Free online courses/resources/knowledge?

[u/lepidolyte]

I am hoping to learn what I need to know to be able to impress people who know rare books, rather than just not embarrass myself. If you have any ideas off the top of your head, feel free to write posts! First hand knowledge is appreciated!

I am trying to cut through the mire and find my footing, and though I am surely intending to do a lot of research (and I have been looking and making attempts) I would love the sparknotes, cheat sheets, the Neal Caffrey type of sneaks that I can flesh out. I am looking to have even the bare bones, though meat would be appreciated, before I flesh everything out, so to speak (sorry if this sounds gross).

My hope is to find hopefully free resources that
-teach the basic history one needs to know
-I want to know the basic things you absolutely must know as well as all the little touchstones that you have to at least be aware of or you look foolish
-the places and institutions and people to be aware of
-book recs, youtube channels
-the right rabbit holes

I know the basics: old doesn’t mean rare, the cover is a major part of value, various terms… but I am hoping to feel less inadequate

Thank you!

[u/beardedbooks]

It's great that you're looking to learn more, but don't worry about embarrassing yourself. You can spend decades in the trade and around rare books and still come across stuff you know very little about. If you walk into a bookshop or book fair, every dealer I've encountered is more than happy to share their knowledge with you. All you have to do is ask.

I recommend starting with a collecting interest and branching out from there based on gaps in your knowledge. If you start with the goal to learn everything you possibly can, you'll quickly become overwhelmed. As an example, if you're interested in 19th century literature, you can start by learning about the authors and printers of that time period, how the books were printed and distributed, what the bindings looked like, who bought those books, which institutions nowadays collect that material, which booksellers specialize in that material, and so on.

There are a number of books out there about the history of book collecting, and many go into topics like terminology, bindings, auctions, booksellers, and famous collections. Some books include ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter, Taste and Technique in Book-Collecting by John Carter, A Study of Rare Books by Nolie Mumey, A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes, among others.

The ABAA has some videos on YouTube along with some educational articles on their site. I'm sure ILAB does as well. Rare Book Hub also puts out free articles that may be of interest. Fine Books & Collections is a magazine dedicated to book collecting and is worth a look. Other than that, let your curiosity guide you. If you come across something you don't know, look it up or talk to some dealers. You'll be surprised at how much you'll learn in a short period of time.

[u/lepidolyte → u/beardedbooks]

This is so genuinely kind of you! I feel like I am faced with a giant candy shop and a finite amount of dollars, and I barely know almost anything about the options, and I want to make it out of there without accidentally ending up with a sack of tunafish flavored lollipops! I have the knowledge to know I don’t have the right knowledge yet. I am not joking, I do have the ABCs book arriving in the mail already!
I am unsure why I have found myself with a burning desire to know everything I can about rare books, but I see people with PhDs and editorships and they are all members of societies, and go, well, I have some work to do. And how do you catch up, because they are obsessives themselves?! It’ll be fun though!

[u/beardedbooks → u/lepidolyte]

Speaking of PhDs and whatnot, many dealers, researchers, and curators have gone into the world of rare books after they studied something else, like law or library science. And I know several dealers who learned about the antiquarian book trade after retirement.

[u/lepidolyte → u/[deleted]]

Thank you!

[u/syn_tax_]

Not digital resources, but check out the recommended reading lists for Rare Book School courses in the areas that interest you (linked on the course pages on the RBS website). Start with those books—read the bibliographies and keep reading what you find there. 

rarebookschool.org

[u/lepidolyte → u/syn_tax_]

You are a saint! Thank you. That school is not for beginners but rather some of the most informed and smartest people out there! Borderline terrified to talk to them!

[u/Zlivovitch]

If you start your quest of knowledge in any field with the aim of "impressing people", you're on a very wrong foot. The point of knowledge is knowledge. And there aren't any "cheat sheets".

[u/lepidolyte → u/Zlivovitch]

I disagree with you. How many great journeys start with the hope of impressing someone? But also, I was being a little silly. What I mean is—I don’t want to go about it all the wrong way and end up a fool.

[u/lepidolyte → u/[deleted]]

Wow! Thank you very much! I am interested in a niche and attempting to go deeper with Herbals. I have gotten to see Gerard, Culpeper, etc but I am just like how much more do I need to know to not be a mess while attempting to communicate with people who have been living and breathing books for decades longer than me? I also would live to take more intensive courses, but worry that I don’t have the foundations. I made flashcards for vocabulary, ordered some books, and have been just researching experts and their backgrounds with the hopes of understanding what the paths that people who know a lot took. But a lot of it seems to be grounded in academia, which I am not currently as able to spend a lot on

[u/lepidolyte → u/[deleted]]

Thanks so much! I appreciate your helpful replies! Very kind of you!