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Cutout advertising bookmark from 1930s published by the Italian insurance company Compagnia Assicurazione di Milano
      
​Welcome to our Homepage
International  Friends of Bookmarks (IFOB) is a community of bookmark lovers with members all over the world who are interested in bookmarks, such as passionate readers, bookmark collectors, librarians, illustrators, blog editors, product designers, bookshop owners, bookmark producers, and others. Read more about us & our mission here.
What's New
​
 ****** WORLD BOOKMARK DAY (WOBODA) - COMING 25 FEBRUARY 2018 ******
​
Join us in preparing to celebrate the second annual World Bookmark Day!  Submit designs for downloadable bookmarks, enter the bookmark raffle, and participate in  other events.  Our first bookmark designs for 2018 were contributed by Mary V. Marsh, USA and there is a donation of 58 bookmarks to the raffle with more coming soon.  Go to the WOBODA page to see more and help make it a big event.  
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BIBLIOGRAPHIES UPDATED
George Hartong has updated A Bookmark Bibliography and the Bibliography of TBS Publications on the Bibliography page as of 27 November 2017. 

NEW IFOB PUBLICATION - TRADITIONAL COSTUMES OF COUNTRIES - TRADITIONELLE TRACHTEN DER LÄNDER
IFOB Publication No. 7 is now available thanks to the excellent research of collector and member Helga Moghaddam.  It tells the story of a series of bookmarks on Traditional Costumes of Countries published to accompany a series of pocket books by Rowohlt Verlag in Germany in the early 1950s.  Helga's collection of these colorful and charming bookmarks led her to explore the origins of the series as well as the designers of the bookmarks.  Co-editor Georg Hartong has kindly provided an English translation.  Congratulations, Helga, for such a lovely contribution to IFOB.  
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BIBLIOGRAPHIES UPDATED
George Hartong has updated A Bookmark Bibliography and the Bibliography of TBS Publications on the Bibliography page. 

VARIOUS UPDATES 
  • We have several new additions to the Bookmark Swap List.  If you have exchanged with anyone, tell us your story!. 
  • See another tribute to Asim Maner from The Bookmark Society in the blog.
  • The Shop has been updated to remove items no longer available from Maner Consulting.  

-++ TELEGRAM +++
Our new BOOKMARK SWAP LIST continues to grow!
As of 23 July, 2017, we have new participants from Spain, Brazil, India, France, Slovenia and USA--welcome!
All bookmark collectors wishing to make friends all over the world by exchanging bookmarks are welcome to join the list. 
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Source: Paper Zip

ASIM MANER'S BOOKMARK COLLECTION FOR SALE
Offered by Asim's family, this collection is a mixture of vintage and contemporary bookmarks.  Please see the blog post for more details. 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT to All IFOB Members and Followers About ASIM MANER
We are extremely sad to announce the sudden death of our editor and founder, Asim Maner.  Please see the blog post for more details. 

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Our new BOOKMARK SWAP LIST is flourishing truly.
We have already 39 participants from 19 different countries - as per 28 May 2017.
All bookmark collectors wishing to make friends all over the world by exchanging bookmarks are welcome to join the list!  

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​JOIN OUR NEW SHORT STORY CONTEST & WIN $100!
What about writing a special and unusual short story? A short story in which the main character is a bookmark, or at least a bookmark plays an important role. This alone would make the story special, however, we are sure that those of you who are fond of writing stories, reviews about books, and all kind of blogs will be able to arrange an interesting and captivating story around a bookmark. This is the only condition the short story has to comply with. In all other issues, you are free to write whatever you like. We even do not have any requirements concerning the length of your story. It can consist of just three sentences, like the story of Steven Wright: "I just got out of the hospital. I was in a speed-reading accident. I hit a bookmark." Or you may like to extend your story on several pages. Everything is welcome. 
Send us your story, and we'll publish it immediately on our website along with credits and links to your website or blog if you have some.. The winner will be determined by a jury of IFOB members on the World Bookmark Day (Woboda) - 25 February 2018. The winner will be rewarded with an Excellence Award and is going to receive a prize money of US$100.
We welcome donations to endow this excellence award and other Woboda contests with a prize money. Please use the donation button on our page About for this purpose.
Our member Elly van der Horst from the Netherlands donated €50 for the prize money of this contest: thank you Elly!
You never wrote a story? It is possibly easier than you think. Just start with a first sentence and look what develops out of it. Many well known writers started like that. We are looking forward to reading your story! Just give it a try.  
16 May 2017    

++ TELEGRAM +++
Aria Ding from Malaysia has joined IFOB as a new member, welcome Aria! IFOB has 63 members from 23 countries per 24 April 2017.



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WE HAVE A NEW PAGE AND A NEW SERVICE - BOOKMARK SWAP
You wish to have friends all over the world? One of the best ways to get there is exchanging bookmarks with other collectors in other countries. Swapping bookmarks is very popular among collectors as the swap lists on Mirage Bookmark website show. Around 250 collectors from 41 countries are listed there and the list gets longer and longer. Therefore, we have decided to create a special page with swap lists for our readers and we believe that this service will found much favour by bookmark collectors.
     Please do have a look at our new page BOOKMARK SWAP and if you wish you can register yourself into the list of your country. We expect that the lists will grow rapidly in the near future, and being one of the first members in the list is surely favourable to get many feedbacks in a short time. We hope you'll like our new service and we wish everybody a lot of fun with swapping bookmarks across country borders!
23 April 2017   

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RETIRING A BOOKMARK COLLECTION
blog post by Laine Farley
Have you ever thought of the end of your bookmark collection? The day you don't want to collect bookmarks any more the question arises: What am I going to do with my collection? Our editor Laine Farley discusses possible ways of retiring a bookmark collection and what is to be observed in different cases. In the past, we have been confronted now and then with questions related to these topic. One day our member Elly van der Horst came up with the question: "I'd like to know what collectors like me do with their collections once they stop to collect." This was the starting point of a larger project among the editors of IFOB, because Elly had urged us to realise that this question will be put as long as there are collectors out there and we from the IFOB are bound to give a well-considered answer to these repeated questions. After a phase of discussion we came up with the following concept. The blog post by Laine describes the various possibilities of separating oneself from a collection and serves as a discussion base to enable our members to bring in their thoughts and preferences within a questionnaire (see below). Using the feedback and the additional information we may gain in the course of the discussion, we will turn the blog post into a final article about this subject. We hope that the article will contain all the needed information and may serve as a useful guidance for seekers of advice in this matter.
We believe that the input of our members and readers within the frame of the following questionnaire is essential to notice and understand all aspects of the procedure of retiring a bookmark collection. Therefore, we ask our readers to participate in the questionnaire in order to help us in this project. We'll publish the results of the questionnaire partly during the runtime, and summarize them after finishing it. Thank you very much to all participants in advance! Thank you also to Elly for bringing up this issue to our attention. 
If anybody wishes to add additional questions to the questionnaire, please write your question in the text field for Ideas, comments & suggestions. Thank you!

    QUESTIONNAIRE - How to retire a bookmark collection?

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QUESTIONNAIRE STATISTICS
Number of participants: 7
Number clicks for possible answers:
  4 - I never thought of this question before
  3 - I have already thought about giving up my collection
  1 - I would like to sell my collection if I stop collecting.
  5 - I would like to donate my collection at the end.
  2 - I would like guidance in this question.
  4 - I have sold or donated parts of a collection before.
  0 - I have tips about challenging questions of this issue.
  3 - I wish to sell and donate parts of my collection.
  2- I would consider to donate to libraries.
  2 - I would like to donate to museums.
  4- I would like to donate to other collectors.
  4 - I would like to donate to IFOB if possible.
  3- IFOB should offer a last will for bookmark collections.

Interpretations of the answers:
As a result of the answers given, we understand that it is an option for some collectors to sell a part of a collection and to donate another part of it. Therefore, we have added new check boxes for this and other options. The answers from newly added check boxes are shown in Italic letters. Olga Sotomayor Sanchez from Chile reported that she has stopped collecting bookmarks after 14 years, and now she is sending bookmarks to other collectors as a gift. What a wonderful idea, thank you in the name of all collectors Olga!

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IFOB WELCOMES THREE NEW MEMBERS
Nozomi Emura from Japan joined us as per 18 April 2017. We have now 62 members from 22 different countries.
Interested to join us? Please complete the application form on the bottom of our page ABOUT.
As per 5 April 2017 we are welcoming María Isabel Alonso Rodríguez from Madrid, Spain, and Mark Plummer from Merredin, WA, Australia, as new members: thank you for joining us!  We hope that our new members may find new contacts among our other members with similar interests and that being a member of IFOB may turn out as an inspiring experience for them. With this addition the total number of our members increases to 61 friends of bookmarks originating from 21 different countries all over the world.

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WE START A NEW RAFFLE - DRAGON BOOKMARKS RAFFLE - 1 April - 12 August 2017
After our last raffle (World Bookmark Day Raffle 2017) with incredible 1312 bookmarks in the raffle pot has created such a high enthusiastic response, we decided to create a new raffle page and make the raffle to a regular event on our website. There will be two raffles each year, the first one going from April to August and the second one from October to the World Bookmark Day on 25 February. In our new raffle we try to build up a nice and unique dragon bookmark collection for the winner.

Why dragons? Because the mysterious creature dragon is a source of excitement in so many fairy tails and fantasy books and is present on many beautifully illustrated bookmarks. Especially young readers are inspired by dragons. Thus we hope to motivate a broad range of bookmark fans and collectors to participate in the raffle. Send us your dragon bookmarks and win a hopefully fantastic and one-of-a-kind collection of bookmarks!

You don't have any dragon bookmarks? No problem, just make one yourself! The bookmark on far right on the picture above is a handmade one. Somebody has cut out dragon pictures and glued it on a green card. We found it in an old book. You can, of course, make your own illustration to create a dragon bookmark as well. No limits for creative minds!

We have already 13 beautiful dragon bookmarks in the raffle pot, donated by our sponsor Maner Consulting, Riehen, Switzerland, (see picture above), The raffle pot is expected to increase soon by submissions of participants.

For details, please visit our new raffle page.

1 April 2017


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MY BOOKMARK PROJECT 'MARK THE BOOK'
blog post by Keti Gabaidze

"What do you think about bookmarks? Personally for me and for the readers generally, bookmarks are important accessories. They are interesting, functional and beautiful. My hobbies are drawing and designing, therefore, I decided to make a project about bookmarks called “Mark the Book”.  The aim of the project was to create bookmarks from different popular books among my generation such as: Hunger Games, Harry Potter, The Great Gatsby, The Devil Wears Prada, The Mortal Instruments, Sherlock Holmes, The Little Prince, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Pride and Prejudice."
Keti, a 15 year old student from Georgia, describes how her school project has developed into outgrowths in her town, in her country and even internationally. Read more ...
I hope many of our readers will leave a comment on Keti's blog post, that would be very nice. Thank you.
18 March 2017 am


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IFOB MEMBER OF THE YEAR 2016
IS REGINA MACIULYTE FROM LITHUANIA

As announced in our latest newsletter no. 6, Regina has been elected IFOB Member of the Year 2016. Congratulations, Regina!
Regina is a MA student in ecology and besides collecting bookmarks and postcards she also loves to take pictures of her country and the flora and writes a blog in Lithuanian language. Regina joined us in February 2016 as a member and there is a very long list of her contributions to our community and our website. We honor Regina for her tireless commitment to our community and to our goals. Thank you, Regina!
As a sign of our gratitude, Regina will be given 10 custom made
bookmarks in a very high quality according to her wishes.
15 March 2017


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Removable register bookmark in Exeter Cathedral, MS 3515, 13th century.
MARK THEIR WORDS: Medieval Bookmarks
by Jenneka Janzen
Despite their attraction, medieval bookmarks are often left unmentioned in special collections catalogues. When talking about manuscripts with the uninitiated, I usually mention how features that guide us through our modern books - running titles, subheadings, and indices, for example - originated in the Middle Ages. Yet, I tend to overlook bookmarks (despite my childhood collection of them) as a sort of 'separate apparatus'. Bookmarks, however, also have an interesting medieval past.
Jenneka Janzen from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, presents different types of bookmarks found in medieval manuscripts. Read more ...

We have added  this interesting article to our Reading Room now.
14 March 2017

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A NEW PUBLICATION ABOUT BOOKMARKS
The Swiss culture newspaper Programmzeitung serving readers in the region Basel has published an article about bookmarks in its March issue. The brief article with the German title Lesebändchen & Buchzeichen (Ribbons & Bookmarks) is written by Lydia Zimmer who is a literary scholar and specialist in cultural studies. The publication is an excellent medium to bring bookmarks into the attention of culture enthusiasts in Switzerland. But it is also remarkable as it refers to our website & the website of Mirage Bookmark as the main information sources about bookmarks in internet and thus makes a good promotion for the IFOB website among those interested in culture in Switzerland.
     Meanwhile, Lydia is so fascinated by the bookmarks that she plans to devote an extensive blog post to bookmarks on her noted website literaturecho. We are, of course, glad to hear about her intension and will support her in her project with selected photos and an interview.
     It is also interesting to tell that Lydia became aware of our website after reading the essay Fascinating Bookmarks in a special issue of the German magazine flow, a print medium of high circulation. Thus, one of our primary goals which is providing a resource about bookmarks in internet, brings about encouraging results.  
13 March 2017 

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WOBO WAS STILL BUSY TRAVELING ON THE LAST DAYS BEFORE WOBODA
As the pictures show, Wobo, the World Traveling Bookmark, enjoyed the snowy landscape in Telsiai, district Kaunatava, in Lithuania. She visited the giant stone apple and a distaff image carved in stone which are symbols of the village. The nice pictures was sent by Vilija Jociene, thank you very much, Vilija! Due to the tireless promotion made by Wobo in many different places of the world, we had a strong peak of visitors on our website on 25th of February, the World Bookmark Day. Our sincere thanks go also to Wobo and to all her supporters.    
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SOME EXTRA BOOKMARKS FOR AGATHE ECHAROUX
Agathe Echaroux from France is the second winner of the Woboda bookmark raffle. Normally she would get 30 bookmarks - these are the bookmarks submitted by the winner of the raffle, in this case by Regina Maciulyte from Lithuania. However, Agathe is going to receive additionally the lot of the attractive bookmarks on our picture. These bookmarks have been collected during the last days on Vilnius Book Fair by Regina with the purpose to donate them to the 2. winner of the raffle. It is a voluntary action of Regina who probably thought the 2. winner needs a little more consolation. And Regina had the idea not now, but already before the raffle was decided. Thank you, Regina, your exemplary action is highly appreciated, and I am sure, Agathe will be very happy about these rare to find bookmarks from Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine.

FLASHBACK ON WORLD BOOKMARK DAY - SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2017
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Happy first not-Woboday too, yesterday I couldn't load IFOB webpage. These last weeks interaction around our precious bookmarks has been very fun. Congrats also to the team behind this webpage, they deserve it! - Ana Matos, Viseu, Portugal  +++++++++ 19.47 MEZ

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Woboda Bookmark by @kannibalenmeerschweinchen
✨Heute ist Tag des Buch/Lesezeichens. Yay ✨Ich habe dafür mal ein besonders gruseliges gezeichnet, da ich gestern Abend einfach zu viele Horrorfilme auf einmal geschaut habe. Jetzt bin ich total müde 😴.
Today is the day of bookmarks. Yay✨I have illustrated a particularly creepy one for that this time, after I watched too many horror movies last night. Now I am totally tired 😴.
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Bookmark Collection of @yosterh
Today is #worldbookmarkday #woboda and I am sharing all of #YosterBookmarks, my beloved collection which has been growing since I was 8 years old ***
int_friends_of_bookmarks💜💛 Wow, you have collected a real treasure there! 😃
yosterh@int_friends_of_bookmarks oh yeah! I wanted to collect something as a kid and when I had my first or second bookmark I decided that was it! Haven't stopped since then and most of my friends and family are aware and very kind to contribute. My daughter is 10 and already collecting, she has 14 already (and as my only child she'll be the heir of my treasure, of course!).

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Mornin' everyone!! So happy to have won the 2nd place ;) !! Hope the next Woboda will be awesome as this one!! He he, One year to prepare it ... !! - Agathe Echaroux, France +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 12.28 MEZ

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Without internet I could not wish you all happy Woboda!  So: happy first not-Woboday and may many bookmarks cross your way till Woboda 2018!!! - Elly van der Horst, Diemen, The Netherlands +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 9.36 MEZ

+++ TELEGRAM +++
Awesomeeeeee!!! Thanks!!! 🙃😌😍💪🏼🙏🏻🖖🏼🙌🏻 Thank you very much for opening the opportunity to participate in your contest!! It was so fun and awesome 💜 - Egisen Carrasquillo Hernández, Puerto Rico, @soyegisen ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 8.48 MEZ

🎋  IT WAS A GREAT CELEBRATION PARTY YESTERDAY. THANK YOU TO ALL PARTICIPANTS AND SEE YOU AT WOBODA 2018! 🎋

    Send us a telegram

Submit

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💜💛 Video by Aria Ding @snowwhitehatesapples - 🌺 Thank you, Aria, you made a great job! 🍭🎀🎈

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Congratulation to all winners :) Thanks to Asim, who created this beautiful event and I hope we will celebrate WOBODA in 2018 :)  - Regina Maciulyte, Lithuania ++++++++++++++++ 23.57 MEZ
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I saw the raffle result and I can't believe it!  I promised myself that I am going to share these bookmarks with my colleagues from Lithuania Vilija and Julija. - Regina Maciulyte, Lithuania ++++++++++++++++ 23.35 MEZ
+++ TELEGRAM +++
We have now in Switzerland 11.20 pm, so the celebration day is nearing its end. Conratulations to all winners of the day and thank you very much for being part of this party. I'll stay till midnight here for any possible news. - Asim Maner, Riehen, IFOB webmaster ++++++++++++++++ 23.23 MEZ

🎁🎁🎁   WHO WINS THE WORLD BOOKMARK DAY RAFFLE - RAFFLE POT PACKED WITH 1312 BOOKMARKS   🎁🎁🎁
Some of the bookmarks in the raffle pot have not been submitted by participants, but are donations:
100 bookmarks donated by our sponsor Maner Consulting
106 bookmarks by our member Elly van der Horst
1 handmade Globe Tour bookmark by our member Ana Matos
323 bookmarks by Maria J. van Alphen
23 bookmarks by Meg Brown
553 bookmarks total donated 

Each participant have submitted bookmarks and have got 1 ticket for each 10 given bookmarks. Each player was also asked to give a lucky number with which the raffle will be decided.
The list of participants. their tickets and given lucky numbers:
  1. Lydia Kessler (2 tickets, no 1 and 2) - lucky number 3
  2. Regina Maciulyte (3 tickets, no 3,4,5) - lucky number 77
  3. Agathe Echaroux (2 tickets, no 6,7) - lucky number 67
  4. Ruth Bensmail (4 tickets, no 8,9,10,11) - lucky number 30
  5. Aristomenis Sofouris (10 tickets, no 12 to 21) - lucky number 29
  6. Steve Hannay (3 tickets, no 22,23,24) - lucky number 59
  7. Debrah Gai Lewis (7 tickets, no 25,26,27,28,29,30,31) - lucky number 25
  8. Gaby Dondlinger (6 tickets, no 32,33,34,35,36,37) - lucky number 13
  9. Helga Moghaddam (14 tickets, no 38 to 51) - lucky number 98
10. Kerrie More (5 tickets, no 52 to 56) - lucky number 52
11. Julija Stankeviciene (2 tickets, no 57 and 58) - lucky number 14
12. Vilija Jociené (4 tickets, no 59 to 62) - lucky number 22
13. Sylvia Thiteux (3 tickets, no 63, 64, 65) - lucky number 40
14. Chrysanthi Theodoridou (11 tickets, no 66 to 76) - lucky number 7
Total of tickets 76 - Total of lucky numbers 536

The procedure for calculating the winning ticket number has been described previously on our page Woboda.
As a matter of fact, everybody should be able to calculate the winning ticket number now.
Do you know the winner already?

🎁🎁🎁   The winning ticket number is 4 ! - This ticket belongs to the winner of the World Bookmark Day Raffle 2017    🎁🎁🎁
The winner is Regina Maciulyte from Lithuania. Congratulations, Regina!

Previously, we have decided upon the rule that the bookmarks submitted by the winner will be given to a second winner in order to prevent that the winner is not getting his/her own bookmarks back. The second winner is the participant next to the winner, as declared before.. This means:
🎁    The 2. Winner of the Raffle is Agathe Echaroux from France - Congratulations, Agathe!   🎁 
Agathe gets the 30 bookmarks Regina has submitted. Agathe will also receive a selection of bookmarks - as promised by Regina Maciulyte previously - which Regina is collecting voluntarily for the second winner on the Vilnius Book Fair (23-26 February 2017). As Regina has reported, among these bookmarks are not only Lithuanian ones, but also bookmarks from Poland and Ukraine. Thank you, Regina!
THANK YOU TO ALL PARTICIPANTS,
THIS WAS AN EXCITING & AMUSING RAFFLE INDEED! WE'LL RUN A RAFFLE FOR THE WOBODA 2018 AGAIN, FOR SURE!

🎀🎀🎀     AWARD CEREMONY FOR THE CONTEST - 'MY MOST INTERESTING BOOKMARK'     🎀🎀🎀
Participants of the contest were asked to show a bookmark and explain why this bookmark is so special for them. Pictures for the contest are being shown on our website, on Pinterest and on Instagram. Over 80 bookmarks were tagged with the contest label #mymostinterestingbookmark A first review of the tagged pictures showed, however, that many of them would not qualify for a shortlist. The reason is that most of the participants missed to comply with the contest conditions simply by omitting an explanation why the shown bookmark is so interesting. The shortlisted pictures were evaluated by giving each 5 points a) for the originality of the bookmark b) for the setting in which the bookmark is presented and the picture quality c) for the explaining story. As a result we found that three contesting presentations are far ahead of their competitors and these three are very close together, so that the decision was a very tight one. 
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2. Winner - @velvetmeadow on Instagram
I think that poetry books deserve the most romantic and delicate bookmarks. Dreamy dandelions or humble little daisies on soft velvet. Those bookmarks must lie in between poems and soak up their mood and grace. ~Bookmarks are made by me, elephant illustration by artist Eglė Gelažiūtė-Petrauskienė @eglegp
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3. Winner - @kadas97 on Instagram

This is my photo of handmade bookmark "IT". This piece was inspired by awesome Stephen King's book and I felt needing to draw and cut off bookmark with this motive. From November 2016 I created a lot of different bookmarks but already is "IT" my favourite 👻
AND THE WINNER IS ............. Egisen Carrasquillo Hernández from Puerto Rico  @soyegisen on Instagram
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WINNER OF THE CONTEST 'MY MOST INTERESTING BOOKMARK'
@soyegisen on Instagram
When I fall asleep, I travel to many places as I do while I read. In my dreams, when I fall asleep, there is this paper elephant that can walk from book to book and fulfill his soul with the wisdom of the Universe trough the words it can catch on the readings. I watch him walk in my dreams and, also let him use his majestic memory to remind me the page I was reading before I closed the book. This is my friend, my most interesting bookmark.

Egisen is an artist and art designer from Puerto Rico who is painting a lot. The elephant bookmark is also painted by her and she tells: "Elephant, the bookmarker. Just finished this piece. It was very fun and peaceful to work on this bookmarker." Congratulations, Egisen, your bookmark, your presentation and your story are awesome!
Egisen wins the contest prize, a set of 24 art bookmarks titled 'Beauties of the Art History'


🎀🎀🎀    AWARD CEREMONY FOR THE BEST ARTICLE ABOUT WORLD BOOKMARK DAY   🎀🎀🎀
A year ago in March, we thought articles describing the World Bookmark Day and the activities associated with it would be effective means  to make Woboda known to a broad audience. Of course, if the author of such an article is a popular blogger followed by many readers the effect would be greater. The question was how to get such influential bloggers interested in our mission. We came up with the idea of an Excellence Award (EA) to be given to the winner of the article contest. Today after about one year we have three articles from three different countries, in three different languages competing for the EA:
Lea Kaib wrote an article in German on her blog www.liberiarium.de  
Aria Ding wrote an article in English on her blog www.snowwhitehatesapples.wordpress.com
Regina Maciulyte write an article in Lithuanian on her blog Knygos skirtuko diena

All three articles were very helpful in promoting the Woboda, as we see below in the report about activities in Lithuania for example. However, the effectiveness of the article is not the criterion to win the Excellence Award, moreover the decision depends on how creative and inventive the article is written. Well, of course, it is not easy to judge a paper in Lithuanian language. We were happy to understand it at all with the help of Google translate, and no wonder some subtle nuances could not be salvaged by this method.
          Anyway, we came to a decision basing on the following facts. The one article we wish to award describes Woboda with a certain creative detachment using occasional descriptions not shackled to mere facts, but honouring them with a language of literary quality. Enough said, we declare ...  

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🎀🎀🎀   ARIA DING IS THE WINNER OF THE EXCELLENCE AWARD 2017   🎀🎀🎀
with her article about World Bookmark Day on her blog snowwhitehatesapples !    
Congratulations, Aria! Being on your way to obtaining a BA in Creative Writing and your career plans to be either an editor for fiction, a published author, or a lecturer for Creative Writing after obtaining your Master degree do not seem unattainable goals for you. Maybe one day we'll be proud to tell about your support for us when you are a recognised writer, who knows. Thank you. 

🎈🎈🎈 - WOBODA CELEBRATION PARTY HELD IN KAUTANAVA LIBRARY IN LITHUANIA! - 🎈🎈🎈
The pictures below show captures from the library in Kautanava, Lithuania, where Vilija Jociené organised a Woboda celebration party today. The party is even more remarkable for the library is not open today under normal circumstances. They make an exception to synchronize the party with the World Bookmark Day. Great initiative indeed, thank you, Vilija! As we see on the pictures, the passion for bookmarks unites old and young, and the focus is clearly not on small talk but on bookmarks. What a wonderful surprise seeing Woboda in action! Thank you also to Regina Maciulyte for showing us pictures from the event on her instagram @skirtuku_kolekcioniere - Greetings from us to all participants of the party in Lithuania and Happy World Bookmark Day! 🎯💚🌺 
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Hello everyone! HAPPY HAPPY WOBODA (love the word :-))!!! Wishing that all of you find some time to sit back and relax today with a lovely book and bookmark, and of course to participate in the celebration Party on this Homepage!!! Congratulations for organizing all these events! - Gaby Dondlinger, Schwebsingen, Luxembourg ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 16.24 MEZ
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Happy World Bookmark Day to all of you. Congratulations and thanks to our webmaster Asim Maner for his wonderful idea and great efforts to initiate this happy day! - Helga Moghaddam, Köln, Germany +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 16.20 MEZ

💚 🎁 LEA KAIB FROM GERMANY CREATED A VIDEO FOR THE WORLD BOOKMARK DAY (in German) - LEA IS A BLOGGER WHO WRITES HIGHLY POPULAR RECENSIONS ABOUT BOOKS ON HER BLOG  liberiarium.de 📖 THANK VERY MUCH YOU LEA! 🎂🎋

🔖 ONE YEAR AGO, WE ASKED TO CREATE A BOOKMARK FOR THE WORLD BOOKMARK DAY THAT COULD BE DOWNLOADED FOR FREE ON OUR WEBSITE. NINE PEOPLE JOINED OUR ACTION WITH THEIR ILLUSTRATIONS AND PICTURES. WE WISH TO SAY THANK YOU TO ALL PARTICIPANTS FOR THEIR CREATIONS & SUPPORT BY DISPLAYING ALL 14 SUBMITTED BOOKMARKS. 💜💛
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Asim Maner, Switzerland
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Moni, Germany
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Keti Gabaidze, Georgia
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Christi du Toit, South Africa
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Sara Pregel, Croatia
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Keti Gabaidze, Georgia
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Christi du Toit, South Africa
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Viktor Koch, Hungary
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Keti Gabaidze, Georgia
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Umberto Brunelleschi, Italy
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Regina Maciulyte, Lithuania
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Keti Gabaidze, Georgia
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Pierre-Paul Pariseau, Canada
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Keti Gabaidze, Georgia

GOOD MORNING NEW YORK! WAKING UP AT 7 am TO THE WORLD BOOKMARK DAY. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 13.03 MEZ
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Happy WOBODA :) - Regina Maciulyte, Lithuania ++++++++++++++++ 13.02 MEZ
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HAPPY WOBODA!! I do hope you enjoy this special day and I do hope many collectors are sharing this day with you. - Georg Hartong, Deventer, Holland ++++++++++++++++ 12.57 MEZ

🎀 🎀🎀  AND THE WINNER OF THE CONTEST FOR LIMERICKS ABOUT BOOKMARKS IS ... 🎁🎁🎁
Dr. Bob Turvey, Bristol, UK !
Bob contributed two wonderful and perceptive poems to our contest which you can enjoy below. He may not be fully satisfied by winning the contest without competitors, however, we think his contributions do not need to shy away from any competiton, so we have decided to eternalize his limericks by adding them to our collection of Quotes on Bookmarks. We also wish to point out that Bob is now the very first person in human history who wrote limericks about bookmarks. Thank you, Bob!

A book mark will rightly cause rage:
Who wants a book marked on a page?
Thin cards printed or plain,
Will mark without stain:
So readers who use them are sage.

When Johann Sebastian Bach
Once fancied a read in the dark,
He said: “Goodness me!
I find I can’t see;
Where on earth is my glowing book mark?”


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@liberiarium Heute ist der World Bookmark Day (WoBoDa)! Die International Friends of Booksmarks haben sich etwas ganz Besonderes ausgedacht: sie widmen den heutigen Tag dem Lesezeichen! Auf ihrer Website wird es deshalb heute Events, Awards und noch viel mehr geben. Auch ich habe dem Lesezeichen eine kleine Grußbotschaft geschickt - diese könnt ihr euch auf meinem YouTube-Kanal ansehen □
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Congratulations on organising such an event. Happy World Bookmark Day everyone! Have a great time. - Louise English, Horley, UK
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Happy World Bookmark Day! - Sara Grob, Flawil, Switzerland +++++++++++++++ 10.52 MEZ
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@suharman_musa A boomeraang-shape bokmark from Australia #happybookmarkday
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Good morning, we have a beautiful day with bright sun in Switzerland, greetings to all bookmark fans & to the visitors of our celebration party! - Asim Maner, IFOB webmaster +++++++++++++++ 10.49 MEZ

WE HAVE BEEN PROMOTING THE WORLD BOOKMARK DAY SINCE MARCH LAST YEAR AND WITH THE HELP OF MANY MANY FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS WE MANAGED TO BRING THE EVENT TO THE ATTENTION OF QUITE A LOT OF PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD. AMONG OUR SUPPORTERS ARE THOSE WHO JOINED THE WOBODA BOOKMARK SWAP TO MAKE FRIENDS BY EXCHANGING BOOKMARKS ACROSS COUNTRY BORDERS, TO WHOM WE WISH TO GIVE OUR SPECIAL THANKS BY LISTING THEIR NAMES:
Regina Maciulyte - Siauliai, Lithuania / Anis Majid - Sungai Buloh, Malaysia / Fabio Amador - Bogota, Colombia / Lindy Lois Gamolo - Manila, Philippines / Manuel Pereira - Braga, Portugal / Mylena Aranha C. - João Pessoa, Brazil / Lucelane Santos - Manaus, Brazil / Xue Er Ding - Subang Jaya, Malaysia / Agathe Echaroux - Ribemont, France / Suharman Musa - Makassar, Indonesia / Subhalakshmi Bhattacharya Nandi - Kolkata, India / Louise English - Horley, UK / Stephen Hannay - Birkenhead, UK / Mary Rose Lagunsad - Valenzuela City, Metro Manila, Philippines / Camille Flojo - San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan - Philippines / Debrah Lewis - Daylesford, Victoria - Australia / Robin Brown - Melnourne, Australia / Rosemarie Abel - Duisburg, Germany / Bozan Yaman - Mugla, Turkey

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Good morning ,it's 8 am there in France,i wish a happy Woboda to every participants !!! - Agathe Echaroux +++++++++++++++ 8.04 MEZ
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@skirtuku_kolekcioniere Hard work, but it's WOBODA - day just for bookmarks, so I should be patient â–¡ #bookmarks #woboda #knygumuge
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@insta.bookish_life Happy World Bookmark Day â–¡ Do you use bookmarks instead of dog-ears?
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@
thebookstopph on Instagram #DidYouKnow Today, February 25, is also the first ever World Bookmark Day! Drop by the Book Stop and get a free #Readfor20 bookmark +++++++++++++++++++++++ 7.26 MEZ
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Good morning world! It's already the 25th of February on my side so HAPPY WORLD BOOKMARK DAY (WOBODA)!! 🙌🎉 - @snowwhitehatesapples on Instagram +++++++++++++++++ 7.16 MEZ
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Have a nice day! We are the scaffolding manufacturer from China. - Dave Gao / HEHE, THANKS DAVE! HAPPY SCAFFOLDING! ++++ 7.53 MEZ
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I hope Woboda will be fun--I will be on a plane most of the day. - Laine Farley, Oakland, CA ++++++++++++++++++ 7.59 MEZ
GOOD MORNING EUROPE! - HERE WE GO - THE BUG IN THE TELEGRAM FORM HAS BEEN REMOVED - LET THEM COME - 7.55 MEZ
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I couldn't post my telegram, it didn't accept the City/Country, here it is: Congratulations on all of your efforts and success!!!!
Very best wishes, Charlotte - The Gratitude Bookmark and The Circle Of Gratitude +++++++++++++ 6.51 MEZ 25 February 2017

GOOD MORNING DOWNUNDER! - GOOD MORNING PHILIPPINES - SLEEP WELL INDIA - HERE IN EUROPE WE HAVE JUST STARTED THE WORLD BOOKMARK DAY SHORT AFTER 12 PM, HOWEVER, WE'LL HAVE TO SLEEP FIRST TO GET FIT FOR THE PARTY IN THE MORNING - GOOD EVENING NEW YORK - GOOD AFTERNOON SAN FRANCISCO - PLEASE WAIT FOR US TILL WE HAVE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT - MEANWHILE YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR MESSAGES WITH THE TELEGRAM FORM BELOW AND SURPRISE US IN THE MORNING - THANK YOU & GOOD NIGHT!  ++++++++++++ 12.02 MEZ 25 February 2017
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Greetings from Vilnius Book Fair, the second day, met writers, publishers, musicians, actors, singers, scientists, journalists, bookmark collectors, listened to music, enjoyed book presentations and readings, collected over 80 new bookmarks, just happy in the heaven for bookmark collectors, greetings to my collector colleagues all over the world! - Regina Maciulyte from Lithuania ++++ 21.48 MEZ 24 February 2017


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THE BOOKSHOP KASTL IN WEIL AM RHEIN, GERMANY,
PROMOTES THE WORLD BOOKMARK DAY WITH A PLACARD

Thank you Bookshop Kastl Team for your great support! We hope your promotion will send tomorrow some party guests our way.  Spotted on 24 February 2017
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Lea Kaib from Germany has prepared an awesome surprise for our celebration party tomorrow. ++++++++++++ 20.02 MEZ 24 February 2017

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Greetings from the Philippines! We are the Book Stop - a free, pop-up, travelling library, also a first of its kind in our country. We printed lots of WOBOs last November 26 and posted about your event on our instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNREj25gdOu/  We're also giving away bookmarks at the library tomorrow :) Good luck and more power on your endeavors! Best Regards, The Book Stop Team ++++++++++ 19.35 MEZ 24 February 2017


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WOBODA CELEBRATION PARTY BOOKMARKS
New bookmarks inviting to the celebration party tomorrow. They are waiting to be picked up by the visitors of the village library in Riehen, Switzerland. We'll place a downloadable file on our Woboda page soon for all interested to print such bookmarks and possibly to spread them in your area.

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@kikkaandtikka on instagram wrote: #ahoy there! We are building up excitement for #bookmarkworldday tomorrow for all the book lover out there #worldbookmarkday #bookmarks #internationalfriendofbookmarks #bookmarker #bookmark #placard #celebrationparty ++++++++++ 11.45 MEZ, 24 February 2017
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"Just wanted to let you know that a few days ago I uploaded the latest WOBODA image to my Facebook and Pinterest pages and they have been forwarded and shared oodles of times by others! I have been happy to help raise awareness of the event 😀" - Debrah Lewis, Daylesford, Victoria, Australia ++++++++ 10.31 MEZ, 24 February 2017
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Bozan Yaman from Mugla, Turkey, has joined the World Bookmark Day swap list ++++++++ 10.23 MEZ, 24 February 2017


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WOBO THE WORLD TRAVELING BOOKMARK VISITED THE VILNIUS BOOK FAIR ACCOMPANIED BY VILIJA, REGINA, AND JULIJA
The book fair in Vilnius, capital of Lithunia, started today and goes till Sunday 26 February 2017. The three friends of Wobo on the picture are avid bookmark collectors, therefore the visit of the Vilnius Book Fair is a must for them. Vilija Jociené (on the left) and Julija Stankevicienej (on the right) have been informed about the World Bookmark Day (Woboda) by our member Regina Maciulyte (in the middle) what resulted in a row of activities among these Lithuanian bookmark fans. Vilija and Julija joined our bookmark raffle with beautiful bookmarks from Lithuania, and Vilija is going to celebrate a local Woboda celebration party in her town library on Saturday. Maybe we'll see some more pictures from Lithuania within the next days. Is someone else planning to celebrate a local Woboda party on Saturday? Get in touch and we'll exchange infos and pictures to display them on our homepage party. Thank you!
23 February 2017 

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Rosemarie Abel from Duisburg, Germany, has joined the World Bookmark Day swap list ++++++++ 20.53 MEZ, 23 February 2017
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Fox Spot Library in Siauliai, Lithuania, is going to organize a local Woboda celebration party on Saturday!
🎈+++ 10.45 MEZ 23 February 2017
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Amber Stark from Perrysburg, US, has joined the World Bookmark Day swap list ++++++++ 8.00 MEZ, 23 February 2017

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A VERY SPECIAL WOBODA GIFT FROM ELLY VAN DER HORST TO THE RAFFLE WINNER

Our member Elly from Holland sends these bookmarks as a gift to the winner of the World Bookmark Day Raffle. The raffle pot stays now at 1312 bookmarks. As we know, Johan Cruyff was a legendary Dutch football player and coach who passed away last year at the age of 68. What most of us don't know is that Cruyff was apparently also very famous in the Netherlands for his sayings. Elly tells: "Cruyff is our national football prophet who, growing older, often said things concerning football, but enjoying his position as an icon, he also used those sayings to give away his look at life. Doing so he mixed words in a way typical for him and his sayings are now called Cruyffiaans in Holland. Many Dutch people, but especially football journalists, use them nowadays as bonmots. The meaning of the Cruyffiaans seen on the bookmarks are:
"You are so long a lunatic till you've become a genious."
"To win is logical, to loose isn't."
"You do something, or you don't do it."
"Tactic is to know what you're doing."
"Leadership is doing something for others."
"I don't fear at all to fail."
Thank you very much, Elly, for your nice gift to the raffle winner and for enabling us to sneak a peek at trends in Dutch society.
22 February 2017

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MEG BROWN RAISES THE RAFFLE POT TO 1306 BOOKMARKS
Our member Meg Brown from US donates 23 selected bookmarks to the raffle, a wonderful collection including among others beautiful woven silk bookmarks, figural clip bookmarks both made of metal and ivory-like synthetic, and last not least a pendant bookmark, handmade by Meg personally and wrapped in a special gift packaging which contains a Roman myth story matching the bookmark. Meg tells about the Roman story: "I was a storyteller before I became a bookmark maker and so all of my bookmarks have stories with them.  I always loved some of the Greek and Romans myths and the humorous antics the gods played on mortals.  The Roman myth, The Legend of the Rose, is about a beautiful woman named Rhodanthe pursued by three annoying men. One suitor kept buzzing silly nonsense in her ear; another seemed to flutter about with no sense of direction, and the third was just too slimy looking.  She ran off with her attendants to avoid them and through her misadventures in the temple of Diana her brother Apollo became angry and turned her into a rose and her attendants into thorns. The three suitors he changed into the three courtiers of the rose: the bee, the butterfly, and the worm." 
What a fascinating story to accompany a bookmark. Thank you for your donation, Meg! More bookmarks with a story made by Meg can be seen on her page bookmarkexpressions.com  Meg had no time to send the bookmarks in time for the raffle, therefore we agreed upon that she will send her bookmarks directly to the address of the winner once the winner is known, that will be on Saturday ahead of us - The World Bookmark Day.
22 February 2017


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THE WORLD BOOKMARK DAY IS NEXT SATURDAY
JOIN THE CELEBRATION PARTY

Don't miss to join our celebration party next Saturday, there will be a lot of events and award ceremonies. Come and join us on this page!

There are many people around the world we cannot reach over the internet. Please support us to make the World Bookmark Day (Woboda) known to as much people as possible. How? We have prepared a downloadable placard you see on the picture to the left. You can download the Woboda placard file here. The print of the placard matches a notepaper in A4 or American letter size. Ask your local library, bookshop or coffee shop if they can pin the placard to their billboard or stick it to their window. That would be a great support for us, thank you for your help! If you send us pictures showing the placard in your library, bookshop, or coffee shop, we'll publish them on our homepage. Email us at:  info@ifobookmarks.org Thank you!

Another possibility is to upload the placard image on the left (right click the image and save it to your computer)  to your instagram, facebook, twitter or whatever social platform you use. Thus you can spread the word and even ask your followers to use placard in their area. Thank you to all supporters! We hope to celebrate a fascinating first Woboda next Saturday.

THE RAFFLE POT REACHES 1283 BOOKMARKS WITH THE SUBMISSIONS BY SYLVIA THITEUX AND CHRYSANTHI THEODORIDOU
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SYLVIA THITEUX JOINED THE RAFFLE WITH 30 BOOKMARKS
Our member Sylvia have sent these beautiful bookmarks to join the raffle. She gets 3 tickets for the raffle pot. Thank you Sylvia and good luck on 25 February 2017! Actually the participants do not need any good luck wishes, because the players have sent their lucky numbers and the winner will be determined automatically by the lucky numbers of all participants. This means the lucky numbers of the players decide who wins. The question is: which lucky number is the strongest? We'll see.

The raffle pot reaches the giant quantity of 1283 bookmarks with these two submissions. Good luck to everybody!
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110 BOOKMARKS SENT BY CHRYSANTHI THEODORIDOU FROM GREECE
Chrysanthi from Thessaloniki is an avid bookmark collector known to some of us from bookmark swaps. She has sent these lot of selected bookmarks from Greece to join the raffle. Thank you Chrysanthi and good luck!
17 February 2017

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FASCINATING BOOKMARKS - FASZINIERENDE LESEZEICHEN
by Merle Wuttke
IFOB Publication No. 6
February 17, 2017
in German - English translation will follow soon

The journalist Merle Wuttke from Germany describes in an enjoyable essay the personal significance of bookmarks in our life and gives a survey of the development of bookmarks in human history. The paper was first published in a special edition of the German flow magazine dedicated to Reading (Lesebuch) in November 2016. The republishing of the article by IFOB is owed to its importance both for the awareness of bookmarks in public and for our community's work as the topic of bookmarks has been presented to a widely young audience in a print medium of high-circulation. Inquiries from readers of the article lead us to expect that the interest may result in more publications about bookmarks in printed media in near future.

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MARIA J. VAN ALPHEN FROM DAVOS DORF, SWITZERLAND, DONATED 323 BOOKMARKS TO THE RAFFLE
RAFFLE POT CONTAINS NOW 1143 BOOKMARKS

Well, I don't know how to start with, I am kind of speechless. Nobody has ever imagined that the World Bookmark Day (Woboda) raffle would climb to such heights one day, over 1100 bookmarks, really incredible. I try to imagine the delight and enjoyment of the winner who is going to receive this treasure. A marvel to behold! 
     The record level of the raffle pot has been reached thanks to a absolutely generous donation of Maria J. van Alphen. Maria is not a member of the IFOB, however, as we know from The Bookmark Society (TBS) in UK, she is an avid bookmark collector who writes now and then about bookmarks in the TBS News. I had contacted her just a few days ago in my efforts to find out how many bookmark collectors we have in Switzerland. Our conversation had nothing to do with the raffle, but she mentioned briefly that she would like to donate to the raffle. The box she used to send the bookmarks arrived this morning and it contains a very attractive mixture of bookmarks of all types, new and old, handmade, leather, cutout, magnetic, many beautiful ones from Switzerland, but also from other countries. It is a real treasure box to study, and I am sure the winner of these bookmarks will be more than happy. Thank you very much, Maria! Your donation is undoubtedly a true blessing for every bookmark collector. We hope that you keep up the contact to the IFOB and who knows, maybe one day you may wish to be part of us.  Thank you!
     The hype about our bookmark raffle may attract more participants, therefore I wish to point out that the winner of the raffle will be known on 25 February 2017, the World Bookmark Day, and that day is Saturday next week. On this day, we will wait for the postman to bring the last possible bookmarks to join the raffle. Unfortunately, bookmarks which arrive later than that day cannot be included in the raffle. There is still time to send bookmarks from Europe, from US it will be a game of chance whether bookmarks can arrive on time, and from South America with usually very long transition times, I would say it is too late already. So, you know, thank you.
16 February 2017 by Asim Maner 

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VILIJA FROM LITHUANIA RAISES THE RAFFLE POT ABOVE 800 BOOKMARKS
Vilija Jociené from Lithuania submitted 40 bookmarks to the raffle, some of them very beautiful handmade bookmarks with real flowers. Thank you, Vilija! We have now 820 bookmarks in the raffle heap, incredible! Twelve participants from eight countries hope to win this giant first prize. However, the second winner awaits also some nice surprises, because she or he will get the bookmarks the winner has sent to join the raffle. We decided this in order to prevent that the winner gets his own bookmarks back. And there is still more for the second winner. Our member Regina Maciulyte from Lithuania had a fabulous idea and promised to donate a consolation prize for the second winner. She is going to visit the Vilnius Book Fair (23 to 26 February) where she will collect bookmarks to put together the prize collection. Thank you, Regina! The raffle pot is likely to grow further within the next days as I guess according to announcements, good luck to all!
14 February 2017 by Asim Maner

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MY MOST INTERESTING BOOKMARK
by Elly van der Horst

Our member Elly van der Horst from Holland submitted this picture to join our contest 'My most interesting bookmark' on Instagram. To win the contest it is not only important to choose a special bookmark, but also to present it attractively for instance in an unusual setting, and last but not least, to write an absorbing explanation why the bookmark is so special for the participant. Elly tells about her bookmark: "This Danish bookmark is exceptional because it connects people. In this case people who live in Denmark and people who live in Greenland. It was meant to support Greenland to build schools. And schools give people independency. People who can read can fill their minds with anything other people know and have thought about. Knowing more through reading and education enables people to make their own free decisions. This is why this bookmark is a favourite of mine and a most interesting one." Reading the explanation, we understand why Elly has chosen this bookmark. The story demonstrates also that at times there is something like a relation between a bookmark and its owner. Thank you, Elly, for your wonderful contribution to our contest. I hope it may remind others of their special bookmarks too and motivate them to show us some of their favourites and tell us about them.
13February 2017 by Asim Maner 
     

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20 MORE BOOKMARKS IN THE RAFFLE POT
Julija Stankeviciene from Lithuania joined the raffle with rare bookmarks from Lithuania.  Thank you Julija! The winner - provided not coming from Lithuania herself/himself - will be particularly happy about these unusual bookmarks because not many collectors have bookmarks from Lithuania in their collection. Studying the bookmarks of Julija gives an impression about the country, for instance a bookmark about the Cold War Exposition shows how Lithuanians may have been feeling in the past being beyond the Iron Curtain once. My special thanks go also to Regina Maciulyte who beats the big drum for bookmarks in Lithuania as described in the news below. Julija's participation in the raffle is a result of Regina's activities.
     The total of bookmarks in the raffle pot increases to 780 with Julija's contribution, and now 11 players with a total of 58 tickets hope to win the raffle. Good luck to all participants! 
12 February 2017 by Asim Maner

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REGINA MACIULYTE WROTE AN ARTICLE ABOUT WOBODA
Our member Regina Maciulyte is an ecologist from Lithuania and she is a versatile person. Besides her passion for collecting bookmarks, she is also an enthusiastic photographer who documents her country with great pictures. You can see some of her photos on her Instagram or on her blog. A publishing house in Lithuania has issued bookmarks with her pictures.
     Regina wrote an article about the World Bookmark Day (Woboda) on her blog which is written in Lithuanian language. For those of you who are not fluent in Lithuanian, the article can be read with a little help of Google translate, although subtle nuances of the text may remain hidden hereby. She introduces in her article the IFOB and its mission to her readers and highlights the activities people can join to support the Woboda. She also  recommends to check out our Instagram.

Regina's publication is truly beneficent even though one might not spot it immediately due to the exotic language. However, as we'll witness it soon, it was capable to reach and motivate new fans of bookmarks in this lovely country and aspiring new member of the European Union. We'll be reporting about this new activities in Lithuania soon. Thank you very much, Regina, for your excellent article and for your support of both Woboda and the IFOB, we appreciate very highly.
11 February 2017 by Asim Maner


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KETI GABAIDZE FROM GEORGIA CREATED FIVE WOBODA BOOKMARKS
Keti is a 15 year old young artist from Georgia who loves to draw as a hobby and also likes to read books a lot. Recently, as she had to create a project at school she came up with the idea to connect her hobby with her reading passion and to produce illustrated bookmarks matching popular books. "My project got the title Mark the Book and was designed to demonstrate that even nowadays bookmarks can be quite interesting and trendy", tells Keti. "So I thought it would be fun to send my illustrated bookmarks to your website." This is, of course, a marvellous idea of Keti to support the World Bookmark Day with her bookmarks, now available on our Woboda page as free downloadable files. Thank you very much indeed, Keti! You made really an excellent job with these cute and impressive bookmarks. I am sure many avid readers among our members and visitors will love to download and use them with their matching books. I can tell you, my favourite one is The Little Prince bookmark and I am already thinking about that it's actually time again to read that little jewel once again.
by Asim Maner - 10 February 2017

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SWISS BOOKSHOP BUCHPLANET.CH DEDICATES THE MONTH FEBRUARY TO WORLD BOOKMARK DAY
     Now it is time: the Swiss bookshop buchplanet.ch in Flawil organises a whole bunch of activities to celebrate the World Bookmark Day during February. If you go to their website you'll find all over headers like the one above announcing the event on 25 February 2017. The headers say also in German that every online order in February will get a Woboda bookmark enclosed. What a great promotion for the event we are looking forward excitedly! Other activites include a newsletter and two blog posts by Sara Grob who is both bookshop manager and member of the IFOB. Sara writes in her first blog entry about her experiences with bookmarks, how she has started to collect bookmarks, why she has joined the community of bookmark friends IFOB, and introduces Woboda to her readers. The second blog post is telling about the bookmark action in the shop and the two bookmarks that will be given to customers during February. She has inserted a row of pictures showing the two giveaway bookmarks on tour through their bookshop (see pictures below). Finally, there is also a raffle open to all bookshop customers. The lucky bookshopper will win on 25 February a bundle of 125 selected bookmarks, old and new. Thank you Sara, this is a great service making both the IFOB and the Woboda known to people throughout Switzerland - we appreciate highly and wish you a lot of fun with your customers! Those among our readers who speak German can take a tour through the website of buchplanet.ch by themselves and read the blog in original here.

The two bookmarks seen on the pictures by Sara below have been chosen for the promotion action by buchplanet.ch. They have been created by our members and are available as free downloadable files on our Woboda page here. The bookmark with the yellow background is made by Regina Maciulyte from Lithuania. Thank you. Regina! Your bookmark makes career :) and is now on tour through Switzerland! 
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KERRIE MORE JOINED THE RAFFLE
AND RAISED THE POT TO 760 BOOKMARKS!

Our member Kerrie from the Glacier High School Library, MT, US, send in 50 selected library bookmarks for the raffle. I think these colourful bunch of library bookmarks are going to make the hearts of librarians among our members beat faster. As we know from our member statistics librarians are not in the minority as bookmark collectors. Thank you very much, Kerrie, and good luck for the final of the raffle!
     A raffle pot with 760 bookmarks is in the focus of 10 participants meanwhile , and the number of raffle tickets stays at 57. Our members come from 8 different countries. Germany with 3 players is leading the raffle fever. There is still time enough to send in bookmarks for everybody, and as I happen to know, some new ones are again on their way to us. 
I wish to thank at this point to our member Clemens Posten from Germany who had the glorious idea of organizing a bookmark raffle for the World Bookmark Day on 25 February 2017 which, towards the end, exceeds all our expectations.

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MY MOST INTERESTING BOOKMARK
NEW CONTEST RUNNING IN FEBRUARY 2017

We entered February 2017, the month in which the very first World Bookmark Day will be celebrated. There are new actions in preparation in other countries, I'll report about them soon. We thought an exciting contest for the last days before the event is the right thing to rise the temperature among the bookmark fans. To join the contest you just upload a picture of your most interesting bookmark to Instagram or Pinterest and tag it with #mymostinterestingbookmark  and say a few words why you think this bookmark is so special. For all who doesn't have an Instagram or Pinterest we'll also publish pictures here on our website; send them per email to:
info@ifobookmarks.org.
     The winner shall be elected on 25 February and will get the beautiful set of 24 art bookmarks you see on the picture. We'll present the winning picture on all platforms we have access to. In other words, the winner's work shall be promoted a little by us as well. The contest is open for everybody.
Your key to win the contest: 1. Don't just show a bookmark in your picture, but present it in an interesting setting, be creative. 2. Tell us something absorbing, weird, funny, surprising why this one bookmark is so interesting. Your words get also bonus points. We are very curious now about how inventive bookmark fans can be. Good luck to all participants!!!
    
You can follow the contest by viewing the submitted pictures on the following pages on Instagram and Pinterest

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RAFFLE POT BREAKS THROUGH 700 BOOKMARKS
The giant heap of raffle bookmarks reached the breathtaking amount of - believe it or not - 710 pieces! The 9th participant is our member Helga Moghaddam from Cologne, Germany. She sent in 140 colourful bookmarks, many of them in divers cutout shapes, and gets 14 tickets, increasing the number of raffle tickets to a total of 51. Thank you, Helga, for participating in the raflle and good luck!
          We are awating still more bookmarks to come and who knows if the level of 1000 bookmarks will be crossed in the end. By the way, you must not be a member of the IFOB to take part in our World Bookmark Day raffle. The bookmarks you send to participate must arrive on 25 February 2017 the latest - World Bookmark Day and the day of decision. Read the details here.

28 January 2018

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THE BEAUTY BOOKMARKS ARE BRINGING INTO MY LIFE ...
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Blog post by Ana Matos

Our member Ana Matos from Portugal tells the story how she came to producing bookmarks. "The story about creating page markers wasn't something planned. In fact, I did my first bookmark, as a gift, with the materials I had for bracelets. After that, in a burst of creativity, I created more bookmarks and started to show & sell them." tells Ana how it started. She is making meanwhile also custom bookmarks matching a certain book or whatever her customer have in their mind. Read more in her blog post and see some of the bookmarks she has created. A bookmark for vampires with a coffin of Dracula is included! 

27 January 2017- AM


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THE VERY FIRST WORLD BOOKMARK DAY (WOBODA) IS JUST ONE MONTH AWAY - 25 FEBRUARY 2017
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Dear members and all bookmark lovers, this event we are looking forward since March last year is getting nearer and nearer. And as it seems the fever is also getting higher the nearer the Woboda comes, The news ticker have been clicking faster lately as you may have noticed in this column. The World Bookmark Day Raffle is getting new participants every few days, and the raffle pot with 570 bookmarks at the moment will grow to reach the amazing sum of 670 pieces in the next days as two new players have announced to throw in 50 bookmarks each. Well, this may not mean the end of the flagpole yet. So, you have still time enough to throw your hat into the ring if you wish to win a treasure chest full of books. Details can be seen on our Woboda page here.
         
Another great news comes from our member Sara Grob from Switzerland. Sara is the manager of an antiquarian bookshop (buchplanet.ch) run by a charity organisation. They decided to dedicate WOBODA a comprehensive action with several coordinated activities during the month February 2017. First of all, they have chosen two of our free downloadable Woboda bookmarks to print them in good quality and in a larger number and to send one bookmark with every order they receive (see pictures on the left). At the same time new headers on their website, Facebook, and Twitter shall announce Woboda throughout February. Additionally, Sara has reported in their last newsletter circulated this week about the IFOB and the Woboda. And incredibly this is still not all of it, and Sara will publish a post on their blog next week presenting the IFOB and Woboda to their readers. Last but not least, they will organize in their shop a bookmark raffle, and the winner will get 125 hand-picked bookmarks, old and new, donated by our sponsor Maner Consulting. Well, I must gasp for breath at the face of this marvellous and perfect action by Sara and don't know how to thank her. Thank you very much Sara, you make a great pleasure to all of us with your action and it will surely increase the awareness of Swiss people concerning the bookmarks, the IFOB and the World Bookmark Day. Thank you.


Bookmarks chosen to be used in the Woboda action weeks organized by the Swiss antiquarian bookshop buchplanet.ch. On the left: free downloadable bookmark created by our member Regina Maciulyte from Lithuania and the other one by our webmaster Asim Maner.

We are also planning to start a picture contest on Instagram in February with the title Show Us Your Favourite Bookmark. There will be a small prize in form of a bunch of beautiful bookmarks for the winner who is going to be awarded on 25 February, on the Day of World Bookmark Day. You are kindly invited to follow the contest by viewing the contributed pictures under #showusyourfavouritebookmark  and, of course, to join it if you have an Instagram.

This is all at the moment, We will report about further developments and surprises. 
25 January 2017, Asim Maner


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ARIA DING WROTE A FANTASTIC ARTICLE ABOUT WOBODA
Aria Ding is an undergraduate on her way to obtaining a BA in English with Creative Writing, an avid reader and bibliophile who writes an inspiring blog about reading and book reviews: Snow White Hates Apples. She has been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award in 2016.
     Aria published now an excellent article about the very first World Bookmark Day (Woboda) on 25 February 2017 on her blog. The paper is simply perfect, rich of details and so motivating for the readers that one can imagine them jumping up and starting right away with one of the suggested activities.
     I could not picture myself a better way of writing about the Woboda. Congratulations, Aria, and many, many, many thanks for supporting us in our efforts to make bookmarks, the silent helpers of the readers, better known all over the world! With this paper Aria is participating in the competition for the best paper on Woboda and we cross the fingers for her to win the Excellence Award in the end. Don't miss to read Aria's fresh and inspiring paper here.
The picture shows a selection of Aria's bookmarks - 16 January 2017, Asim Maner


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COFFEE TABLE EXHIBITION OF BOOKMARKS
Blog post created on 9 January 2017

Our new member Gaby Dondlinger from Luxembourg is not only an avid bookmark collector, but she is also the inventor of a new type of bookmark exhibition, the so called "coffee table exhibition". She has sent us some pictures to let us see her idea of displaying her most precious bookmarks which were given her as gifts by friends and family or she brought home from foreign countries. "I keep them under the glass of my coffee table, so I can look at them every day," as she puts it.

Read more here:

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REGINA MACIULYTE CREATED A WOBODA BOOKMARK

Our member and avid bookmark collector Regina Maciulyte from Lithuania has created a World Bookmark Day (Woboda) bookmark for us. The bookmark can be downloaded on our Woboda page here. Thank you Regina! You can see Regina's bookmarks on her Instagram: @skirtuku_kolekcioniere

Meanwhile we have 9 Woboda bookmarks for free downloading. Some of them have been illustrated by professional illustrators and graphic artists, others by passionate amateur illustrators. Don't miss to have a look at them!

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OUR BOOKMARK RAFFLE IS HEADING TOWARDS NEW RECORDS

Gaby Dondlinger from Schwebsingen, Luxembourg, joined the raffle with 60 bookmarks, some of them handmade by herself and her family, 6 January 2017. Thank you for the beautiful bookmarks Gaby! We have now 570 bookmarks from many different countries in the raffle pot, what an incredible gift for a bookmark collector! Everybody can join the raffle by sending us bookmarks. For each 10 bookmarks you get a raffle ticket. The winner will be determined by drawing lots on the World Bookmark Day - 25 February 2017
Please note: only bookmarks which arrive till that date can join the raffle, so hurry up to win this huge heap of bookmarks.

As the raffle pot is getting bigger and bigger, it is clear that there is much at stake. Therefore we need a transparent procedure of determining the winner that everybody can verify. This led us to the following method which will be managed by the participants themselves. All participants will be asked for an individual number between 1 and 99. Whereas all participants know their own number, they don't know the numbers of the other participants. At the end we will sum up all the individual numbers of the participants and will have a sum number. Let say that sum is 348. We have than a certain number of raffle tickets at the end and each participant own a part of the raffle tickets. Let's make the calculation with the data of today (6 January 2017): we have 8 participants and they have together 37 raffle tickets. The number of the winning ticket will be calculated by the following formula:
t = 348 / 37 = 9.40541 - 9 = 0.40541 x 37 = 15    The ticket numbers are given in the order of the participants' joining date. In our case, participant 1 has two tickets, no 1 and 2, participant 2 has 3 ticket (ticket number 3, 4, and 5), participant 3 has 2 tickets (ticket number 6 and 7) etc. There is only one exception in the calculation: if the calculation gives 0 that means the highest ticket number, in our case ticket number 37. Well, this sounds rather complicated, however, it is completely verifiable and there is no chance of manupulating it by anybody. The lot is drawn by the participants themselves so to speak!

As a further innovation we introduced a novelty to the raffle in order to prevent that the winner would get back his/her own bookmarks. In this case the bookmarks of the winner will be given to a second winner. The second winner is the participant next to the winner according to the joining date (in this case we made it easy as the winning ticket is already determined). In case the winner is the last joining participant, the second winner is then the the first participant according to this logic.

The list of participants and their tickets:
1. Lydia Kessler (2 tickets, no 1 and 2)
2. Regina Maciulyte (3 tickets, no 3,4,5)
3. Agathe Echaroux (2 tickets, no 6,7)
4. Ruth Bensmail (4 tickets, no 8,9,10,11)
5. Aristomenis Sofouris (10 tickets, no 12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21)
6. Steve Hannay (3 tickets, no 22,23,24)
7. Debrah Gai Lewis (7 tickets, no 25,26,27,28,29,30,31)
8. Gaby Dondlinger (6 tickets, no 32,33,34,35,36,37)

Good luck to all participants! 6January 2017

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NEW WOBODA BOOKMARK BY VIKTOR KOCH

Viktor Koch has created a Woboda bookmark which can be downloaded for free on our World Bookmark Day page. Viktor is an illustrator and graphic designer from Hungary and lives currently in Argentina. More of his artwork can be seen on his Instagram @vikthor_gallery or a http://illusiontracions.deviantart.com

If you are a passionate illustrator, you are welcome to create a Woboda bookmark for us.

7January 2017


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THE WORLD BOOKMARK DAY RAFFLE HAS NOW 510 BOOKMARKS IN THE POT

Our member Debrah Gai Lewis from Daylesford, VIC, Australia joined the bookmark raffle with these beautiful bookmarks (70 pieces) and has got 7 raffle tickets. We have now 510 bookmarks in the raffle pot and it can be expected that this is by no means the end of the story. On 25 February 2017, the first World Bookmark Day, the raffle winner will be determined by drawing lots. We have now introduced an innovation to the procedure in order to prevent that the winner of the raffle gets his/her own bookmarks back. The bookmarks sent by the winner of the raffle will be given to a second winner instead. If you wish to join the raffle, just send us bookmarks: you'll get 1 raffle ticket for each 10 bookmarks. See the details on our Woboda page.
A very happy New Year 2017 to everybody!      3 January 2017

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REPRINTS OF THE 1928 AMSTERDAM OLYMPIC GAMES BOOKMARKS
by Georg Hartong
IFOB Publication No. 5
December 5, 2016

The Shell Company in the Netherlands issued on the occasion of the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam a beautiful card bookmark which shows a discus thrower and emblems of the town on the front and an advertising for Shell on the back. The bookmark is a popular collector's item meanwhile. In 1970s the company produced a reprint of the bookmark which is rather difficult to distinguish from the original. As the price difference between the original and the reprint is increasing steadily, criteria to differentiate between them get important and are described in this paper. Read more here.

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LAST 31 DAYS - DON'T MISS IT!

Today is 1st of December 2016 and that means our first year commemorative bookmark as seen in the picture to the left will only be 31 more days on offer in our shop. "What is so special with this bookmark?", you may ask. I'll tell you: every bookmark has an individual number on the back and it displays the exact printing date of each bookmark. The numbering started with 1 and has reached no. 40 currently. The bookmarks are being printed according to the sale numbers in our shop in small batchs. Currently we have sold 33 pieces altogether, and no. 34 to 40 printed on 24 July 2016 are still available. You will understand that with this procedure there will be only a small number of individually different and very highly collectible bookmarks produced at the end of the year. So, don't miss to get one copy for your collection.

The bookmarks are exquisitely produced by fine art print on textured card with a velvety touch. The illustration is done by Asim Maner and is stated as such on the back along with a description of IFOB and its mission. The bookmarks cost US$ 8 per piece or US$25 per set of 4 pieces. The prices include free recorded priority airmail shipping worldwide. All sales from our shop including this bookmark is a means to cover our expenses caused by running this website. We are curious how many first year bookmarks will have been sold at the end. Thank you!
Please check the box "Printed Fine Art Card Bookmarks" in the shop.


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OUR INSTAGRAM HAS 200 FOLLOWERS NOW

International Friends of Bookmarks (IFOB) has started about five months ago an instagram and shows in beautiful pictures the fascinating and divers world of bookmarks. We reached 200 followers now, and I think this is a lot in this short period. Many thanks to all our followers!

The cutout Art Nouveau bookmark in the picture dates back to 1902 and advertises The Youth's Companion, a very popular magazine for young adults at that time. You also see how a "cool" outfit for a young lady looked like in those days :)

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THE GERMAN MAGAZINE FLOW IS PUBLISHING AN ARTICLE ABOUT BOOKMARKS IN THEIR NOVEMBER SPECIAL EDITION

The women magazine Flow is about to issue a special edition with the title Lesebuch in which an article about bookmarks will be contained. There will be beautiful pictures and some interesting facts about bookmarks. We from the IFOB have provided pictures for the article and did a little editing work for the paper. The booklet will also be accompanied by a series of bookmarks. The publication date is 15 November 2016. Some of our readers in Germany may be interested to buy the publication. It can be ordered on the website of the magazin here. 

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ARISTOMENIS FROM ATHENS SUBMITTED THESE BEAUTIFUL BOOKMARKS TO THE RAFFLE

Aristomenis gets 5 tickets for the raffle for his 100 submitted bookmarks. We have now altogether 410 selected bookmarks in the raffle pot and 5 participants with 16 raffle tickets. That means the chances are still very big for all participants to win this huge pile of bookmarks at the end.

You wish to join the raffle? Read the details on our World Bookmark Day page here. Everybody, whether member of the IFOB or not, are welcome to submit bookmarks to the raffle. For every 20 bookmarks you get 1 raffle ticket. Good luck to all participants!


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SARA PREGEL CREATED A WOBODA BOOKMARK


Sara is a very talented artist who is engaged in illustration of comic books. She created an impressive World Bookmark Day bookmark for us which can be downloaded on our woboda page. Thank you very much, Sara!

Don't miss to check out the enchanting artwork of Sara on various websites:
#burek_sa_mesom
facebook.com/saritosart

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Lea Kaib
THE FIRST ARTICLE ABOUT THE WORLD BOOKMARK DAY
Lea Kaib from Germany is an avid blogger writing very interesting book reviews on her blog (in German): www.liberiarium.de   She is also a very popular YouTuber (liberiarium) with focus on book recensions. She is so successful with her book critics that several publishing houses engaged her on book fairs to report about their exhibition events.
Lea has written now an article about the World Bookmark Day (Woboda) on her popular blog describing the manifold activities people can join in to support this event. Thank you, Lea! We hope that some her readers from Germany will pay attention to Woboda in future. We wish to thank her by sending some new readers her way: don't miss to check out her blog and YouTube channel. Lea is of course also the first candidate for the Excellence Award at the end for the best article written about Woboda: we cross our fingers for Lea!

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WOBO TRAVELED THROUGH THE SOUTHWEST OF USA

Wobo, the world traveling bookmark made a trip through the southwest of USA in October and visited breathtaking places like the Monument Valley, Navajo nation, AZ,  as seen on the left. 

She also met Smokey the Bear in Red Canyon, Dixie National Forest, UT, and hugged him. Smokey promised her to tell about the World Bookmark Day on 25 February 2017 everybody he meets.  - Pictures by Laine Farley.
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​MONI HAS CREATED A WOBODA BOOKMARK

Moni is a passionate young illustrator of manga characters and cocoa trade cards and an avid instagramer. She has illustrated a delightful bookmark for the World Bookmark Day (Woboda - 25 February 2017) which will be displayed on our Woboda page soon as a free downloadable bookmark for everybody.

​Thank you very much Moni for your contribution! We will upload pictures of the bookmark to several blogs and webpages and thus hope to make a little promotion for the enchanting illustration work of Moni in return. Don't miss to have a look at her instagram #kannibalenmeerschweinchen to see her delicate illustrations.

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SAVING PAGES: A SELECTION OF VINTAGE BOOKMARKS
new blog post by by Matt Gilbert

During a recent spot of tidying at home, I came across a box containing my childhood collection of bookmarks. When I was growing up my parents were second-hand booksellers in Bristol. One exciting perk, or by-product of this for me as a kid, was finding all kinds of bookmarks that previous readers had left behind in many…

Read more which treasures Matt has found in that old box here.

We have reposted this interesting story from Matt's blog Richly Evocative. There he writes about books, cities and about spaces where the built environment intersects with the natural particularly intriguing – be they accidental survivors – old trees in now heavily developed city spaces for example, overgrown derelict sites, or places deliberately left alone and allowed to flourish in their own way. Lots of extraordinary reading. Thank you Matt for sharing your story with us!

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WOBO SISTERS WENT BATHING
picture by Elly van der Horst

Elly met not only one, but four Wobo sisters in Holle, Zulwill, Switzerland, as they were going swimming. Unfortunately the pool was dry. Haha. This was on 1st August, the national holiday of Switzerland, in the garden of a farmhouse in Holle, Zulwill.
          Meanwhile, Wobo visited  16 remarkable places in nine different countries around the world. At that rate, she is likely to see a lot of countries and meet quite many nice people till the World Bookmark Day on 25 April 2017. See all her pictures here.
         Have you also met Wobo anywhere? Send us your picture to: info@ifobookmarks.org
     Wobo bookmarks can be downloaded on our World Bookmark Day page.  

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​ABOUT BOOK WEIGHTS - a new blog post
by Melia Miller

Our member Melia is a proven expert on book weights with an experience of several years in the production of this kind of bookmarks. She tells us about the different types of book weights, where they are used and how they are produced, A very informative article with interesting details. Don't miss it, read here.

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DONATION OF 100 SELECTED BOOKMARKS FOR THE WORLD BOOKMARK DAY CELEBRATION RAFFLE
Our member Elly van der Horst from Holland donated this wonderful selection of bookmarks to the raffle pot. Browsing through them is a delight, there are bookmarks from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, a set of very rare bookmarks illustrated by the famous Dutch artist Joost Swarte, several cutout figure shape bookmarks, and many, many more. The winner of the raffle will be particularly delighted about this lot in the pot I guess. Thank you very much, Elly! You fuel the raffle fever tremendously.
          With this lot, we have now 270 bookmarks in the raffle pot, and only 3 participants who possess 7 tickets and very high chances to win this raffle, New participants are welcome. See the details on our World Bookmark Day page here. 

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THE STORY OF MY BOOKMARK COLLECTION
by Regina Mačiulytė

Regina from Lithuania tells in our blog how she started collecting bookmarks, how she got a bookmark producer, and finally, how she became an avid organiser of bookmark exhibitions. She tells about the benefits of visiting book fairs and exchanging bookmarks with collectors from other countries.

The picture shows bookmarks produced with photos of Regina.
Read more here.  

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DONATION TO OUR WORLD BOOKMARK DAY RAFFLE

​Our member Ana Matos has donated this beautiful Globe Tour bookmark, handmade by her, as a gift to our World Bookmark Day Raffle on 27 July 2016, thus making the raffle pot more attractive for the participants. Thank you very much, Ana!

The bookmark has three metal pendants: a globe, a passport, and a suitcase. Ana has also a blog where other attractive handmade bookmarks made by her can be ordered, Don't miss to check it at:  Crafts for You

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WORLD BOOKMARK DAY RAFFLE NEWS

Agathe from Ribemont, France, has joined the World Bookmark Day Raffle with these attractive bookmarks on 18 July 2016 and gets 2 tickets for the 20 bookmarks she has sent. We have now over 170 bookmarks in the raffle pile. Send us bookmarks to join the raffle. For details, see ...

WOBO the World Traveling Bookmark has been spotted in many places all over the world
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The picture shows Wobo at the beach in Khao Lak in Thailand - picture submitted by Suma - Thank you Suma for the beautiful shot!

​WOBO ON WORLD TOUR

​Wobo was already in Riehen and Basel, Switzerland, in Barcelona, at Aquilas beach, and in Madrid, Spain, at the brand-new Doha airport in Qatar, in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, and in Wuppertal, Germany

Help Wobo to continue her travels and to spread the word about the World Bookmark Day in 25 February 2017: 
1. download the bookmark from our World Bookmark Day page & print it
2. Carry Wobo in your bag and make pictures of her at different places you go
3. Send your pictures to us at:  info@ifobookmarks.org  and/or  If you are an Instagrammer: upload your pictures @worldtravelingbookmark and @worldbookmarkday and share your pictures on Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest and on your blogs, and invite your friends to support Wobo as well. Thank you!

​See more pictures of Wobo at: www.ifobookmarks.org/woboda   

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​HOLIDAY HAUNTS BOOKMARKS BY THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY (1923-1929)
 
​by Sylvia Bunting and Asim Maner
IFOB Publication No. 4, July 9, 2016

From 1923-1929 the Great Western Railway published a guide book with the title Holiday Haunts covering its holiday destinations in UK. To accompany and promote this book came a series of six bookmarks each illustrating one of the Haunts, with background information and the name of its nearest railway station on the reverse. Read more here.

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JOIN OUR WORLD BOOKMARK DAY SWAP

We organise a World Bookmark Day Swap for all bookmark collectors. It's very easy to join: just register in our list of participants or contact one of the listed collectors to exchange bookmarks.

​We have currently 11 swap friends from 9 different countries! 

We hope that this action will make IFOB and the World Bookmark Day (Woboda) known to many new collectors.

Spread the word to your friends if you are already a participant, thank you!

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WE HAVE AN INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT NOW!

Internet wouldn't be so popular without the power of images. Instagram allows us to bring bookmarks to the attention of a wide rage of individuals with the power of pictures. We cannot reach a big part of these people otherwise. We may expect that our website's popularity will increase with the help of attractive pictures from the world of reading and bookmarks.

Don't miss to visit our page and to follow us if you think we offer good stuff, we'll be happy:
https://www.instagram.com/int_friends_of_bookmarks 


​WOBO the World Traveling Bookmark was in Basel, Switzerland on 28 June 2016 -   @worldtravelingbookmark @worldbookmarkday 

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​WILL INTERNET MAKE LIBRARIES UNNECESSARY?

I can find everything on Internet, so why to go to the library? I have an ebook-reader, why should I deal with paper books? Some of the questions which suggest the near end of the libraries. No books means no libraries, no bookshops, and also no physical bookmarks. Are we heading for this dreadful future?

Mark Y. Herring has in his interesting article Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library 10 arguments dealing with the future of the libraries, and indirectly also with the future of books and bookmarks. 

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IFOB FIRST YEAR COMMEMORATIVE BOOKMARK 2016


The numbered and dated bookmarks are produced in a limited number to commemorate IFOB's first year of existence. The First Year Bookmarks will only be produced in 2016 and to the extend of the orders from our gift shop. Each bookmark carries an individual number in the order of the production and the date of printing. The procedure aims to keep the number of bookmarks limited and thus to create a rare and highly collectible bookmark. In future, each year a bookmark with a new design created by a new illustrator will be produced to build a series of IFOB commemorative bookmarks. This years bookmark is illustrated by Asim Maner. Read more and see a larger picture on our Blog..

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​EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY BOOKMARKS


​Everyman's Library is a series of reprinted classic literature published by J.M. Dent & Co. in London from 1906 on. The company issued several series of bookmarks to advertise their books and encyclopedia.

​Read more in our Reading Room.

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​We launch the WORLD BOOKMARK DAY (WOBODA)
25th February 2017 will be the first celebration day

We celebrate the readers' little helper and the ever faithful companion of the books for 2000 years
Bookmarks might have not received much attention yet. They even might have been ignored widely so far. But we believe that there is a different story in which this quiet companion will no longer wait passively to be noticed. The bookmarks will receive attention and approval they deserve with a little help from their friends. Read more on our Blog.

Please check out also our new page WOBODA where all informations and activities associated with the World Bookmark Day can be seen.




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