The second installment of Kaitlin Manning's new series on taking better pictures of rare books and ephemera. (Review the first part here...) Setting up a home studio does not need to be an expensive affair. Besides your camera, there are two basic elements to a studio: a backdrop and lighting. For the backdrop, the simplest and most effective method is to create a “scoop” background (sometimes... [more]

Kaitlin Manning introduces a new series of blog posts aimed at helping dealers take better pictures of rare books and ephemera for online use. Up until now, I have focused my blog posts solely on social media sites and how to best use them to your advantage. In the next few posts I will tackle a related and equally important topic, a source of much anxiety, confusion, and the desire to throw thing... [more]

We may be in the age of smart phones, tablet computers, and e-readers, but in sheer numbers, one household device still rules: television. Today in the United States, there are 2.86 TVs for every 2.5 people. More than half of U.S. households have three TVs. Yet the story of how television became ubiquitous in the American landscape remains mostly fragmented. There are several intertwining threads,... [more]

Enter the Blogosphere I promised another Facebook related post this week, but instead I think it's time to switch gears and get acquainted with some other social media options out there before you start to think that I'm on Mark Zuckerberg's payroll. This week I will consider the pros and cons of blogging as well as some of the better sites out there that support the endeavor. The fact that anyone... [more]

SELLING ON FACEBOOK? In my last post I talked a lot about the advantages of having a Facebook account for your business, including interacting with customers and colleagues, sharing content, getting “liked,” and learning about trends in your field; or, as one friend of mine put it, “the warm fuzzies.” So let's switch into copper baron mode here and discuss the other dimension that you've a... [more]

Who would have thought that the University of Pennsylvania's PennApps competition would produce an app beneficial to the rare book world? PennApps is touted as the "premiere college hackathon" and it brings together 1,000 university students from more than 100 institutions across the globe for a 48-hour competition to create hacks and apps for web or mobile platforms. This year three students fro... [more]

In the video below, ABAA member Dr. Sandra Hindman presents the world's only woven book of hours, produced by J.A. Henry in Lyon for the 1889 World's Fair. By programming the Jacquard loom, Henry was able to weave silk threads into punch-cardsapproximately 400 threads per square inch! In addition to being an interesting art object, the book also intrigues technology buffs and historians: the punc... [more]

Sourcebooks publishing house has recently released a line of ebook/iPad apps called The Shakesperience. Using the iPad's technological capabilities, these books provide a multimedia experience that allow readers to interact with Shakespeare's plays. Each play features an embedded glossary of approximately 2,000 terms; video and audio commentary, interviews, and introductions by thespians; classic ... [more]

Reading Rainbow, one of my favorite shows as a child, is returning to teach a new generation about the magical journeys books can take you on, but will do so in a whole new medium. Originally a television program that aired on PBS from 1983 to 2006, Reading Rainbow will now be available as an app. LeVar Burton, the host of the television show, acquired the "Reading Rainbow" license last year for h... [more]

The British Library has just unveiled a new iPad application that allows users to peruse more than 60,000 19th century books. All of the titles are in the public domain and, unlike e-books, are scanned versions of the original texts and include maps and original illustrations. The British Library partnered with Bibliolabs to create the app. Bibliolabs is a development company that specializes in t... [more]