Law Book Exchange

We've been fortuate all week to have someone from the Law Book Exchange enrolled in the course. John is the IT person for the LBE. He takes the photos for the website and catalogs, and he makes certain each book is shown to its best advantage. He's taken the time to explain his photographic technique and we've had an opportunity to examine some of his exceptional photographs. He's also very knowledgable about the books he photographs. It's been a pleasure talking with him and learning about his work.

As an added bonus today, Michael von der Linn, the rare book buyer from the Law Book Exchange, was in class today. Michael came down from New Jersey to make himself available for a question and answer exchange. He really allowed us to ask any questions and there were some deep ones asked. He graciously answered them all. It was interesting to learn how he purchases books and the decisions that go into marketing them.

I had an opportunity to tell Michael that we at WVU had just purchased a fascinating scrapbook, dating from 1896, by a WVU law school graduate who became prominent in the state. We were all very pleased with this unique item which documents his legal career. He told me West Virginia items were hard to find and he'd had that book on hand for a couple of years before we purchased it. I assured him that we were happy to find it and add it to our collection.

A lecture tonight in the Rotunda was by a lawyer who collects serial publications, like Dickens books, which were all issued as serials. Very interesting. WVU's downtown rare book room has several Dickens books in serials. It is interesting to see them in this format and know that people had to wait until he wrote the next installment to know what was going to happen next in the story. Would Little Nell live or die? You just had to wait to find out! He shared images of his collection and gave us copies to take home.

Next was a shopping trip to one of the many local bookstores where I couldn't resist purchasing a few items to take home. Then dinner with classmates and back to the library to finish our assignment, describing a book from the Yale collections as if we were planning to list it in a dealer's catalog. This is a good exercise as we begin to see all the work that goes into an accurate description and pricing of items. Tomorrow we'll present our descirptions to the class and then it's onto the next assignment!

Until tomorrow!