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Books from Abroad OneCollection DevelopmentStrategyMarilyn Bailey Ogilvie aa History of Science Collections University ofOklahoma 401 West Brooks Norman OK 73019USAPublished online 20 Jan 2009

To cite this article Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie (2002) Books from Abroad One CollectionDevelopment Strategy The Acquisitions Librarian 1427 27-34

To link to this article httpdxdoiorg101300J101v14n27_04

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Books from AbroadOne Collection Development Strategy

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie

SUMMARY This article is a case study of the historical development of ac-

quisitions practices in a special collections unit with focus on the advantages

of the practice of acquiring special collections books abroad during annual book

buying trips Methods of ensuring the efficiency and efficacy of such trips are

identified including contacting dealers in advance and the need for a listing of the

libraryrsquos holdings [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document De-livery Service 1-800-HAWORTH E-mail address ltgetinfohaworthpressinccomgtWebsite lthttpwwwHaworthPresscomgt copy 2002 by The Haworth Press Inc All rights re-served]

KEYWORDS Out-of-print books special collectionsndashacquisitions

Special collections use a variety of methods to develop their holdings congru-ent with their mission purposes and goals As in any kind of library collectiondevelopment policies should emerge from a sense of both institutional and socialmission However because a special collection has a more restrictive purposethan other types of libraries it tends to ignore the evaluation of individual titlesand concentrates on collecting everything within the delineated subject bound-aries (Curley and Broderick 1985 70) Within a special collection or special li-

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie is Curator History of Science Collections University ofOklahoma 401 West Brooks Norman OK 73019 (E-mail mogilvieouedu)

[Haworth co-indexing entry note] ldquoBooks from Abroad One Collection Development Strategyrdquo OgilvieMarilyn Bailey Co-published simultaneously in The Acquisitions Librarian (The Haworth Information Press animprint of The Haworth Press Inc) No 27 2002 pp 27-34 and Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials

Acquisition and Purchasing Options (ed Judith Overmier) The Haworth Information Press an imprint of TheHaworth Press Inc 2002 pp 27-34 Single or multiple copies of this article are available for a fee from TheHaworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-HAWORTH 900 am - 500 pm (EST) E-mail addressgetinfohaworthpressinccom]

2002 by The Haworth Press Inc All rights reserved 27

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brary the subject considered demands specialized policies Clearly a modernmedical library would be interested in the latest information on the medical top-ics whereas a medical history collection would select entirely different works Alaw library would collect materials on the latest decisions but a library on the his-tory of jurisprudence would collect books that espoused important historical pre-cedents A science collection would collect material on modern science whereasa history of science collection would be concerned with the history of the disci-pline General literature is available to guide the librarian in acquiring selectionhelp (Darling 1983 and others) However some special collections have uniquepolicies and methods relating to their histories and missions only a part of whichis considered in the literature

The history of the History of Science Collections in the University ofOklahoma libraries explains its atypical approach to collection developmentWith holdings ranging chronologically from Hrabanus Maurusrsquo Opus de

universo (printed before 20 July 1467 the collectionsrsquo oldest book) to currentpublications in the history of science the collections serve students faculty andscholars in the history of science The guiding principle in the development ofthis more than 85000 volume research library has been to acquire every editionincluding translations of every book that has been published in science sinceprintingrsquos inception as well as scientific periodicals While this goal has by nomeans been achieved the collections possess first editions of most of the land-mark books in the history of science and in many cases all of the editions

The Darwin materials illustrate the depth of the collectionsrsquo holdings Theyconsist not only of all of the first editions of Charles Darwinrsquos work but morethan 430 editions and printings as well including translations into many lan-guages The collections emphasize not only depth in covering the publications ofindividual scientists but also the social and intellectual context of science pro-viding such supporting materials as science textbooks popular works on scienceencyclopedias commentaries dictionaries bibliographical works biographiesof scientists history of science journals histories of science and of individual sci-ences and histories of scientific institutions There are also substantial collec-tions of portraits of scientists and slides relevant to the history of science

The collections began in 1949 when University of Oklahoma geologist andalumnus Everette Lee DeGolyer loaned 129 books from his extensive collectionin the history of science to the University He promised to give these books andmore to the University of Oklahoma if it would establish a history of science pro-gram to assure that the books would be used in teaching

The University agreed to the terms and Duane H D Roller a young PhDgraduate from Harvard University was hired to teach history of science and serveas curator of the developing collections The first course was taught in 1954 be-

28 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

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ginning the symbiotic relationship between what became the Department of theHistory of Science and the History of Science Collections

Both areas expanded while other donors added to DeGolyerrsquos gifts increasingthe complexity of the curatorrsquos position At the same time a demand for addi-tional courses in the history of science necessitated the hiring of additional fac-ulty members The first professorship in the history of science was established in1954 a second in 1959 a third in 1964 and a fourth and fifth in 1967 In 1971 aseparate department of history of science was created with the support of Presi-dent Herbert Hollomon and in 1975 a sixth professorship was added The uniqueinterrelationship between the collections with its resources and the departmentwith its teaching and research faculty has been maintained since the originalagreement with DeGolyer

Because of its ubiquitous nature the collections use a variety of strategies forcollection development Books are purchased from catalogs auctions sec-ond-hand bookstores estate sales and duplicates from libraries In addition do-nations are accepted from individuals We also have a history of buying rarebooks abroad and have found traveling especially to European countries to buybooks to be an important part of our collection development program As far as Ihave ascertained the literature on the strategy of buying books abroad is almostnonexistent Because of this neglect in the literature this paper will present an id-iosyncratic approach which may be extrapolated to other special collections Abrief discussion of the historical development of this approach will illustrate whywe have found the tactic of purchasing books abroad to be an important but cer-tainly not the only part of developing the collection

The first book that DeGolyer purchased for the collections Galileo Galileirsquosown copy of the 1632 Dialogo and most of the early books purchased for the col-lections came from Europe When Duane H D Roller first became curator in1954 he at first relied solely on book dealersrsquo catalogs However after a sabbati-cal year in England in 1961 he discovered the value of establishing a relationshipwith the booksellers in that country (Rosenthal 1977) He found that many of themost interesting books were not in the main core of their stockndashthose bookswhich were most available to customers Dealers often included only the morespectacular and well-known books in their catalogs Other less dramatic but veryimportant productions were often found in less accessible places

For the next two summers 1963 and 1964 Roller went on personally financedbook buying trips to Europe In 1965 University President George L Cross wasconvinced of the importance of these trips and found travel funds for him plusadditional monies to buy books This pattern persisted until 1989 with ProfessorRoller and his wife Marjorie going to Europe every summer to buy books Oneyear before Roller retired in 1990 the travel funding stopped After a four-year

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie 29

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4

hiatus the new president of the University David Boren recognized the impor-tance of travel to buy books and restored the funds

For the History of Science Collections all books are important as long as thecontent is intact The major function of this collection is to provide research ma-terials for scholars in the history of science and its ancillary disciplines There-fore it is the content of the books not the appearance that is most important forour collection and we often find less than perfect copies of works serve perfectlywell for scholars Since one of the main purposes of our collection is scholarshipwe try to go beyond the ldquogreat menrdquo in science and provide access to thelesser-known figures in the history of science In his 1961 year in London Rollerfound that after becoming friends with the dealers they began to understand thekind of books that he was interested in

Although the less than modest collection development policy established byRoller was impossible it lent an exhilarating air to the collecting process whichhe found could best be accomplished by viewing the books himself He did notcollect with a set list in mind When he saw a book that would fill a gap he pur-chased it

One might claim that whereas the policy was a valid one during the early yearsof the collections it is now out of date I would suggest that there are reasons whythis policy is still important As Professor Roller noted in his early European buy-ing trips book sellers do not advertise all of their holdings in their catalogs Afterestablishing a relationship with the seller it becomes possible to examine his orher stock to see what might fit into the collection Our wide-ranging collectiondevelopment policy enables us to look for sources to augment the ldquoimportantrdquobooks that we already have By examining the holdings that do not appear in cata-logs we are often able to discover books that will help in understanding the con-text of the science of the period When I was in London three summers ago Imentioned to a book dealer with whom I had established a good relationship thatwe did not have the 44 volume first edition of Buffonrsquos Histoire naturelle al-though we had most of the subsequent editions He replied that the book wasquite scarce and that he did not have a set either After I returned home I receiveda fax from him saying that he had located the work If I had not established a rela-tionship with the dealer we would not have been able to add this important natu-ral history set to our collection Another example is a book that at first blushseemed unremarkable However in the back of this book bound with the printedwork was a letter from Charles Darwin to the bookrsquos author If I had not beenthere at the right time I would never have known about what became a wonderfuladdition to our collections

Price is very important when shopping for books Many who collect books in-sist that their books must be ldquocomplete clean and undisturbedrdquo (Brook 1980 79)Clearly the most desirable books advertised by the booksellers are going to have

30 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

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these characteristics Yet although of course we would prefer this pristine con-dition we can accept books that would be unsatisfactory for those who are buy-ing simply for an investment The lack of a half-title for example may reduce theprice of a book to much less than it would be if the book was perfect (Brook 198080) However for a research worker it is perfectly adequate We as do most col-lectors prefer our books to be in their original condition as much as is possibleAlthough it is preferable to have a book in its original boards or if that is impossi-ble in a contemporary binding rather than in a later handsome fine binding if wecan find a book that we want that has been rebound it is sometimes better for usto buy the rebound book rather than pay a premium price for the original Anothertype of imperfection is much more serious Occasionally one finds a desirableedition of a book that has imperfect parts these parts were removed and splicedwith a section from another edition To many collectors such a book is worthlessHowever if we both know and catalog its history our collection may still findsuch a book useful During the summer of 1995 I went to Prague to buy books Ifound many wonderful books that we did not own but the condition was verypoor Many of these books had been in the Communist countries and had not beentaken care of Nevertheless they were special books that lent insight into sciencein the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in eastern Europe I was ableto purchase these books at a very reasonable price

Because of some of the problems described above the book buyer must studyenough about descriptive bibliography so that he or she can understand the book-sellersrsquo descriptions It is vitally important to know exactly what one is dealingwith Terry Belanger reminds us that the word edition is often used rather looselybut that it has a precise bibliographical meaning He defines it as ldquoall copiesprinted at one or later times from the same setting of typerdquo (Belanger 1977 97)All copies printed at any one time within an edition are called impressions Eventhough the impressions may have been printed over a number of years since theyare from the same setting of type they still belong to the same edition For mostcollectors the different impressions would not be important However if ascholar is working on changes in a book throughout time even the minor correc-tions between one impression and the next may be important There are there-fore occasions when we would collect different impressions of the same editionThe part of an edition offered for sale at one time is called an issue Although is-sues within an edition will be almost identical they may have different title pagesor contain additional matter These changes are not substantial (or they wouldhave been a different edition) but they may be of significance to scholars Minordifferences in the text between one copy and another may occur and are calledvariant issues (upon or after publication) or variant states (before publication)(Belanger 1977 97-98) Whereas variations in edition impression and issuemay be important when selecting books variant states may generally be over-

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie 31

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and]

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19

Oct

ober

201

4

looked Other terms regarding physical condition are important mostly as they re-late to pricing ldquoMintrdquo ldquofinerdquo ldquogoodrdquo ldquosatisfactoryrdquo ldquoas usually foundrdquo areterms used to describe the books and usually can be relied upon (Rosenthal 197765) Although most booksellers will allow us to return a book that has been de-scribed in a catalog fewer mistakes and misunderstandings about the conditionwill occur if the actual book has been seen

Although much of our searching is through book sellers with whom we havealready established a relationship we have also had excellent luck in finding smallantiquarian book shopsndashshops that do not put out a catalog These shops may notthink that they have anything of interest to the history of science but by perusingthem we have found the very opposite to be true Their idea of what constitutes thehistory of science may not be ours and we have found many books simply by goingthrough each book individually on the sellerrsquos shelves When I was in LausanneSwitzerland I found some fascinating works on theoretical medicine that I hadnever seen in a book dealerrsquos catalog

Eighteenth and nineteenth-century books with small press runs in various lan-guages show up in unexpected places Many times these books are exactly whatwe need to contextualize the science of a period I am interested in collectingworks by or about women in science Our collection was weak in this area but Iwas able to find a small bookseller in London who specialized in this subject andbought among other works an autographed copy of a book by the early womanphysician Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Travel books are often not included inthose dealersrsquo stocks who deal with books in the history of science But travelbooks are very important for the history of geology and for the history of naturalhistory I located very interesting and suitable books in travel book stores aboutimportant collecting expeditions While I was in Amsterdam I located a dealerwith whom I had not had previous contact and found that he had a treasure troveof travel books

The price of a book reflects the dealerrsquos various fixed costs including the pricehe or she had to pay for the book Often this price is coded on a flyleaf as well as theprofit the seller hopes for Once the price of the book is decided on it is usually butnot always marked in pencil on a flyleaf If the demand for a book is high and itsavailability is low the profit margin will be higher than for a book which is less indemand and with a higher availability (Rosenthal 1977 72) Once the price of abook has been set it usually remains fixed until purchase If a relationship with abookseller has been established some degree of flexibility may be expected If theprice has not been set or if it has been set but the book has not yet been placed in acatalog the seller may be able to establish a lower price It is important to remem-ber just how much money is involved in creating catalogs which are often works ofart in themselves If a dealer is spared the necessity of describing a book in a catalogit will often be less expensive Although it is not considered ldquogood formrdquo to haggle

32 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

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at 1

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Oct

ober

201

4

over a bookrsquos price a seller may modify a price if his necessary profit margin is notin jeopardy

Preparation is essential if book buying abroad is to be successful The first stepis to establish an itinerary of cities to be visited Making a list of known booksell-ers and their addresses is helpful I then write these dealers and tell them when Iplan to visit If the booksellers are clustered in a particular part of town I try to re-serve a hotel room in the area It is essential to have an up-to-date list of all of thecollectionsrsquo holdings We have both a short-title catalog in hard copy and a com-puterized list When I arrive at a city I look in the yellow pages of the telephonedirectory and jot down the locations of antiquarian book shops which I had notknown previously I have found that I can only examine the holdings of twobooksellers a day one in the morning and the other in the afternoon If I plan tovisit shops that I have located through the telephone directory or am exploring adistrict containing numerous antiquarian book shops I have found that I cancover more shops each day All but the very smallest booksellers are willing toship the books home and we can pay the invoice after I return

Book buying in Europe has proven to be very fruitful in moving the History ofScience Collections nearer to its goal Books that are not available in the UnitedStates can sometimes be located in the stores of European booksellers and thosethat are not listed in expensive catalogs are less expensive The importance of aldquoscience bookrdquo is too often established without regard to its social and culturalcontext Thus an ldquounimportantrdquo book may give more clues as to the nature of sci-ence than its better known contemporaries Perusing the shelves is the best way tofind such books Although it is not exclusively the case these books are lesslikely to be found on such shelves in the United States But it is important to stressthat it is only one way of adding to a collection although in the case of the Uni-versity of Oklahomarsquos History of Science Collections a very important one

REFERENCES

Belanger Terry 1977 Descriptive bibliography In Book Collecting A Modern Guideed Jean Peters New York RR Bowker

Brook GL 1980 Books and Book-Collecting London Andre DeutschCurley Arthur and Dorothy Broderick 1985 Building Library Collections 6th ed

Metuchen New Jersey Scarecrow PressDarling Louise 1983 Handbook of Medical Library Practice 4th ed Chicago Medical

Library Association Gnudi Martha T 1975 Building a medical history collectionBulletin of the Medical Library Association 6342-46 Dickson Lance E 1980 Lawlibrary book orders an analysis of current practice Law Library Journal 73446-450Mount Ellis 1975 University science and engineering libraries their operation col-lections and facilities Westport Connecticut Greenwood Press Opello Olivia and

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie 33

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4

Lindsay Murdock 1976 Acquisitions overkill in science collectionsndashand an alterna-tive College and Research Libraries 37452-456 Burnett Alfred D 1973 Consider-ations on the support of antiquarian and other special collections in universitylibraries Journal of Librarianship 5 203-213

Rosenthal Robert 1977 The antiquarian book market In Book Collecting A ModernGuide ed Jean Peters New York RR Bowker

34 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

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ginning the symbiotic relationship between what became the Department of theHistory of Science and the History of Science Collections

Both areas expanded while other donors added to DeGolyerrsquos gifts increasingthe complexity of the curatorrsquos position At the same time a demand for addi-tional courses in the history of science necessitated the hiring of additional fac-ulty members The first professorship in the history of science was established in1954 a second in 1959 a third in 1964 and a fourth and fifth in 1967 In 1971 aseparate department of history of science was created with the support of Presi-dent Herbert Hollomon and in 1975 a sixth professorship was added The uniqueinterrelationship between the collections with its resources and the departmentwith its teaching and research faculty has been maintained since the originalagreement with DeGolyer

Because of its ubiquitous nature the collections use a variety of strategies forcollection development Books are purchased from catalogs auctions sec-ond-hand bookstores estate sales and duplicates from libraries In addition do-nations are accepted from individuals We also have a history of buying rarebooks abroad and have found traveling especially to European countries to buybooks to be an important part of our collection development program As far as Ihave ascertained the literature on the strategy of buying books abroad is almostnonexistent Because of this neglect in the literature this paper will present an id-iosyncratic approach which may be extrapolated to other special collections Abrief discussion of the historical development of this approach will illustrate whywe have found the tactic of purchasing books abroad to be an important but cer-tainly not the only part of developing the collection

The first book that DeGolyer purchased for the collections Galileo Galileirsquosown copy of the 1632 Dialogo and most of the early books purchased for the col-lections came from Europe When Duane H D Roller first became curator in1954 he at first relied solely on book dealersrsquo catalogs However after a sabbati-cal year in England in 1961 he discovered the value of establishing a relationshipwith the booksellers in that country (Rosenthal 1977) He found that many of themost interesting books were not in the main core of their stockndashthose bookswhich were most available to customers Dealers often included only the morespectacular and well-known books in their catalogs Other less dramatic but veryimportant productions were often found in less accessible places

For the next two summers 1963 and 1964 Roller went on personally financedbook buying trips to Europe In 1965 University President George L Cross wasconvinced of the importance of these trips and found travel funds for him plusadditional monies to buy books This pattern persisted until 1989 with ProfessorRoller and his wife Marjorie going to Europe every summer to buy books Oneyear before Roller retired in 1990 the travel funding stopped After a four-year

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie 29

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

hiatus the new president of the University David Boren recognized the impor-tance of travel to buy books and restored the funds

For the History of Science Collections all books are important as long as thecontent is intact The major function of this collection is to provide research ma-terials for scholars in the history of science and its ancillary disciplines There-fore it is the content of the books not the appearance that is most important forour collection and we often find less than perfect copies of works serve perfectlywell for scholars Since one of the main purposes of our collection is scholarshipwe try to go beyond the ldquogreat menrdquo in science and provide access to thelesser-known figures in the history of science In his 1961 year in London Rollerfound that after becoming friends with the dealers they began to understand thekind of books that he was interested in

Although the less than modest collection development policy established byRoller was impossible it lent an exhilarating air to the collecting process whichhe found could best be accomplished by viewing the books himself He did notcollect with a set list in mind When he saw a book that would fill a gap he pur-chased it

One might claim that whereas the policy was a valid one during the early yearsof the collections it is now out of date I would suggest that there are reasons whythis policy is still important As Professor Roller noted in his early European buy-ing trips book sellers do not advertise all of their holdings in their catalogs Afterestablishing a relationship with the seller it becomes possible to examine his orher stock to see what might fit into the collection Our wide-ranging collectiondevelopment policy enables us to look for sources to augment the ldquoimportantrdquobooks that we already have By examining the holdings that do not appear in cata-logs we are often able to discover books that will help in understanding the con-text of the science of the period When I was in London three summers ago Imentioned to a book dealer with whom I had established a good relationship thatwe did not have the 44 volume first edition of Buffonrsquos Histoire naturelle al-though we had most of the subsequent editions He replied that the book wasquite scarce and that he did not have a set either After I returned home I receiveda fax from him saying that he had located the work If I had not established a rela-tionship with the dealer we would not have been able to add this important natu-ral history set to our collection Another example is a book that at first blushseemed unremarkable However in the back of this book bound with the printedwork was a letter from Charles Darwin to the bookrsquos author If I had not beenthere at the right time I would never have known about what became a wonderfuladdition to our collections

Price is very important when shopping for books Many who collect books in-sist that their books must be ldquocomplete clean and undisturbedrdquo (Brook 1980 79)Clearly the most desirable books advertised by the booksellers are going to have

30 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

these characteristics Yet although of course we would prefer this pristine con-dition we can accept books that would be unsatisfactory for those who are buy-ing simply for an investment The lack of a half-title for example may reduce theprice of a book to much less than it would be if the book was perfect (Brook 198080) However for a research worker it is perfectly adequate We as do most col-lectors prefer our books to be in their original condition as much as is possibleAlthough it is preferable to have a book in its original boards or if that is impossi-ble in a contemporary binding rather than in a later handsome fine binding if wecan find a book that we want that has been rebound it is sometimes better for usto buy the rebound book rather than pay a premium price for the original Anothertype of imperfection is much more serious Occasionally one finds a desirableedition of a book that has imperfect parts these parts were removed and splicedwith a section from another edition To many collectors such a book is worthlessHowever if we both know and catalog its history our collection may still findsuch a book useful During the summer of 1995 I went to Prague to buy books Ifound many wonderful books that we did not own but the condition was verypoor Many of these books had been in the Communist countries and had not beentaken care of Nevertheless they were special books that lent insight into sciencein the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in eastern Europe I was ableto purchase these books at a very reasonable price

Because of some of the problems described above the book buyer must studyenough about descriptive bibliography so that he or she can understand the book-sellersrsquo descriptions It is vitally important to know exactly what one is dealingwith Terry Belanger reminds us that the word edition is often used rather looselybut that it has a precise bibliographical meaning He defines it as ldquoall copiesprinted at one or later times from the same setting of typerdquo (Belanger 1977 97)All copies printed at any one time within an edition are called impressions Eventhough the impressions may have been printed over a number of years since theyare from the same setting of type they still belong to the same edition For mostcollectors the different impressions would not be important However if ascholar is working on changes in a book throughout time even the minor correc-tions between one impression and the next may be important There are there-fore occasions when we would collect different impressions of the same editionThe part of an edition offered for sale at one time is called an issue Although is-sues within an edition will be almost identical they may have different title pagesor contain additional matter These changes are not substantial (or they wouldhave been a different edition) but they may be of significance to scholars Minordifferences in the text between one copy and another may occur and are calledvariant issues (upon or after publication) or variant states (before publication)(Belanger 1977 97-98) Whereas variations in edition impression and issuemay be important when selecting books variant states may generally be over-

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie 31

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

looked Other terms regarding physical condition are important mostly as they re-late to pricing ldquoMintrdquo ldquofinerdquo ldquogoodrdquo ldquosatisfactoryrdquo ldquoas usually foundrdquo areterms used to describe the books and usually can be relied upon (Rosenthal 197765) Although most booksellers will allow us to return a book that has been de-scribed in a catalog fewer mistakes and misunderstandings about the conditionwill occur if the actual book has been seen

Although much of our searching is through book sellers with whom we havealready established a relationship we have also had excellent luck in finding smallantiquarian book shopsndashshops that do not put out a catalog These shops may notthink that they have anything of interest to the history of science but by perusingthem we have found the very opposite to be true Their idea of what constitutes thehistory of science may not be ours and we have found many books simply by goingthrough each book individually on the sellerrsquos shelves When I was in LausanneSwitzerland I found some fascinating works on theoretical medicine that I hadnever seen in a book dealerrsquos catalog

Eighteenth and nineteenth-century books with small press runs in various lan-guages show up in unexpected places Many times these books are exactly whatwe need to contextualize the science of a period I am interested in collectingworks by or about women in science Our collection was weak in this area but Iwas able to find a small bookseller in London who specialized in this subject andbought among other works an autographed copy of a book by the early womanphysician Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Travel books are often not included inthose dealersrsquo stocks who deal with books in the history of science But travelbooks are very important for the history of geology and for the history of naturalhistory I located very interesting and suitable books in travel book stores aboutimportant collecting expeditions While I was in Amsterdam I located a dealerwith whom I had not had previous contact and found that he had a treasure troveof travel books

The price of a book reflects the dealerrsquos various fixed costs including the pricehe or she had to pay for the book Often this price is coded on a flyleaf as well as theprofit the seller hopes for Once the price of the book is decided on it is usually butnot always marked in pencil on a flyleaf If the demand for a book is high and itsavailability is low the profit margin will be higher than for a book which is less indemand and with a higher availability (Rosenthal 1977 72) Once the price of abook has been set it usually remains fixed until purchase If a relationship with abookseller has been established some degree of flexibility may be expected If theprice has not been set or if it has been set but the book has not yet been placed in acatalog the seller may be able to establish a lower price It is important to remem-ber just how much money is involved in creating catalogs which are often works ofart in themselves If a dealer is spared the necessity of describing a book in a catalogit will often be less expensive Although it is not considered ldquogood formrdquo to haggle

32 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

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ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

over a bookrsquos price a seller may modify a price if his necessary profit margin is notin jeopardy

Preparation is essential if book buying abroad is to be successful The first stepis to establish an itinerary of cities to be visited Making a list of known booksell-ers and their addresses is helpful I then write these dealers and tell them when Iplan to visit If the booksellers are clustered in a particular part of town I try to re-serve a hotel room in the area It is essential to have an up-to-date list of all of thecollectionsrsquo holdings We have both a short-title catalog in hard copy and a com-puterized list When I arrive at a city I look in the yellow pages of the telephonedirectory and jot down the locations of antiquarian book shops which I had notknown previously I have found that I can only examine the holdings of twobooksellers a day one in the morning and the other in the afternoon If I plan tovisit shops that I have located through the telephone directory or am exploring adistrict containing numerous antiquarian book shops I have found that I cancover more shops each day All but the very smallest booksellers are willing toship the books home and we can pay the invoice after I return

Book buying in Europe has proven to be very fruitful in moving the History ofScience Collections nearer to its goal Books that are not available in the UnitedStates can sometimes be located in the stores of European booksellers and thosethat are not listed in expensive catalogs are less expensive The importance of aldquoscience bookrdquo is too often established without regard to its social and culturalcontext Thus an ldquounimportantrdquo book may give more clues as to the nature of sci-ence than its better known contemporaries Perusing the shelves is the best way tofind such books Although it is not exclusively the case these books are lesslikely to be found on such shelves in the United States But it is important to stressthat it is only one way of adding to a collection although in the case of the Uni-versity of Oklahomarsquos History of Science Collections a very important one

REFERENCES

Belanger Terry 1977 Descriptive bibliography In Book Collecting A Modern Guideed Jean Peters New York RR Bowker

Brook GL 1980 Books and Book-Collecting London Andre DeutschCurley Arthur and Dorothy Broderick 1985 Building Library Collections 6th ed

Metuchen New Jersey Scarecrow PressDarling Louise 1983 Handbook of Medical Library Practice 4th ed Chicago Medical

Library Association Gnudi Martha T 1975 Building a medical history collectionBulletin of the Medical Library Association 6342-46 Dickson Lance E 1980 Lawlibrary book orders an analysis of current practice Law Library Journal 73446-450Mount Ellis 1975 University science and engineering libraries their operation col-lections and facilities Westport Connecticut Greenwood Press Opello Olivia and

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie 33

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

Lindsay Murdock 1976 Acquisitions overkill in science collectionsndashand an alterna-tive College and Research Libraries 37452-456 Burnett Alfred D 1973 Consider-ations on the support of antiquarian and other special collections in universitylibraries Journal of Librarianship 5 203-213

Rosenthal Robert 1977 The antiquarian book market In Book Collecting A ModernGuide ed Jean Peters New York RR Bowker

34 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

hiatus the new president of the University David Boren recognized the impor-tance of travel to buy books and restored the funds

For the History of Science Collections all books are important as long as thecontent is intact The major function of this collection is to provide research ma-terials for scholars in the history of science and its ancillary disciplines There-fore it is the content of the books not the appearance that is most important forour collection and we often find less than perfect copies of works serve perfectlywell for scholars Since one of the main purposes of our collection is scholarshipwe try to go beyond the ldquogreat menrdquo in science and provide access to thelesser-known figures in the history of science In his 1961 year in London Rollerfound that after becoming friends with the dealers they began to understand thekind of books that he was interested in

Although the less than modest collection development policy established byRoller was impossible it lent an exhilarating air to the collecting process whichhe found could best be accomplished by viewing the books himself He did notcollect with a set list in mind When he saw a book that would fill a gap he pur-chased it

One might claim that whereas the policy was a valid one during the early yearsof the collections it is now out of date I would suggest that there are reasons whythis policy is still important As Professor Roller noted in his early European buy-ing trips book sellers do not advertise all of their holdings in their catalogs Afterestablishing a relationship with the seller it becomes possible to examine his orher stock to see what might fit into the collection Our wide-ranging collectiondevelopment policy enables us to look for sources to augment the ldquoimportantrdquobooks that we already have By examining the holdings that do not appear in cata-logs we are often able to discover books that will help in understanding the con-text of the science of the period When I was in London three summers ago Imentioned to a book dealer with whom I had established a good relationship thatwe did not have the 44 volume first edition of Buffonrsquos Histoire naturelle al-though we had most of the subsequent editions He replied that the book wasquite scarce and that he did not have a set either After I returned home I receiveda fax from him saying that he had located the work If I had not established a rela-tionship with the dealer we would not have been able to add this important natu-ral history set to our collection Another example is a book that at first blushseemed unremarkable However in the back of this book bound with the printedwork was a letter from Charles Darwin to the bookrsquos author If I had not beenthere at the right time I would never have known about what became a wonderfuladdition to our collections

Price is very important when shopping for books Many who collect books in-sist that their books must be ldquocomplete clean and undisturbedrdquo (Brook 1980 79)Clearly the most desirable books advertised by the booksellers are going to have

30 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

these characteristics Yet although of course we would prefer this pristine con-dition we can accept books that would be unsatisfactory for those who are buy-ing simply for an investment The lack of a half-title for example may reduce theprice of a book to much less than it would be if the book was perfect (Brook 198080) However for a research worker it is perfectly adequate We as do most col-lectors prefer our books to be in their original condition as much as is possibleAlthough it is preferable to have a book in its original boards or if that is impossi-ble in a contemporary binding rather than in a later handsome fine binding if wecan find a book that we want that has been rebound it is sometimes better for usto buy the rebound book rather than pay a premium price for the original Anothertype of imperfection is much more serious Occasionally one finds a desirableedition of a book that has imperfect parts these parts were removed and splicedwith a section from another edition To many collectors such a book is worthlessHowever if we both know and catalog its history our collection may still findsuch a book useful During the summer of 1995 I went to Prague to buy books Ifound many wonderful books that we did not own but the condition was verypoor Many of these books had been in the Communist countries and had not beentaken care of Nevertheless they were special books that lent insight into sciencein the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in eastern Europe I was ableto purchase these books at a very reasonable price

Because of some of the problems described above the book buyer must studyenough about descriptive bibliography so that he or she can understand the book-sellersrsquo descriptions It is vitally important to know exactly what one is dealingwith Terry Belanger reminds us that the word edition is often used rather looselybut that it has a precise bibliographical meaning He defines it as ldquoall copiesprinted at one or later times from the same setting of typerdquo (Belanger 1977 97)All copies printed at any one time within an edition are called impressions Eventhough the impressions may have been printed over a number of years since theyare from the same setting of type they still belong to the same edition For mostcollectors the different impressions would not be important However if ascholar is working on changes in a book throughout time even the minor correc-tions between one impression and the next may be important There are there-fore occasions when we would collect different impressions of the same editionThe part of an edition offered for sale at one time is called an issue Although is-sues within an edition will be almost identical they may have different title pagesor contain additional matter These changes are not substantial (or they wouldhave been a different edition) but they may be of significance to scholars Minordifferences in the text between one copy and another may occur and are calledvariant issues (upon or after publication) or variant states (before publication)(Belanger 1977 97-98) Whereas variations in edition impression and issuemay be important when selecting books variant states may generally be over-

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie 31

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

looked Other terms regarding physical condition are important mostly as they re-late to pricing ldquoMintrdquo ldquofinerdquo ldquogoodrdquo ldquosatisfactoryrdquo ldquoas usually foundrdquo areterms used to describe the books and usually can be relied upon (Rosenthal 197765) Although most booksellers will allow us to return a book that has been de-scribed in a catalog fewer mistakes and misunderstandings about the conditionwill occur if the actual book has been seen

Although much of our searching is through book sellers with whom we havealready established a relationship we have also had excellent luck in finding smallantiquarian book shopsndashshops that do not put out a catalog These shops may notthink that they have anything of interest to the history of science but by perusingthem we have found the very opposite to be true Their idea of what constitutes thehistory of science may not be ours and we have found many books simply by goingthrough each book individually on the sellerrsquos shelves When I was in LausanneSwitzerland I found some fascinating works on theoretical medicine that I hadnever seen in a book dealerrsquos catalog

Eighteenth and nineteenth-century books with small press runs in various lan-guages show up in unexpected places Many times these books are exactly whatwe need to contextualize the science of a period I am interested in collectingworks by or about women in science Our collection was weak in this area but Iwas able to find a small bookseller in London who specialized in this subject andbought among other works an autographed copy of a book by the early womanphysician Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Travel books are often not included inthose dealersrsquo stocks who deal with books in the history of science But travelbooks are very important for the history of geology and for the history of naturalhistory I located very interesting and suitable books in travel book stores aboutimportant collecting expeditions While I was in Amsterdam I located a dealerwith whom I had not had previous contact and found that he had a treasure troveof travel books

The price of a book reflects the dealerrsquos various fixed costs including the pricehe or she had to pay for the book Often this price is coded on a flyleaf as well as theprofit the seller hopes for Once the price of the book is decided on it is usually butnot always marked in pencil on a flyleaf If the demand for a book is high and itsavailability is low the profit margin will be higher than for a book which is less indemand and with a higher availability (Rosenthal 1977 72) Once the price of abook has been set it usually remains fixed until purchase If a relationship with abookseller has been established some degree of flexibility may be expected If theprice has not been set or if it has been set but the book has not yet been placed in acatalog the seller may be able to establish a lower price It is important to remem-ber just how much money is involved in creating catalogs which are often works ofart in themselves If a dealer is spared the necessity of describing a book in a catalogit will often be less expensive Although it is not considered ldquogood formrdquo to haggle

32 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

over a bookrsquos price a seller may modify a price if his necessary profit margin is notin jeopardy

Preparation is essential if book buying abroad is to be successful The first stepis to establish an itinerary of cities to be visited Making a list of known booksell-ers and their addresses is helpful I then write these dealers and tell them when Iplan to visit If the booksellers are clustered in a particular part of town I try to re-serve a hotel room in the area It is essential to have an up-to-date list of all of thecollectionsrsquo holdings We have both a short-title catalog in hard copy and a com-puterized list When I arrive at a city I look in the yellow pages of the telephonedirectory and jot down the locations of antiquarian book shops which I had notknown previously I have found that I can only examine the holdings of twobooksellers a day one in the morning and the other in the afternoon If I plan tovisit shops that I have located through the telephone directory or am exploring adistrict containing numerous antiquarian book shops I have found that I cancover more shops each day All but the very smallest booksellers are willing toship the books home and we can pay the invoice after I return

Book buying in Europe has proven to be very fruitful in moving the History ofScience Collections nearer to its goal Books that are not available in the UnitedStates can sometimes be located in the stores of European booksellers and thosethat are not listed in expensive catalogs are less expensive The importance of aldquoscience bookrdquo is too often established without regard to its social and culturalcontext Thus an ldquounimportantrdquo book may give more clues as to the nature of sci-ence than its better known contemporaries Perusing the shelves is the best way tofind such books Although it is not exclusively the case these books are lesslikely to be found on such shelves in the United States But it is important to stressthat it is only one way of adding to a collection although in the case of the Uni-versity of Oklahomarsquos History of Science Collections a very important one

REFERENCES

Belanger Terry 1977 Descriptive bibliography In Book Collecting A Modern Guideed Jean Peters New York RR Bowker

Brook GL 1980 Books and Book-Collecting London Andre DeutschCurley Arthur and Dorothy Broderick 1985 Building Library Collections 6th ed

Metuchen New Jersey Scarecrow PressDarling Louise 1983 Handbook of Medical Library Practice 4th ed Chicago Medical

Library Association Gnudi Martha T 1975 Building a medical history collectionBulletin of the Medical Library Association 6342-46 Dickson Lance E 1980 Lawlibrary book orders an analysis of current practice Law Library Journal 73446-450Mount Ellis 1975 University science and engineering libraries their operation col-lections and facilities Westport Connecticut Greenwood Press Opello Olivia and

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie 33

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

Lindsay Murdock 1976 Acquisitions overkill in science collectionsndashand an alterna-tive College and Research Libraries 37452-456 Burnett Alfred D 1973 Consider-ations on the support of antiquarian and other special collections in universitylibraries Journal of Librarianship 5 203-213

Rosenthal Robert 1977 The antiquarian book market In Book Collecting A ModernGuide ed Jean Peters New York RR Bowker

34 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

these characteristics Yet although of course we would prefer this pristine con-dition we can accept books that would be unsatisfactory for those who are buy-ing simply for an investment The lack of a half-title for example may reduce theprice of a book to much less than it would be if the book was perfect (Brook 198080) However for a research worker it is perfectly adequate We as do most col-lectors prefer our books to be in their original condition as much as is possibleAlthough it is preferable to have a book in its original boards or if that is impossi-ble in a contemporary binding rather than in a later handsome fine binding if wecan find a book that we want that has been rebound it is sometimes better for usto buy the rebound book rather than pay a premium price for the original Anothertype of imperfection is much more serious Occasionally one finds a desirableedition of a book that has imperfect parts these parts were removed and splicedwith a section from another edition To many collectors such a book is worthlessHowever if we both know and catalog its history our collection may still findsuch a book useful During the summer of 1995 I went to Prague to buy books Ifound many wonderful books that we did not own but the condition was verypoor Many of these books had been in the Communist countries and had not beentaken care of Nevertheless they were special books that lent insight into sciencein the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in eastern Europe I was ableto purchase these books at a very reasonable price

Because of some of the problems described above the book buyer must studyenough about descriptive bibliography so that he or she can understand the book-sellersrsquo descriptions It is vitally important to know exactly what one is dealingwith Terry Belanger reminds us that the word edition is often used rather looselybut that it has a precise bibliographical meaning He defines it as ldquoall copiesprinted at one or later times from the same setting of typerdquo (Belanger 1977 97)All copies printed at any one time within an edition are called impressions Eventhough the impressions may have been printed over a number of years since theyare from the same setting of type they still belong to the same edition For mostcollectors the different impressions would not be important However if ascholar is working on changes in a book throughout time even the minor correc-tions between one impression and the next may be important There are there-fore occasions when we would collect different impressions of the same editionThe part of an edition offered for sale at one time is called an issue Although is-sues within an edition will be almost identical they may have different title pagesor contain additional matter These changes are not substantial (or they wouldhave been a different edition) but they may be of significance to scholars Minordifferences in the text between one copy and another may occur and are calledvariant issues (upon or after publication) or variant states (before publication)(Belanger 1977 97-98) Whereas variations in edition impression and issuemay be important when selecting books variant states may generally be over-

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie 31

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

looked Other terms regarding physical condition are important mostly as they re-late to pricing ldquoMintrdquo ldquofinerdquo ldquogoodrdquo ldquosatisfactoryrdquo ldquoas usually foundrdquo areterms used to describe the books and usually can be relied upon (Rosenthal 197765) Although most booksellers will allow us to return a book that has been de-scribed in a catalog fewer mistakes and misunderstandings about the conditionwill occur if the actual book has been seen

Although much of our searching is through book sellers with whom we havealready established a relationship we have also had excellent luck in finding smallantiquarian book shopsndashshops that do not put out a catalog These shops may notthink that they have anything of interest to the history of science but by perusingthem we have found the very opposite to be true Their idea of what constitutes thehistory of science may not be ours and we have found many books simply by goingthrough each book individually on the sellerrsquos shelves When I was in LausanneSwitzerland I found some fascinating works on theoretical medicine that I hadnever seen in a book dealerrsquos catalog

Eighteenth and nineteenth-century books with small press runs in various lan-guages show up in unexpected places Many times these books are exactly whatwe need to contextualize the science of a period I am interested in collectingworks by or about women in science Our collection was weak in this area but Iwas able to find a small bookseller in London who specialized in this subject andbought among other works an autographed copy of a book by the early womanphysician Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Travel books are often not included inthose dealersrsquo stocks who deal with books in the history of science But travelbooks are very important for the history of geology and for the history of naturalhistory I located very interesting and suitable books in travel book stores aboutimportant collecting expeditions While I was in Amsterdam I located a dealerwith whom I had not had previous contact and found that he had a treasure troveof travel books

The price of a book reflects the dealerrsquos various fixed costs including the pricehe or she had to pay for the book Often this price is coded on a flyleaf as well as theprofit the seller hopes for Once the price of the book is decided on it is usually butnot always marked in pencil on a flyleaf If the demand for a book is high and itsavailability is low the profit margin will be higher than for a book which is less indemand and with a higher availability (Rosenthal 1977 72) Once the price of abook has been set it usually remains fixed until purchase If a relationship with abookseller has been established some degree of flexibility may be expected If theprice has not been set or if it has been set but the book has not yet been placed in acatalog the seller may be able to establish a lower price It is important to remem-ber just how much money is involved in creating catalogs which are often works ofart in themselves If a dealer is spared the necessity of describing a book in a catalogit will often be less expensive Although it is not considered ldquogood formrdquo to haggle

32 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

over a bookrsquos price a seller may modify a price if his necessary profit margin is notin jeopardy

Preparation is essential if book buying abroad is to be successful The first stepis to establish an itinerary of cities to be visited Making a list of known booksell-ers and their addresses is helpful I then write these dealers and tell them when Iplan to visit If the booksellers are clustered in a particular part of town I try to re-serve a hotel room in the area It is essential to have an up-to-date list of all of thecollectionsrsquo holdings We have both a short-title catalog in hard copy and a com-puterized list When I arrive at a city I look in the yellow pages of the telephonedirectory and jot down the locations of antiquarian book shops which I had notknown previously I have found that I can only examine the holdings of twobooksellers a day one in the morning and the other in the afternoon If I plan tovisit shops that I have located through the telephone directory or am exploring adistrict containing numerous antiquarian book shops I have found that I cancover more shops each day All but the very smallest booksellers are willing toship the books home and we can pay the invoice after I return

Book buying in Europe has proven to be very fruitful in moving the History ofScience Collections nearer to its goal Books that are not available in the UnitedStates can sometimes be located in the stores of European booksellers and thosethat are not listed in expensive catalogs are less expensive The importance of aldquoscience bookrdquo is too often established without regard to its social and culturalcontext Thus an ldquounimportantrdquo book may give more clues as to the nature of sci-ence than its better known contemporaries Perusing the shelves is the best way tofind such books Although it is not exclusively the case these books are lesslikely to be found on such shelves in the United States But it is important to stressthat it is only one way of adding to a collection although in the case of the Uni-versity of Oklahomarsquos History of Science Collections a very important one

REFERENCES

Belanger Terry 1977 Descriptive bibliography In Book Collecting A Modern Guideed Jean Peters New York RR Bowker

Brook GL 1980 Books and Book-Collecting London Andre DeutschCurley Arthur and Dorothy Broderick 1985 Building Library Collections 6th ed

Metuchen New Jersey Scarecrow PressDarling Louise 1983 Handbook of Medical Library Practice 4th ed Chicago Medical

Library Association Gnudi Martha T 1975 Building a medical history collectionBulletin of the Medical Library Association 6342-46 Dickson Lance E 1980 Lawlibrary book orders an analysis of current practice Law Library Journal 73446-450Mount Ellis 1975 University science and engineering libraries their operation col-lections and facilities Westport Connecticut Greenwood Press Opello Olivia and

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie 33

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

Lindsay Murdock 1976 Acquisitions overkill in science collectionsndashand an alterna-tive College and Research Libraries 37452-456 Burnett Alfred D 1973 Consider-ations on the support of antiquarian and other special collections in universitylibraries Journal of Librarianship 5 203-213

Rosenthal Robert 1977 The antiquarian book market In Book Collecting A ModernGuide ed Jean Peters New York RR Bowker

34 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

looked Other terms regarding physical condition are important mostly as they re-late to pricing ldquoMintrdquo ldquofinerdquo ldquogoodrdquo ldquosatisfactoryrdquo ldquoas usually foundrdquo areterms used to describe the books and usually can be relied upon (Rosenthal 197765) Although most booksellers will allow us to return a book that has been de-scribed in a catalog fewer mistakes and misunderstandings about the conditionwill occur if the actual book has been seen

Although much of our searching is through book sellers with whom we havealready established a relationship we have also had excellent luck in finding smallantiquarian book shopsndashshops that do not put out a catalog These shops may notthink that they have anything of interest to the history of science but by perusingthem we have found the very opposite to be true Their idea of what constitutes thehistory of science may not be ours and we have found many books simply by goingthrough each book individually on the sellerrsquos shelves When I was in LausanneSwitzerland I found some fascinating works on theoretical medicine that I hadnever seen in a book dealerrsquos catalog

Eighteenth and nineteenth-century books with small press runs in various lan-guages show up in unexpected places Many times these books are exactly whatwe need to contextualize the science of a period I am interested in collectingworks by or about women in science Our collection was weak in this area but Iwas able to find a small bookseller in London who specialized in this subject andbought among other works an autographed copy of a book by the early womanphysician Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Travel books are often not included inthose dealersrsquo stocks who deal with books in the history of science But travelbooks are very important for the history of geology and for the history of naturalhistory I located very interesting and suitable books in travel book stores aboutimportant collecting expeditions While I was in Amsterdam I located a dealerwith whom I had not had previous contact and found that he had a treasure troveof travel books

The price of a book reflects the dealerrsquos various fixed costs including the pricehe or she had to pay for the book Often this price is coded on a flyleaf as well as theprofit the seller hopes for Once the price of the book is decided on it is usually butnot always marked in pencil on a flyleaf If the demand for a book is high and itsavailability is low the profit margin will be higher than for a book which is less indemand and with a higher availability (Rosenthal 1977 72) Once the price of abook has been set it usually remains fixed until purchase If a relationship with abookseller has been established some degree of flexibility may be expected If theprice has not been set or if it has been set but the book has not yet been placed in acatalog the seller may be able to establish a lower price It is important to remem-ber just how much money is involved in creating catalogs which are often works ofart in themselves If a dealer is spared the necessity of describing a book in a catalogit will often be less expensive Although it is not considered ldquogood formrdquo to haggle

32 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

over a bookrsquos price a seller may modify a price if his necessary profit margin is notin jeopardy

Preparation is essential if book buying abroad is to be successful The first stepis to establish an itinerary of cities to be visited Making a list of known booksell-ers and their addresses is helpful I then write these dealers and tell them when Iplan to visit If the booksellers are clustered in a particular part of town I try to re-serve a hotel room in the area It is essential to have an up-to-date list of all of thecollectionsrsquo holdings We have both a short-title catalog in hard copy and a com-puterized list When I arrive at a city I look in the yellow pages of the telephonedirectory and jot down the locations of antiquarian book shops which I had notknown previously I have found that I can only examine the holdings of twobooksellers a day one in the morning and the other in the afternoon If I plan tovisit shops that I have located through the telephone directory or am exploring adistrict containing numerous antiquarian book shops I have found that I cancover more shops each day All but the very smallest booksellers are willing toship the books home and we can pay the invoice after I return

Book buying in Europe has proven to be very fruitful in moving the History ofScience Collections nearer to its goal Books that are not available in the UnitedStates can sometimes be located in the stores of European booksellers and thosethat are not listed in expensive catalogs are less expensive The importance of aldquoscience bookrdquo is too often established without regard to its social and culturalcontext Thus an ldquounimportantrdquo book may give more clues as to the nature of sci-ence than its better known contemporaries Perusing the shelves is the best way tofind such books Although it is not exclusively the case these books are lesslikely to be found on such shelves in the United States But it is important to stressthat it is only one way of adding to a collection although in the case of the Uni-versity of Oklahomarsquos History of Science Collections a very important one

REFERENCES

Belanger Terry 1977 Descriptive bibliography In Book Collecting A Modern Guideed Jean Peters New York RR Bowker

Brook GL 1980 Books and Book-Collecting London Andre DeutschCurley Arthur and Dorothy Broderick 1985 Building Library Collections 6th ed

Metuchen New Jersey Scarecrow PressDarling Louise 1983 Handbook of Medical Library Practice 4th ed Chicago Medical

Library Association Gnudi Martha T 1975 Building a medical history collectionBulletin of the Medical Library Association 6342-46 Dickson Lance E 1980 Lawlibrary book orders an analysis of current practice Law Library Journal 73446-450Mount Ellis 1975 University science and engineering libraries their operation col-lections and facilities Westport Connecticut Greenwood Press Opello Olivia and

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie 33

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

Lindsay Murdock 1976 Acquisitions overkill in science collectionsndashand an alterna-tive College and Research Libraries 37452-456 Burnett Alfred D 1973 Consider-ations on the support of antiquarian and other special collections in universitylibraries Journal of Librarianship 5 203-213

Rosenthal Robert 1977 The antiquarian book market In Book Collecting A ModernGuide ed Jean Peters New York RR Bowker

34 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4

over a bookrsquos price a seller may modify a price if his necessary profit margin is notin jeopardy

Preparation is essential if book buying abroad is to be successful The first stepis to establish an itinerary of cities to be visited Making a list of known booksell-ers and their addresses is helpful I then write these dealers and tell them when Iplan to visit If the booksellers are clustered in a particular part of town I try to re-serve a hotel room in the area It is essential to have an up-to-date list of all of thecollectionsrsquo holdings We have both a short-title catalog in hard copy and a com-puterized list When I arrive at a city I look in the yellow pages of the telephonedirectory and jot down the locations of antiquarian book shops which I had notknown previously I have found that I can only examine the holdings of twobooksellers a day one in the morning and the other in the afternoon If I plan tovisit shops that I have located through the telephone directory or am exploring adistrict containing numerous antiquarian book shops I have found that I cancover more shops each day All but the very smallest booksellers are willing toship the books home and we can pay the invoice after I return

Book buying in Europe has proven to be very fruitful in moving the History ofScience Collections nearer to its goal Books that are not available in the UnitedStates can sometimes be located in the stores of European booksellers and thosethat are not listed in expensive catalogs are less expensive The importance of aldquoscience bookrdquo is too often established without regard to its social and culturalcontext Thus an ldquounimportantrdquo book may give more clues as to the nature of sci-ence than its better known contemporaries Perusing the shelves is the best way tofind such books Although it is not exclusively the case these books are lesslikely to be found on such shelves in the United States But it is important to stressthat it is only one way of adding to a collection although in the case of the Uni-versity of Oklahomarsquos History of Science Collections a very important one

REFERENCES

Belanger Terry 1977 Descriptive bibliography In Book Collecting A Modern Guideed Jean Peters New York RR Bowker

Brook GL 1980 Books and Book-Collecting London Andre DeutschCurley Arthur and Dorothy Broderick 1985 Building Library Collections 6th ed

Metuchen New Jersey Scarecrow PressDarling Louise 1983 Handbook of Medical Library Practice 4th ed Chicago Medical

Library Association Gnudi Martha T 1975 Building a medical history collectionBulletin of the Medical Library Association 6342-46 Dickson Lance E 1980 Lawlibrary book orders an analysis of current practice Law Library Journal 73446-450Mount Ellis 1975 University science and engineering libraries their operation col-lections and facilities Westport Connecticut Greenwood Press Opello Olivia and

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie 33

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Lindsay Murdock 1976 Acquisitions overkill in science collectionsndashand an alterna-tive College and Research Libraries 37452-456 Burnett Alfred D 1973 Consider-ations on the support of antiquarian and other special collections in universitylibraries Journal of Librarianship 5 203-213

Rosenthal Robert 1977 The antiquarian book market In Book Collecting A ModernGuide ed Jean Peters New York RR Bowker

34 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

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Lindsay Murdock 1976 Acquisitions overkill in science collectionsndashand an alterna-tive College and Research Libraries 37452-456 Burnett Alfred D 1973 Consider-ations on the support of antiquarian and other special collections in universitylibraries Journal of Librarianship 5 203-213

Rosenthal Robert 1977 The antiquarian book market In Book Collecting A ModernGuide ed Jean Peters New York RR Bowker

34 Out-of-Print and Special Collection Materials Acquisition and Purchasing Options

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity O

f M

aryl

and]

at 1

050

19

Oct

ober

201

4