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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. |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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. |
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. |
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 😴. |
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!). |
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 |
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 👻 |
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?” |
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. |
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 |
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." |
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: [email protected] 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. |
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! |
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! |
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. |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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. |
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. |
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: [email protected]. 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. |
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 |
THE BEAUTY BOOKMARKS ARE BRINGING INTO MY LIFE ... 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 |
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. |
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 |
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: |
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! |
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 |
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 |
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. |
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. |
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 :) |
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. |
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! |
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 |
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! |
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. |
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. |
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! |
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: [email protected] Wobo bookmarks can be downloaded on our World Bookmark Day page. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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 |
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
The picture shows Wobo at the beach in Khao Lak in Thailand - picture submitted by Suma - Thank you Suma for the beautiful shot!
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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: [email protected] 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 |
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. |
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! |
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 |
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. |
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.. |
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. |
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. |