Blog Posts

Member Profile: Olav Claassen

25/4/2020

Editor’s Note: Olav is one of our newer members, joining in January 2020. As you will see, he has a huge and interesting collection and has been sharing examples on our Facebook group for members.

Tell us about yourself – where you are from, your occupation, etc.

My name is Olav Claassen, 59, I am Dutch and live in the south of the Netherlands close to Eindhoven. I am married with a combined family of 6 adult children and granddad to two beautiful grandchildren.

Currently I’m self-employed as an IT Program Manager and working for a client on a major Human Resources Program in Rotterdam. Originally I am trained as a certified male nurse but left that profession in 1987 to start as a computer programmer. My passions are cooking and collecting. I also like music and travel.

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

I clearly remember when this hobby started. I am a collector of different things and 18 years ago, my mother-in-law at the time died and she left a bookmark collection. Nobody was interested in it so I took it on as a new collection. The rule was to collect only the bookmarks that you can get for free, but over the years that rule has been put aside as I have bought a few sizable collections and they obviously have a lot of commercial ones. So, my first bookmark is actually a collection.

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

I only collect paper bookmarks from all over the world and all topics outside religious ones. The main reason is that with religious ones there is basically no end to it and I am not religious anymore.

What is the most unusual bookmark in your collection?

Probably the ones (4) that can slide to show all the moon phases. They date back to the 40’s.

How do you acquire your bookmarks?

Obviously I ask for them in bookshops wherever and whenever I can. I get them from people that save them. Also when I am traveling, I try to take home as many as possible without spending a fortune. I also buy on the internet like on the Dutch version of Craigs list and on auction sites.

How do you organize, display and store your collection?

All sorted bookmarks are stored in plastic folders in ring binders. The plastic folders I organize myself by using a bag seal machine. Very helpful. Currently I have well over 200 ring binders (wide ones), but when I am done sorting all bookmarks, I guess I will be close to 300. I estimate that I have at least 50,000 bookmarks!

What has been your experience in using the IFOB Swap List?

Haven’t used the swap list yet. I have offered to swap bookmarks, but no transaction has taken place yet. I do have over five large moving boxes full of double bookmarks and it would be a waste to throw them away at some point.

What do you enjoy about IFOB? Anything you would like to see IFOB do in the future?

It’s nice to be part of a community of fellow collectors and recently I started sharing pictures and stories which is nice as I am getting positive reactions. Along the way useful information is exchanged.

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

I will next time.

Do you collect anything else?

I collect art, mainly silk screen prints. I collect 5 different designs of Waterman roller ball and ball point pens, and I have a large collection of classical stamps from Hungary. If I lived alone, I would probably become one of those hoarders 😊

Anything else you would like to share?

I would love to see more people share bookmarks from their collections and generate some more activity within this small community. And as said, when people want to swap, I am available. I will happily send a box full and pay for the postage if I receive a box with bookmarks in return. Doesn’t need to be the same number, size or weight.

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Storm Center - Bookmarking a Movie

11/12/2019

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This unassuming bookmark advertising the movie “Storm Center” in 1956 dramatically declares that the book in the story has “enough dynamite in its pages to blow a city apart”. The movie stars a favorite actress, the inimitable Bette Davis. When I received an inquiry from Kay Delanoy asking if I would like to have it, I immediately said I would. Little did I know that the story behind this movie had so many angles relating to libraries, books and censorship.

In 2010, a librarian wrote to the American Library Association with this inquiry: “I saw this week's article at the Huffington Post website about movie librarians, Librarians Save The Day! 11 Great Movies In Which They Star . I was very surprised to see a film there starring one of my favorite actresses, Bette Davis, that I never heard of! By any chance, can ALA tell me anything about Storm Center (1956)?”

Indeed they could and referred to the July/August 1956 issue of the ALA Bulletin which “had a two-page article that featured still photographs from the film. But more importantly, the article explained that there was a private preview showing of the film at the ALA 75th Annual Conference that year in Miami Beach, …. The showing of the Columbia Pictures release was presumably set up when the film's producer, Julian Blaustein, and its director and co-writer, Daniel Taradash, spoke about the film at the Midwinter Meeting earlier that year.”

They go on to explain that “The movie's events were largely fiction, but the character played by Bette Davis was based on Miss Ruth Brown, Librarian of the Bartlesville Public Library in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, from 1919 until she was fired in 1950 on suspicion of being a Communist. Her so-called crimes included treating the town's African American residents as equals, letting them borrow books from the library well before Brown v. Board of Education allowed them access. There's a bust of Miss Ruth Brown at the Bartlesville Public Library that recognizes and celebrates her achievements”.

Another person commented that there is a book about her: “The Dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown: Civil Rights, Censorship, and the American Library” by Louise S. Robbins. University of Oklahoma Press (2001).

The commenter explains: “This book is the winner of the Eliza Atkins Gleason Award and the Willa Literary Award for a nonfiction book from Women Writing the West. The author, Louise Robbins, is not only a professor at the School of Library & Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the former Director of the School, but is also the former Mayor of Ada, Oklahoma and first woman elected to their city council!”

Ironically, in the movie, it is the city council that demands that Bette Davis’s character, librarian Alicia Hull, should remove a book about Communism. In this clip from the movie , she makes her case about why removal and censorship is something she cannot do, even if it means she loses her job.

The movie was filmed in Santa Rosa, California in a classic Carnegie library. In 2012, one of the librarians wrote a post for Banned Books Week about the movie and some of the behind-the-scenes details that were described in an article by Ruth Hall who was the librarian at the time of the filming. [photo of Ruth Hall and Bette Davis]

The plot includes the librarian’s influence on a young boy, Freddie Slater. Without giving away the shocking developments related to Freddie, the “Winners of the Children’s Book Contest” listed on the reverse of the bookmark can be explained. As the winner of a contest to name the world’s ten best books, Freddie participates in the ground breaking ceremony for a new children’s wing in the library in a critical scene. Presumably, the bookmark lists Freddie’s selections. [See Robbins, Louise. “Fighting McCarthyism through Film: A Library Censorship Case Becomes a ‘Storm Center.’” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, vol. 39, no. 4, 1998, pp. 296. JSTOR] .

At the time of its release in 1956, the movie received lukewarm reviews due to its heavy handed approach to the story and because much of the fervor over McCarthyism had subsided. Bette Davis was praised for her acting in which she portrayed a stereotypical prim and proper librarian, but infused the character with her usual steely determination. [See for example the New York Times review and these excerpts from reviews.]

How did the bookmark for such an obscure film survive? Because Kay’s father was assistant librarian at the District of Columbia library when it was playing there and saved it. Kay says he would have been glad to pass it on to a fellow librarian, and I hope he would have appreciated seeing it in context of its story.

The movie is difficult to find but occasionally a library will screen it because they still deal with censorship. It has received more attention recently from academics and various bloggers, such as this one whose comment from five years ago rings even more true today: “It’s striking how little has changed in fifty-eight years. Oh sure, we like to convince ourselves that we are more evolved than our elders but when it comes right down to it, we are just as susceptible as they were to fear and propaganda.”

Poster from Wikipedia cite rights holder By Corporate author/original rights holder: Columbia Pictures - Scan from private collection, PD-US, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9713493

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Bookmark Inspirations

26/11/2019

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Have you ever mentioned using bookmarks to someone and later they say that you inspired them to do so? Gaby Dondlinger sent two examples.

The first is a bookmark designed for the municipality of Perl in Germany after she talked to a woman who had a little free library and also published a story in a local magazine about Woboda 2019. The reverse of the bookmark says ”You tell stories to the children to make them sleep – and to the adults to make them wake up” (Jorge Bucay). What a nice quote and sentiment. We assume she will also be distributing these bookmarks in her little free library in addition to city organizations.

Gaby was also inspired through her IFOB activities to add tiny bookmarks to the tiny books she makes and sells. In these photos, you can see the display she uses to showcase the books on large letters. Now they will also be promoting the use of bookmarks.

Please tell us if you have examples of bookmark inspirations!

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Member Profile: Frank X. Roberts

9/10/2019

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Editor's Note: There are only a few true scholars of bookmarks and our member Frank X. Roberts is one of them. This profile explains his interests and research methods.

Tell us about yourself – where you are from, your education and occupation.

I am a New Englander by birth (b. 1932) and educated in schools and colleges in the Boston, Massachusetts area, except for a PhD degree from the University of Buffalo, in New York State. I have worked as a Professional Reference Librarian, but most of my career has been spent teaching English and American literature, and Library Science world-wide, in England, Africa, Australia, and across the United States.

How did you start collecting bookmarks?

Though I have collected bookmarks, I had no special emphasis for collecting but simply picked up in my travels bookmarks that caught my eye or piqued my interest. Over time I found I had accumulated a number of interesting specimens. Upon retiring in 1997 from the University of Northern Colorado, I gifted most of my collection to the University, where it is now housed in the Archives of the University’s James A. Michener Library.

However, I did keep two leather bookmarks from my collection of historical and human interest. (I will touch more on this below.)

We often get requests about how to “retire” bookmark collections from collectors or those who inherit collections. Can you explain how you donated your collection to the University?

During the ten years I was employed as professor of Library Studies and Bibliographic Instruction in the James A. Michener Library at the University of Northern Colorado, my bookmark collection of some 900 items was frequently pressed into service to augment exhibits mounted by the library to celebrate, for example: "The Book" or "Reading" or "Academic Research" etc. When not being used for exhibits the collection was boxed and shelved in my office or elsewhere in the library. Thus, upon my retirement it seemed that the thing to do was to transfer ownership of the bookmark collection to the university. It is now kept in the Michener Library Archives where it is available upon request by library users (from on or off campus) to view or examine [ see [Description of Item], Manuscript Collections, F. X. Roberts' Collection: Bookmarks & Writings (SC 73), Archival Services, James A. Michener Library, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado. Accessed October 09, 2019.]. Transferring ownership was (in my case) simply a matter of signing a "Proffer of Gift" form. The proffer gave both physical and intellectual control of the collection to the Michener Library to manage, and use as wanted.

My special interest is the study of the history, development and use of bookmarks.

Tell us about your research into bookmarks. What questions were you trying to answer and how did you go about conducting your research?

My interest in researching the origin of bookmarks stemmed naturally from my collecting activities. Though, as I said earlier, collecting bookmarks was for me a casual activity. However, as I accumulated bookmarks of various kinds and types, two questions became uppermost in my mind: First, what really is a bookmark? that is, how do we define a true bookmark? Second, what was the origin of the bookmark? that is, when and where were bookmarks first used, and (per impossible!) by whom? (Spoiler alert: I eventually found no definitive answer to any of these questions.)

In an attempt to answer question one, (How is a bookmark defined?), I read through many dictionary definitions of the word "bookmark." (Working in a university library gave me access to a large number of dictionaries from the small pocket size to the OED.) Although details differed, depending on the size of a dictionary and the length of the entry for "bookmark," in the main dictionary definitions devoted themselves to the preserving, finding (or locating) function of the bookmark. Based on this fact and on my reading of as many articles about the use of bookmarks as I could acquire, I created my own working definition of the term: "A 'bookmark' is a finding device acting as a portable (or sometimes stationary) 'index' to guide readers to where they left off reading, or to mark for relocation some particularly interesting, appealing or useful section of text in a book." Dictionaries and glossaries do not normally define "bookmark" as something to be collected.

So the question remained, and even the "duck test" would not answer it. If it looks like a bookmark... If it acts like a bookmark... But what does a bookmark "look" like, and what does a bookmark "act" like? Obviously there may possibly be as many answers to these questions as there are types of bookmarks in existence. Perhaps for the bookmark collector the ultimate test would be to have the word "Bookmark" appear on the item. But that merely begs the question. It is a bookmark because it says it is! But can this really be the ultimate criteria? For example: In the library of Balliol College at Oxford University, there is still in place in a fifteenth-century manuscript (MS 161 Andreas Billia) a slip of parchment with Latin in medieval hand written on it. And in another fifteenth-century manuscript at Balliol (MS 209 Duns Scotus) there resides a larger parchment piece folded in two with writing in a medieval hand between the folds. Both of these scraps are no doubt long-forgotten "bookmarks." There is nothing written on them that says so, but who can doubt it. And what really avid collector would not want to posses such ancient "bookmarks?"

I began my preparation for researching the origin of bookmarks by studying sources on the history of the book, and on the history of libraries, from ancient to modern times. My "reading research" gave me clues to where I might locate libraries in institutions of education, in religious institutions, such as cathedrals, and in museums, whose holdings included manuscripts and early printed books containing items notionally defined as "bookmarks" of various kinds and types. Having identified such places, I wrote to a number of them to make application as a visiting scholar on sabbatical leave from my university post. In this way I gained access to the manuscript and rare book collections held by, for example, the British Museum, the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, other college libraries at Oxford and Cambridge universities, the libraries of both Exeter and Hereford cathedrals, the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England, and others. In these libraries I was able to do a hands-on, close up study of ancient bookmarks in medieval manuscripts, and in early printed books, as well as in more contemporary printed sources, up to and including the nineteenth century.

Where did you publish the results of your research?

Some of the results of this research has been written up in my 2009 monograph: Essays on Bookmarks and Related Topics. I plan to bring out a second edition of this book soon. In the book there is an essay titled, “Royal Bookmarks and Grecian Urns.” It reprises a tale of love and tragedy related to the two leather bookmarks mentioned above, and illustrated [below]. These souvenir bookmarks are now to be found (if at all) gathering dust in collectors’ cabinets, but still expressing like John Keats’ Grecian Urn, their flowery tale in silence and slow time.

In addition, my Bookmarks: An Annotated Bibliography has, as part of its introductory matter, a short, historical discussion on some possible origins of the bookmark. (See also the Subject Index of the annotated bibliography for sources which provide clues to the early uses and possible origins of the bookmark.) However, the definitive history of the bookmark has yet to be written. So for the nonce and most probably forever, the origin of bookmarks must remain only educated speculation. It would appear that the closest we may ever get to the exact origin of the bookmark is as it relates to that period of world history when "writing," "reading," and the creation and production of "books" (and by logical extension "bookmarks") were in their infancy.

What is your current interest in bookmarks?

Though I no longer actively collect bookmarks, I still pick up freebies, and sometimes make a purchase, if a bookmark sparks my interest. I do enjoy very much reading online about activities of IFOB members. And I look forward to celebrating with members World Bookmark Day in 2020.

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Malo-Les-Bains Bookmark Swap Meetings 1999 - 2016

13/6/2019

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By Georg Hartong

[Editor's note: See more examples of bookmarks from this series of swap meets in our Gallery of Bookmarks on Bookmarks]

Bookmark collecting is rather popular in France. French ladies especially do collect them, and most of them have at least one collecting theme: CATS!

There are several swap meetings in France during the year, for example, at Paris, Nancy and Grignan. The most frequented one is the weekend swap meeting in the Townhall at Malo-Les-Bains near Duinkerque at the Canalcoast, in the beginning of April. In 1999 the sisters Jocelyne and Lysiane Denière started the swap meeting and it became a famous, international event, with collectors from France, Belgium, The Netherlands and occasionally Germany and Spain. In addition to the swap meeting, the sisters arranged a thematical exposition every year and all participants got a special bookmark of the related exposition theme. The number of participants remained stable, 30 to 40 every year, so this swap meeting seemed to have a long future. But then several serious terroristic attacks took place in France and the government decided to demand severe security measures at public events, at heavy costs. Because of these costs the swap meeting had to be cancelled in 2017 and as far as I know has not been restarted.

The first 4 years the sisters published a small book every year, related to collecting and bookmarks:

1999 - Je collectionne ... les signets; 42 pages in full color, dealing with all kinds of bookmarks and their materials; to the buyer a special bookmark was presented;
2000 - Je collectionne ... les marque-page et les coupe-papier; 42 pages, dealing with stiff cardboard bookmarks/paper cutters (11 pages) and paper cutters of other materials; again a special bookmark was presented to the buyer;

Bookmarks from 2000 and 2001

2001 - Je collectionne tout ... sur les roses; 50 pages, dealing with bookmarks (several pages); again with a special bookmark;

2002 - Je collectionne tout ... sur le carnaval; 40 pages, dealing with bookmarks (4 pages); with a special bookmark.

Then the sisters started a new series in a new format: oblong (18 x 23,5 cm) - stiff paper - double-sided art photography, at the right end of every page a detachable bookmark - 10 by 16 folia.

Detachable bookmark on right

At their website all 9 available titles with bookmarks and the prices are listed.

Examples of bookmarks illustrating bookmarks for swap meets at Malo-les-Bains

I have visited the swap meetings from 2005 until 2014 and greatly enjoyed my visits to Malo-Les-Bains and the contacts with other collectors!

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Bookmark Swap Meetings In The Netherlands

12/6/2019

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By Georg Hartong

[Editor's note: See more examples of bookmarks from this series of swap meets in our Gallery of Bookmarks on Bookmarks]

There is no long history of bookmark swap meetings in The Netherlands. On 17th September 2005 Margreet du Pui, from Gent, Belgium, librarian at Sluiskil in the Dutch province Zeeland near the Belgium border and of course collector of bookmarks, organised the first swap meeting for collectors from The Netherlands, Belgium and France. Her library was a very suitable place and about 30 collectors were present, hoping a tradition was born. The swap meeting was continued in 2006 and 2007, when even a British collector, Joe Stephenson chairman of The Bookmark Society and editor of the TBS Newsletter, was present. But Sluiskil is situated very inconveniently in The Netherlands and the library didn't facilitate the meeting any longer, so nothing happened in 2008.

Library at Sluiskil where bookmark swaps were held, 2005-2007.

Then a couple from Eindhoven, Dick and Dineke Kolsté, both avid collectors, took over the organisation and arranged in 2009 the next swap meeting at Leusden near Amersfoort, in the centre of The Netherlands. Dineke's brother was librarian at Leusden, so again a nice location was found for collectors from The Netherlands, Belgium, France and even Germany. But just like at Sluiskil, in 2013 the Leusden-library stopped facilitating, so a new location was to be found. Dick and Dineke succeeded in finding a nice, new location at Nuenen near Eindhoven. Nuenen is a small town, but famous as birthplace of the painter Vincent van Gogh. Over the years the number of visiting collectors has been very stable, always about 30.

In 2017 Dineke died very suddenly, but Dick did continue to organise the swap meetings until now. He is not quite sure whether to continue because of his age and the reduction of the number of collectors in The Netherlands, many of whom are elderly. So 2020, the 15th swap meeting, is still an open question.

Bookmark in honor of Dineke Kolsté

Boomarks for swap meets at Leusden and Eindhoven

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Asim Maner Award Winner: Gaby Dondlinger

5/5/2019

Editor's note: Gaby was chosen by IFOB editors as the first winner of the Asim Maner Award for promoting bookmarks based on her enthusiasm for bookmarks as evident in her profile, and also her contributions to IFOB including help with updating and editing the library, workshop and events pages and additions to the galleries on owls, bookmarks on bookmarks and care of books. She also made a generous donation to IFOB. Thanks and congratulations, Gaby!

Introducing myself

My name is Gaby, I live in Luxembourg, in the municipality of Schengen, the cradle of Europe and the place where 3 countries meet (Luxembourg, Germany and France). I am a teacher but stopped teaching a few years ago, and since then I can fully indulge in activities I have always loved but not found the necessary time for. Among these are reading and collecting bookmarks of course, travelling, being creative. I love Upcycling and go to craft markets for selling my creations. I have 3 wonderful children who think I am a little crazy for my collecting activities (I have some more collections 😉). My son is programming my website on which you can see what I do, if you’re interested.

How I got started collecting

I cannot remember which was my first bookmark. I do remember that since I learned to read I loved to read. So I suppose that bookmarks have always accompanied me, though I really cannot remember which ones I possessed as a child. Most probably I used scraps of paper or tickets or anything similar to mark my place. The first bookmark I remember clearly is one which I received from my parents after they came back from a holiday in Austria. It is made up in a very clever way using photo negatives that are tied together with a ribbon, and inside are some dried mountain flowers, among these an edelweiss. This is a bookmark I really have always treasured.

Dried flowers from Austria

Another early bookmark is the one I got from a Japanese penfriend in my early teens. It was a paper bookmark with a ribbon and lots of Japanese writing on it so I had no idea what it was about. The picture showed a highway or something. It was not particularly attractive but a souvenir of a long over friendship that I kept with the letters and everything else my friend sent.

Later on I received more bookmarks from foreign friends, some were bought, some hand-made. I also travelled quite a bit, and when I happened to come across a nice one, I bought it for myself. Then also traveling friends brought some from abroad to add to my “collection”, which I didn’t see as a collection myself, though I thought about the best way to display them, finding it a shame to just keep them closed away. For that purpose I even got myself a book (Karl Heinz Steinbeisser: Lesezeichen sammeln). Later on I had the idea to display them under the glass of my coffee table (as you can read and see in the blog.

Specialties that I like

From all the bookmarks I have, the ones that I treasure most are the ones that have a story to tell: of people who made them or brought them for me, of places where I have been, of things that I have seen or that I love. Here are some examples: I have a bookmark-doll folded of Origami paper which a friend with Japanese origins sent to me.

Japanese origami doll

Maltese lace

I also treasure a bookmark made of fine black lace that I got on a holiday in Malta where I saw old women do such intricate lace works. Then there’s a very special bookmark from Lapland made of thick purple felt with a plant stitched on it, it has a leather ribbon with a bead made of reindeer bone or horn.

From Lapland

From Nepal

In my collection are also a few bookmarks from Africa made of different kinds of African wood with cut-out African animals. From Nepal I have a bookmark made of hand-made Nepalese plant paper. It has a drawing of a flower on it and a folded human figure.

In Portugal I found a bookmark made of cork in the shape of a sardine. Georg Hartong, IFOB co-editor, sent me some bookmarks from the Spanish Pyrenees with dried flowers on them. I could go on like this. So in spite of keeping all bookmarks to be able to swap, I have made up my mind to actively collect the following:

Tourist souvenir bookmarks, made of specific material like palm leaf, wood, lace, papyrus, leather, and related to a certain country. Paper will do if there’s nothing different available, but the bookmark should show a typical aspect of that precise country, like native art or indigenous plants or....
Bookmarks related to the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo
Artistic handmade bookmarks

Handstitched with a silken backside. I found it in an old book in a free library.

Made of sandalwood, a gift from friends in India; it used to have a lovely smell

In this context I would also like to thank Jeffrey Edel for the lovely wooden bookmarks that Laine sent to me as part of the Asim Maner award. I love the idea that he recycles tiddles and bits and includes them in his works.

Experiences in distributing Woboda bookmarks and taking Wobo photos [see related blog post on Fun with Woboda Bookmarks]

Before Woboda 2018 and 2019 I left most of the Woboda bookmarks in little baskets in different free libraries, and when I went back to check, they were all gone (including the sign and the basket!). So I wouldn’t know what really happened to them.

Promoting Woboda at little free libraries.

Article in local magazine in Germany

I got to meet the responsible lady of one of these free libraries (this one located in Germany) and I had to supply her with new bookmarks several times. She was very helpful and enthusiastic about offering a bookmark to every visitor. She was also interested in the IFOB website. It was her initiative to write a little article about bookmarks for the local magazine. And for next year we are planning on a bookmark exhibition in the city hall.

While distributing the Woboda bookmarks with my Christmas mail (about 50 envelopes), I got to know that a foreign friend is collecting bookmarks, too. We have known each other for almost 30 years but apparently never touched this subject. What a surprise!

Wobo and Woboda bookmarks in Christmas mailings

There’s another story to tell about a French lady whom I got to know after leaving one of my baskets with bookmarks, as well as a note saying that I am a bookmark collector and would happily welcome every bookmark that someone wants to leave for me. A little later I found a postcard in the free library asking me to get in touch concerning bookmarks. I never managed to reach the person by telephone so I wrote a letter instead which I left in the library. A few weeks later it was gone but I never heard from this person. Then several months later I found another postcard, same handwriting, same request. This time the telephone number worked. It turned out that the lady never found my letter, but thanks to her perseverance we finally met and she gifted me well over 100 new bookmarks and many postcards as well (which I gave away to collector friends). Though she loves to read, she doesn’t collect bookmarks herself, but is just the type of person who picks up things and when she meets the right person she gives them away. What an idea! We have since stayed in touch, even exchanged presents, I gave her a handmade bookmark, and she gave me a handmade bookend in the shape of a cat!

While taking Wobo traveling I was assisted by my sister and my eldest daughter and we had lots of fun and were also pleased to get some physical exercise as we were walking from one place to the next.

Wobo sees stars in Schengen

Asim

I got to know Asim after I had been reading an article about bookmarks called "Fascinating Bookmarks" in the German magazine “Flow” (special edition about books). The author had interviewed Asim and there was a reference to the IFOB website which I looked up out of interest. I liked the page and though I did not call myself a collector then, I thought I could let the webmaster know that. I got an instant very friendly reply from Asim and since then we stayed in touch. I became a member of IFOB, Asim wrote a blog about my coffee-table, I helped with some requests, participated in the raffle. He really had a way of sweeping people along, without ever pushing. Anyway since then I decided to call myself a collector and (re)started to collect more actively. Even when he was on holiday he answered IFOB-related messages, and when a few days later I got to know from his daughter that he had died. I was so shocked that I stopped looking at my bookmarks and didn’t return to the IFOB website for ages. I really admired Laine when she decided to take up the job as editor, with all the incredible work it involves. Regina from Lithuania with whom I was in contact at that time, helped me to make up my mind to continue collecting and I am pleased now that I finally returned to my passion. Not only for winning the award 😉 that Laine and Georg so kindly offered to me. Thank you once again for this honour!

World Bookmark Day at University of California, San Diego

9/4/2019

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By Scott Paulson, Communications & Engagement,Exhibits & Events Coordinator
UC San Diego Library

As an exhibits and events coordinator at an active university research library, I'm always looking for exhibits that encourage hands-on paper crafts activities. We have a strong following among undergraduates and neighboring community members with exhibits and programs involving origami and paper theatre construction/paper optical toy design, and now --bookmarks!

Our Geisel Library building is indeed named after Dr. Seuss, and our visitors have expectations of specialized activities that have an educational/research component and, when possible, also involve Seussian creative participation. Exhibiting unusual bookmarks, along with reference materials that relay the history of these "quitter strips” and then encouraging visitors to make their own one-of-a-kind bookmarkers (using specialized tools and carefully collected supplies) is our newest annual event, with complete credit and many thanks to the inspiration and leadership of IFOB!

For IFOB’s Third Annual International Bookmark Day, the UC San Diego Library was proud to participate! We had wanted to join IFOB in the first and second year of the event—but the third time was the charm for us. We’re late, but we’re committed!

My live radio show, Ether Tale Radio Theatre, mainly does live radio drama, but we also discuss books and support/promote book events (poetry, too). We mention World Bookmark Day briefly at the beginning and then fast forward to 29:20 when we truly talk about it for around seven minutes.

The Exhibit - Installation

Below is a picture showing an early start in installing the UC San Diego Bookstore bookmarks for our Library exhibit.

You can see here that we’re using various lucite stands, so that the bookmarks can be shown at different height levels, helping to provide interest in an otherwise flat landscape.

At one point, we do move some of the bookmarks as far forward as possible in the exhibit case, for patrons whose eye-level view might be influenced by a wheelchair.

Some visitors can’t peer over the exhibit case lid, but they may be able to view better through the side and front glass panels of the cases.

How the bookstore clerks use the bookmarks to recommend their favorite books.

The generous blank spots on these bookmarks allow the bookstore clerks to relay personal reviews!

The Exhibit - Featured Bookmarks

In the exhibit we showed bookmarks from our Library staff’s personal collections and official bookmarks from various UC San Diego offices, including the debut of a new bookmark from our campus Sustainability Resource Center.

Outreach interns staffed a table that day to discuss the campus’ sustainability mission.

The most handsome bookmarks on display from our Library promoted the photographs, documents, audio, and video available on the UC San Diego Library Digital Collections website, reflecting a range of materials collected, managed and preserved by the Library.

These online collections are well-served by old-school bookmarks!

Delightfully dark bookmarks from good friend author/artist Lori R. Lopez.

We also featured bookmarks from local artists.

I visited Susie Reneau’s hidden hillside art studio for an unrelated exhibit project and asked if I could buy these original bookmarks for my personal collection (and to exhibit in our World Bookmark Day exhibit.) Susie often works in black & white, but she is otherwise very colorful and very active. She is also a well-known, semi-retired bubble artist!---but not in the dancing, vaudeville sense. Her bubble shows are a floating family-friendly delight of physics and fun.

I enjoyed showing my personal bookmark collection, some self-made, some tourist art from recent travels, and many were impromptu gifts from friends and family who know that I can always use another bookmark!

This Pixar-inspired item adds humor to any bookmark display. I have a lot of 3-D bookmarks but this one is a favorite. So nice to have an opportunity to jump away, briefly, from everything being so flat and rectangular.

I usually display these punky magnifying bookmarks on top of vintage phrenology busts or atop empty tequila glass skull decanters…but here they are flat and simple with a beloved Library magnifying bookmark/ruler.

I was very proud to display this bookmark that was a gift from Xi Chen, our Chinese Studies Librarian and East Asia Collection Strategist here at the UC San Diego Library. This leather item has an embossed poem that Xi translated for us:

“Live a simple and humble life. Reading makes a man graceful.” From Su Shi (1037-1101, Song Dynasty)’s poem “Farewell to Dong Chuan”

Bookmark from the National Central Library (Taiwan)

Create Your Own Bookmark

On 25 February, World Bookmark Day, we held an event where visitors could make their very own one-of-a-kind bookmark at the exhibit site.

Of special interest was a demonstration of needlepoint bookmarks that was presented throughout our two-hour event.

The floor was busy, as visitors could choose from eight different stations to visit to create their own bookmark –all featuring different supplies and tools.

The most surprising hands-on activity of the afternoon came courtesy of this wildly popular color fan deck (that I stole from my sister Debra on the morning of the event!) Visitors ripped out their favorite color tones for an instant elegant bookmark.

Our Bookmark-Making event went beyond our 1:30pm “last call” on World Bookmark Day. We packed up all the extra DIY stations and left one last table up for latecomers. Ladies ruled much of the day, but gentlemen arrived to participate at the end and they even helped us clean up!

Observations

Bookmarks make great event fliers---we’ll be sure to promote our annual Paper Theatre Festival through bookmarks this year!

And I think we should celebrate the upcoming 30th anniversary of our Library chimes with a bookmark to remind people that we take song requests!

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Book Care

24/3/2019

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By Georg Hartong

There is apparently a widespread bad habit of marking the place where the reading of a book has stopped, by making a fold in the top corner of a page: making dog-ears. In other languages the same phenomenon has a different name: in Dutch: 'ezelsoor', in German: 'Eselsohr' and in Danish: 'Aeselorer', all meaning 'donkey's ear'. In South-Africa, in the Boeren-language (familiar to Dutch), they name it 'varkore', pig's ear.
How is this called in French, Spanish, Italian and other languages? Does anybody know?

The first scan shows three German bookmarks.

The second scan a Danish and two Dutch bookmarks; on 'operatie ezelsoor': 'a book is not made of steel' and 'a book is not made of stone'; Bladwijzer means Bookmark; the remaining text: 'donkey's ears are ears that do not belong in books; even closed you keep seeing the book; donkey's ears spoil the beauty of a book; can you promise never to make donkey's ears again, Hi-a?

The third scan shows an English bookmark, a South-African one and a shaped one.

The fourth scan shows the English translation of the South-African one, but not literally: 'bending the pages' = 'met varkore merque'.

Who can supply this note?

For more examples of bookmarks encouraging the care of books, see the Gallery page on this topic.

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Book Fair Bonanza

22/3/2019

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As you can see from the listing on our Events page, there are many book fairs all over the world. They provide an opportunity for readers, writers, publishers and related organizations to be immersed in books, ephemera, and even art and music. And, of course, they are great places to find free bookmarks. Here are two reports on recent book fairs in Vilnius, Lithuania and Oakland, California, USA.

From Regina Mačiulytė
From 21 February till 24 February in Vilnius was the book fair. This fair started in 1999, so now the Vilnius book fair celebrates its 20th birthday. In the fair were not only writers and publishers, but also you can listen to music and meet musicians. There were not only writers who wrote books, but also actors, singers, nature scientists, journalists, etc.

Regina with friends and IFOB members Vilija and Julija

It's like a cultural event where you can meet friends or people you know and meet once in a year.

You can go to books presentations, listen about books, and listen to people who read books who can tell more. Sometimes books presentations have many people, sometimes just several. This book presentation was discussion about Latvian and Lithuanian books.

As you can see, where you can buy fiction books, there are many people. Sometimes books are cheaper at the book fair, but sometimes it's just 2 euros or less. Also you can ask for writers’ autographs. Science fiction books are not so interesting, but also sometimes there are many people.

Fiction hall

Scientific hall

Also you can get bookmarks. This year I found about 100 new bookmarks.

I took a selfie with writers, singers, and a painter. Sigutė Ach is a painter who has publisher "Nieko rimto" where you can buy books, cards, bookmarks and other stuff. She is a very nice person and asked me maybe I don't have all bookmarks from the publisher? So I took 3.

The Lithuanian mint made a bookmark-coin for this 20th book fair. It's really interesting.

In the music hall there are so many young people, who want to have photos with their idols. My idol is Andrius Mamontovas. He is one of the best musicians and has been singing more than 30 years. He is really famous in Lithuania.

Music hall

Regina with Andrius Mamontovas

8 kambarys is a group who sing rap/hip-hop. They are very nice people.

Journalist Andrius Tapinas is a writer and also has TV on youtube. With his team he makes shows about Lithuania, politics (I think many in politics don't like him). He has a sharp tongue for this. But many young people like him.

Also, not all people are happy that they should work in the book fair and don't have time to see what's happening. My friend had to work all weekend.

Regina's friend Tomas

Regina with Andrius Tapinas

From Laine Farley
I attended a different kind of book fair, the 52nd California International Antiquarian Book Fair, held 8-10 February in Oakland, California, USA. Because it specializes in rare and antiquarian books, there are not as many vendors as at a general book fair, but they offer many interesting and unusual books and ephemera.

The Friends of Calligraphy were making free bookmarks like this one.

At this fair, there were also exhibits from related organizations such as the Miniature Book Society. I should have asked if they have miniature bookmarks!

Miniature Book Society

the Ephemera Society of America had a special display by a collector of Native American themed advertising ephemera. It’s possible there are some bookmarks in this detailed display. [warning: some people may find these depictions offensive, but they are artifacts of their time]

Ephemera Society of America

Of course, there were free bookmarks to acquire such as these from book dealers.

A curated exhibit of first edition books by L. Frank Baum and the subsequent authors of the "Wizard of Oz" series, courtesy of Joel Harris, a local member of the International Wizard of Oz Club, was complemented by a lecture from a librarian from the University of California, Berkeley, Peter Hanff. He talked about the publication of the Wizard of Oz books by L. Frank Baum, based on his extensive collection of books and printing ephemera. He also gave attendees a special keepsake postcard—but it could be used as a bookmark too!

Even if you are not a collector of rare or antiquarian books, it can be worthwhile to attend this type of book fair to see the history of books and variety of interests among dealers and collectors.

Check our Events page section on book fairs to locate one near you. Many are held on a regular basis. And let us know if there are others we should add to the list.

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