (the Australian arm of the international
Early Imprints Project).
- Bibliographical Society
of Canada
- The principal aims of the Society are to promote bibliographical
publications; to encourage the preservation and to extend the knowledge
of printed works and manuscripts, particularly those relating to
Canada; to facilitate the exchange of information concerning rare
Canadiana; to coordinate bibliographical activity and to set standards.
- The Fine Press Book Association
- An organization formed by individuals interested in the art of
fine printing to promote printing skills and the appreciation of
beautiful books.
- International Book Collectors
Association (IBCA)
- Site presented by avid book collectors with information on topics
including how to determine the values of your own books. Check out
their Table of contents.
- The Manuscript Society
- An international organization of persons and institutions devoted
to the collection, preservation, use, and enjoyment of autographs
and manuscripts. Not strictly book-related, but autographs and manuscripts
are often found in books.
- Bibliomania, The Network Library
- gives access to full texts of a range of authors.
- Books-On-Line
- Do a search of their database to find books out of copyright and
available to download.
- Electronic text
archives
- A listing of various Web probjects with links compiled by the
Louisiana State University.
- Project Gutenberg index
- the official Web home page for the project. The Project Gutenberg
philosophy is to make information, books and other materials available
to the general public in forms a vast majority of the computers,
programs and people can easily read, use, quote, and search.
- The On-Line Books
Page
- an index of thousands of online books. Hosted by the University
of Pennsylvania.
Don't forget, you can use NetLinks
to find more book and book arts-related information on the Web.
If you have an enquiry, you can get in touch with us in any of the following
ways:
Note: As well as the Rare Books service, the Arts Unit
provides a state-wide Visual Arts information &
research service.

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