Bibliophiles of Oklahoma Report

No. 6 with carved angel face
Originally uploaded by ◄Kentigern►

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Meeting 2: We're growing! We had 6 in attendance! For those who missed the last after-action report, that is double what we had last time. At this rate, every human in Oklahoma will belong in about a year and a half! That is certainly exciting. If dues were only $1, we'd have a budget of over $3M! Three million dollars would buy a lot of book fun. Well, not for 3 million people though.

As long as I'm dishing out some reality, I'm also not being wholly honest. The 6 attendees includes my wife who just got off work and needed a bite. But it's not like she's a book *hater*, so she counts too.

The original 3 were joined by two more members. M collects modern firsts. From our chat I would classify him as a late-stage protocollector. Our other new member, JB, is a life long collector who collects books related to his record collection and antique audio equipment. He is perhaps an early-stage protocollector.

One thing I have learned trying to start a collector's society is that many people are reluctant to refer to themselves as collectors. Why is that? It seems some believe book collectors have to spend thousands of dollars on every leather-bound purchase. Some collectors do, but for most of us, that just isn't the case. I've started referring to people who accumulate books along with a general idea or nucleus as protocollectors. Can you tell I once pursued archaeology as a career? Perhaps I need to work up a scale, or evolutionary chart of progression... hmmmm. Stay tuned.

The meeting was fun and even a little productive. We hashed out some ideas to promote BoOK and also set dates for future meetings. So, if you'd care to join us, check out the website for details. The next two meetings will be 4/24 and 5/22, 7-9 pm. Those times are -ish.

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Book Sale on the Horizen

To the best of my knowledge, the biggest local booksale is coming fast! I'm already excited, eyeing my calendar for time I can sneak away from work and slink out to the Oklahoma City fair grounds.

I officially dropped the ball on re-uping my membership in the Metro Library Friends group. I'll have to get down to the sale early Friday afternoon to renew and get my tickets for the Friends sale Friday evening. That is really the key to getting the first semi-public whack at the books. Friday night is when all the dealers come out. Last year was nice. People were mostly well behaved. There were a lot of pros in the ranks and several ISBN (I sell by numbers) sellers as well. Prices were good, people were nice, the event was well organized. What else could a bibliophile hope for? I love a good book sale.

Last year I tried to figure out how to attract local bibliophiles to a book collecting club. Since I knew no one then, I made up these little slips of paper with my email on the front and a little blurb on the back and the url for the little website I threw together. I would toss these little slips on the tables, especially in the better books room of the sale. I'd also stick them inside the front cover of books I had looked at but passed on. About one quarter of all books at the sale are in the better books area, so it's huge.

Did it work? No. But, it wasn't a total loss. I did get a spike in traffic on the little website. Over the course of a few months I would take some of the slips of paper to book stores in the area and do the same.

This year I've put this one together and will try and print some up. On the back would be a short blurb and the url. I'm also using this on Flickr, posting it around hoping to drum up some interest. What do you think?

For those who want to know, the inaugural meeting of the Bibliophiles of Oklahoma will take place Thursday, March 13th 2008. Please contact me for time and place. All you need is a love of books.