Every year, the presidents of bookselling associations affiliated with the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) meet together with the ILAB Committee in a different host city. For the first time in more than two decades, ILAB held its meeting in the Southern Hemisphere this year.
At the end of July (ie, winter in Melbourne), in my role as ABAA president I attended the ILAB Presidents’ Forum, an ILAB Presidents’ Meeting for regular business, and an ILAB Symposium that was open to the public. Capping off this busy week was the annual Melbourne Rare Book Fair. There was significant business to attend to, so I’ll try to distill it all without getting too dry.
The Presidents’ Forum began with reports from member associations around the world, followed by two sessions discussing library liaison and provenance requirements. Although the wave has not yet reached American shores in the same way, it is clear that many of our European colleagues are struggling with increasingly unrealistic and unresolvable provenance requirements from institutions. Although motivated by the noble desire to return stolen goods to the proper hands, some of these guidelines have been drafted by people without any experience in the world of antiquarian books, who have unrealizable expectations of tracking down the continuous ownership of a particular text over the centuries since it was printed.
We in the ABAA have a “best practices” guide for working with ex-library books, but our colleagues in some other countries are dealing with far more stringent regulations. We heard from one presenter of an instance where an institution turned down the purchase of a book from the mid-18th century because there had been a span of seven years during which its ownership was unknown. In another case, a well-known religious library in Italy sold off thousands of volumes at the end of the 19th century, which have openly circulated in the trade for over a century. Only recently did the Italian government decide that the original sale had not been legitimate, turning countless books in the trade, in private collections, and held by various institutions into instant “plunder.” To paraphrase one participant at the Forum, when the pendulum of due diligence has swung too far, there is the danger that institutions will undercut themselves by missing the chance to acquire relevant material. In the midst of these developments, ILAB is developing a Provenance Research Checklist for Antiquarian Booksellers, which I will share when it is published.
On a related note, Gabriele Maspero, President of the Italian association, ALAI, attended this year's annual meeting of CINOA (Confédération Internationale des Négociants en Oeuvres d'Art, a Brussels-based international federation of dealers in art and antiquities) of which ILAB is an associated member. Gabrielle presented a report on CINOA’s perspectives from the art and antiquities world as well as the rare book trade, on issues of regulatory documentation, “orphan cultural goods,” and UNESCO’s code of ethics.
The last presentation of the Forum was by Kay Craddock, a longtime Melbourne bookseller, who discussed the genesis and history of Melbourne’s Rare Book Week, a packed schedule of dozens of talks and exhibits around the city that leads up to the city’s Rare Book Fair. I’ve brought some ideas from this presentation back with me to share with our Book Fair Committee.
After the Forum, our afternoon was taken up with the ILAB Presidents’ meeting, which included much discussion of ILAB’s advocacy on behalf of the trade. After the meeting in Amsterdam last year, at which a new Committee was announced that did not include any women, some work has been done to increase clarity and transparency in the nomination process. It was noted that in the last 25 years, there have been just four women on the ILAB Committee, as compared to 39 men. Going forward, it will be helpful to have announcements of upcoming vacancies disseminated with greater lead time, to permit national associations to make a more thorough search.
Service on the ILAB Committee is unpaid, and the amount of work can be significant, so it is no light thing to ask someone to volunteer. I know that in the case of the ABAA, we have made significant efforts to nominate specific women who had experience on the Board and a strong understanding of ILAB’s mission, but those approached for the last nomination declined (for very understandable reasons). In order to help potential nominees understand the time commitment and expectations, ILAB is producing a brief guide for nominations, which I’ll share when it is ready. It will be some time before the ABAA is eligible to nominate another Committee member, but I hope that by then we have some eager volunteers. Despite the work involved, it is an incomparable opportunity to develop a truly global perspective on our trade, and to meet leading lights from around the world.
The next item on the agenda was a session on diversity in the book trade. I gave a report on the ABAA’s initiatives, and Nicolas Malais laid out plans for an ILAB Diversity Working Group, which is still in the development stage. There was significant discussion of educational initiatives for the rare book trade, with talk of what other countries could learn from CABS and YABS, as well as the promising new French program. The meeting also included a workshop on provenance requirements chaired by Nicolas Malais and Mario Giupponi.
The Breslauer Prize in bibliography, which is presented every four years, will next be awarded in 2026. ILAB continues to solicit nominees for this prize, which grants $10,000 to the main winner (in academic publishing, that’s real money!) Any great work of bibliography published in the last three years, in any language, is eligible for nomination. Find out more at this link.
Our Australian hosts were every bit as generous and welcoming as one would expect, and they organized library and museum visits during our free hours. During ILAB meetings, there were activities for our partners (my wife and young son came along – all of their travel expenses came from our own pockets, not that of ABAA or ILAB).
On Wednesday, an ILAB Symposium was held at the Wheeler Center, a cultural venue adjacent to the State Library Victoria. There was space for 140 attendees at this event, and it was fully subscribed (the talks were recorded and will be published online). I spoke at the first session, “Care and Integrity in Cataloguing,” about the ABAA’s Description & Display Recommendations for culturally sensitive materials. I was joined by Professor Lynette Russell of Monash University, and Nina Whittaker of Museums Victoria, Melbourne. There was another session on the ethics of book repair, and lastly, a session on security, moderated by the ABAA’s Scott DeWolfe, which included an entertaining presentation by Pom Harrington about digital fraud and bookseller self-protection, which he has agreed to reprise for the ABAA in one of our Brown Bag sessions.
Rare Book Week concluded with the Rare Book Fair at Melbourne University. A long line gathered for opening night, which was free to the public. The fair is relatively small by our standards but very well attended, with exhibitors ranging from premier English dealers who had traveled from the other side of the planet, to Australia’s best sellers, and some locals with such offerings as a cabinet of drawers stuffed with cheap pamphlets.
I did not really know what to expect in the host city of Melbourne, and I was quite impressed with its cosmopolitanism. With a very large Asian immigrant population, there is a broad range of cuisines available. Something truly great about the city is its amazing public transit system. Within the central zone of the city, the light rail is free to ride, and it is so frequent that there is always a train in sight. One personal highlight was taking the tram to nearby St. Kilda to catch a glimpse of little penguins making their way up to the shore to sleep after dusk.
Thanks again to our Australian hosts, especially Douglas Stewart, Dawn Albinger, and Kay Craddock. You made our week unforgettable!
