2. How did you start collecting bookmarks?  Do you remember your first bookmark?

That’s one of the most difficult questions 😉. I have never really been sure when the first one appeared. In fact, these passions have been with me for as long as I can remember. For about 20 years, I have been collecting different random things that I simply liked. I had similar objects in my childhood or remembered them from my grandparents’ shelves and drawers. Over the years, I collected medals, decorations, fossils, stamps, coins, sugar cubes, Kinder toys, postcards, and many other things.

While working at school, I tried to encourage children and teenagers to develop interests and also involve their parents or grandparents in cooperation. That is why I created a series of meetings called “Share Your Passion.” Together with invited guests, I presented most of my collections at school for people who were interested or still searching for their own hobbies. At that time, I realized that you cannot collect everything, and bookmarks take up “little” space. There were so many beautiful ones that I decided to start collecting them seriously. That was about 10 years ago, and at that time I already had around one thousand bookmarks.

As for the very first bookmark, I honestly have no idea. There were always a few or even dozens at the same time, and every single one of them seemed unique and beautiful.

3. Do you have any favorite types or special emphasis in your collection?

My collection includes many different types of bookmarks. I collected everything — and I think it will probably stay that way. However, I especially like nature-themed and travel bookmarks. I also enjoy bookmarks from museums. Nowadays, I try to collect historical pieces in order to preserve them from being forgotten.

4. What is the most unusual bookmark in your collection?
This is probably the oldest Polish bookmark currently in my collection, which I acquired together with a letter from the 1920s. It is unique because it carries a message about respecting books.

5. How do you acquire your bookmarks

Many of my friends already know about my hobby, and they often bring me bookmarks from their holiday trips. I also cooperate with many institutions that regularly provide me with new or historical bookmarks (unfortunately mostly modern ones, but still equally valuable). I buy commercial bookmarks directly from producers. I also visit the biggest book fairs in Poland, where I can find even more bookmarks for my collection. Duplicate bookmarks are used for international exchanges. I also buy bookmarks on eBay, Vinted, and Allegro in Poland.

6. How many bookmarks do you have (an estimate)?

At the moment, I have stopped counting because I am reorganizing the entire collection, but I estimate that it contains more than 40,000 bookmarks.

7. How do you organize, display and store your collection?

I store the bookmarks in binders, in special sleeves designed for banknotes. Unfortunately, many of them are still kept in cardboard boxes, where they are already sorted into sleeves by publishers or types.

8. What has been your experience in using the IFOB Swap List, if any?

Thanks to the lists from iFOB, I was able to obtain many beautiful bookmarks from different parts of the world. However, I was invited to participate in exchanges only a few times. Most of the exchanges were initiated by me. This is an additional advantage of collecting and having hobbies — contact with other people.

9. What do you enjoy about IFOB?  Is there anything you would like to see IFOB do in the future?

Contact with people who share similar interests, the knowledge I can gain through conversations with collectors from different countries, interesting articles, and seeing the same object from completely different perspectives. And I think also the fact that IFOB has given bookmarks and the people who collect them a new meaning.

11. Do you collect anything else?

As I mentioned earlier, I used to collect many different things, but at the moment I am moving away from that. I am able to present over 30 different collections. Among the larger and more interesting ones are sugar cubes (4,000 pieces), Kinder toys (3,500 pieces), military and civilian badges (over 2,000 pieces), and cinema lobby cards/postcards from films (collected for 20 years, over 6,000 pieces).

13. Do you have any advice for those who are just beginning to collect?

Sometimes it’s worth listening to the advice of people who already know something about it, so don’t ask me — I’m still learning all the time 😉

14. As a winner of the Asim Maner Award, tell us more about what you have done to promote bookmarks for World Bookmark Day or in general.

The most important thing was founding the Bookmarks Museum and honoring Asim by naming the museum after him.

10. Do you have any plans to celebrate World Bookmark Day next time?

I have many plans. I will certainly continue organizing exhibitions related to the history of bookmarks in new places and promoting the Bookmarks Museum.

​The Bookmark Gala will also continue, and I hope it will include greater participation from my exchange friends. I would like to encourage Polish artists to send bookmarks to WOBODA. Perhaps it would also be possible to organize a scientific conference for people from different parts of the world, combined with a large exhibition of bookmarks. But for now, these are just loose ideas.

Editor's note:  Montserrat nominated Domènec for the award, providing information on his long history of researching and sharing bookmarks.  When we made the award to him, he requested that we also honor Montserrat, saying that the collection and their activities wouldn't be the same without her contributions.  So, the judges agreed to make the award to both, and as their answers indicate, they truly have a partnership centered around promoting bookmarks.  In the answers below, D: indicates his responses and M: identifies her responses. They sent their answers in Spanish which have been translated using Google. 

D: I'm 70 years old and from Catalonia, currently retired. Montse is my partner.

M: I'm from Catalonia, an Autonomous Community of Spain. My city is small with just under 70,000 inhabitants. It's called Girona and has a lot of history. We have it all: to the east, the Mediterranean Sea with a beautiful coastline called the Costa Brava, and to the north, the Pyrenees mountain range that separates us from France.
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I'm 67 years old and currently retired, but I've dedicated many years to extracurricular education. I'm an outdoor activities director, a children's sports coach, and a basketball coach, among other things...

D: I especially like the early 20th-century Art Nouveau or Modernist bookmarks.

M: I have several favorites in the collection, but one is very simple. It was made to raise money for the Sarajevo library, which was destroyed during the Bosnian War.

This one is also a religious bookmark that was probably made as a complement to the book, Volume II of the Letters of Saint Teresa of Avila, according to what can be read on the bookmark. We can date it to 1752.

D. & M: Yes, we've had several contacts with collectors on the IFOB list, but we've always been the ones who contacted them to arrange exchanges. Some have been and continue to be very positive, but with others we've only done one exchange. We like to have bookmarks from all over the world, but since we have so many, we prefer specific themes from a specific country, which are sometimes difficult to find.

D: I especially like the articles on the history of bookmarks, as it's a topic I research and am passionate about.

M: I like that IFOB promotes bookmarks worldwide.
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I would like them to encourage collectors to make duplicate albums so they can make more equitable exchanges. We don't mind the 1-for-1, but we do care about knowing what we're getting in return.

D.& M: Yes, we'll continue asking friends to make a bookmark for this day. We'll try to hold an exhibition at a library or community center. Of course, we'll hold a mega-meeting where we'll give away bookmarks, and we'll hold a talk at a library or school with young people.

D.& M: We'd like to say that collecting has helped us make many friends. To begin with, we met through collecting bookmarks at a difficult time in our lives. We've had great friends who are no longer with us, but we still remember them fondly, and we have many others with whom we remain in touch. We always say we're a big family and we help each other. The exchanges allow us to stay in touch physically and enjoy a good day, since we almost always end them with a good meal.

D: Don't get overwhelmed and choose a main topic. Also, know that collecting is about sharing knowledge and friendship.
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M: I'm not much for giving advice, since now when I see someone starting to collect, they do the same thing I did when I started: grab everything that came my way, regardless of the topic. I think it would be better to start with the topics you like the most, but I'm aware that there are so many attractive (I don't like to say pretty) bookmarks that you can't refuse.

Editor's Note: Gintautas has a unique approach to showcasing and sharing his bookmarks.  He started an IFOB Gallery, Bookmarks Speak, to show bookmarks in complementary settings, and he has contributed to the Owls and Countries galleries.  He is also tireless in exhibiting and making presentations about bookmarks.  Search for him under Member News to see more than what is highlighted here.  Congratulations!

When actively reading scientific and fiction literature, I need a book accessory - a marker to mark the reading place. Having worked in the field of protocol for many years, I realized that a bookmark can also serve well as a souvenir. So I started to organize their production. Here is one of the first bookmarks:

While evaluating bookmarks of various nature and material structure, I focus more on those made of paper (and packaged).

​For exhibitions and presentations the most important principle is that I appreciate the bookmark. Some bookmarks leave room for their holistic development, development or perspective of the content provided, while others say nothing but coded information. I try to work with publishers who tend to print bookmarks that have a value base. I am still searching for reserves of perspective within myself. I really love life, unrequited but balanced, which I see in the bookmarks I select.

​I include the gifts of nature in this category, an example in the photo below:

Lately, I've been focusing my collections on quality along three parameters: bookmarks with regular value, bookmarks with special value, and bookmarks with personal value. According to this, the individual topics combine close to 3 thousand. bookmarks. I don't place a particular priority on the amount of bookmarks. I appreciate the holistic uniqueness of bookmarks. 

The personal bookmark basket stores bookmarks with normal value (institutions, advertising, organizations, etc.).
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Thematic bookmark collections are stored in binders (originals), but all bookmarks are digitized. It's a great gift to the audience.

I haven't accumulated enough bookmarks for the day yet to exchange. But this type of activity should be encouraged.

Several years of activity in the IFOB have highlighted community spirit. This, I think, is the strong and main form of club activity, chosen for sincere communication, uniting into one family on the principle of volunteerism, responding to everyone's strong and versatile activities and experiences. That is precious.

In addition to bookmarks, I collect historical postcards, but not as actively. But together with the bookmarks, they also serve during creative meetings.

​12. Do you have any advice for those who are just beginning to collect bookmarks?

First, it is necessary to realize that direct accumulation of bookmarks is not a prerequisite for collections, and secondly, it is necessary to love them.

In order to spread the creative process and share the result (Process Art), I would be happy to share my paintings by sending them to your exhibition in various countries around the world. My original works are presented in two formats: in frames and 3 mm panels (plastic).

Recently, I have been writing for many different creative meetings of audiences of various ranks, not only as a lecturer, but to a greater extent as a collector of bookmarks or the author of exhibitions about them. This is the collective result of all of us, including IFOB.

I'm currently on a creative sabbatical, during which I've committed to finishing an authored book about bookmarks.
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I am truly grateful.