|
The Art of the Ex LibrisEdited by J. V. de Braganza (Portugal) |
 |
|
|
The Art of the Ex LibrisEdited by J. V. de Braganza (Portugal) |
|
|
3. The birth of bookplate collector and bookplate societies
|
aking advantage of the Internet as a powerful means of
planetary communication appears to be of paramount importance, in order to
promote ex libris, artists, Bookplate Societies’ activities, publishing lists
of ex libris for exchange, announcing Competitions and Exhibitions, Bibliography
and other relevant news on the subject, making it almost instantly known to a
tremendous vast worldwide audience But astonishingly enough, this has not been yet generally understood, since Ex Libris related sites are still scarce at the WWW [i]. In particular, Ex Libris Societies tend to be slow in apprehending the major importance of the Web as a valuable instrument to promote their activities beyond its narrow national boundaries, as it can be inferred from these numbers: - In 1999, there were only 5 Bookplate Societies’ websites [ii], although this number has seen lately an amazing increase up to 17 – that is, more than tripled! (see, update below). On the other hand, many websites related with bookplates seem to have a momentary life, concerned mainly with seasonal events like Bookplate Exhibitions. Also very few artists have yet taken advantage of the Net to publicize their work [iii]. Notwithstanding,
there are some relevant exceptions of good conception, great layout, graphic
quality and excellent contents. To name but a few, we would mention the
following, as our Favorite websites: The
Dutch Ex Libris Web Site of
Edwin Smits: Ex
Libris Owls - Josep
Manzano (From Ex Libris to Ex Webis) Erik
Skovenborg's - a Danish Collector HP Alberto
Zanverdiani (1894-1977) Ivan Miladinovic Graphics & Exlibris Brigitte
& Peter Rath Jazz und Ex Libris Lembit
Lõhmus - Graphic Artist
We do hope that, in the near future, the presence of Ex Libris at the WWW will grow steadily encouraged by a wider conscience of its importance. Reviewed November 2007 The number of Ex Libris Societies/Associations that have put on-line websites has grown to 26! FISAE, due to the efforts and expertise of M. Benoît Junod, has also launched a website with plenty of information, news and interesting articles. The most recent website is fromThe New Australian Bookplate Society founded on October, 2006, in Sydney, Australia. It followed The Australian Bookplate Society, from Victoria, who, in 2006,had launched its website. Our warm welcome to both tothe Ex Libris WWW community! ChinaThe growing ex libris activity in China is well expressed by the recent appearance of two excellent websites dedicated to ex libris as sated elsewhere:
[i] Another point that could be discussed is the quality of those sites, as far as contents, layout, graphics, navigation, information provided and the use of the Web Universal language - English. And here again, there isn’t any uniformity and some sites can be very poorly rated. The best sites are undoubtedly the one from Exlibriswereld (The Netherlands) and the most recent from the Bookplate Society of Andalusia (Spain). Our congratulations are due to those Societies’ Committees and to the Sites’ Webmasters. [ii]
See, our article, Ex
Libris/Bookplates at the WWW, originally published in the A.S.B.C.D.’s
Bulletin «Bookplate in the News», 1998 (updated in June 1999). [iii] Nevertheless, we have established a page at our Website – The Art of the Ex Libris (co-edited with Mr. Stewart LeForte, from Cape Breton, Canada) with Links to Bookplate Related Sites, including artists, antique booksellers, the Graphic Arts in general, bookplate collections at Public & University Libraries.
|
|||||
| © 1998-2007, José Vicente de Bragança (Portugal) Updated: 26-11-2007 |
