Point Reyes Bookstore up for sale

(Photo by Terray Sylvester / The Chronicle)   http://blog.sfgate.com/bookmarks/2016/05/20/point-reyes-books-up-for-sale/   One more of our lovely independent bookstores may be closing, as the owners wish to sell the business. For more information please see: ptreyesbooks.com   — Jane Rades

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#ColorOurCollections 2016!

The craze for coloring books continues to grow! If you (or people you know, of any age) enjoy coloring, as I do, then you’re in for a real treat. This week, the New York Academy of Medicine is sponsoring a special collections coloring fest on social media!

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box by box, the ABM library is being built!

While the museum itself is of course up and running, the library and archives here at the museum are still in process. I find myself confronted with a particular question often these days: In general, what is the difference between libraries and archives? The simple distinction is that a library

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Hand Bookbinders of California 43rd Members Exhibition

The American Bookbinders Museum is pleased announce that we will be hosting the Hand Bookbinders of California’s 43rd Annual Members’ Exhibition this summer from June 12 – September 13, 2015. This will be ABM’s first exhibition in our newly remodeled facility!  We hope, it will be the first of many

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ABM at California International Antiquarian Book Fair!

In case you hadn’t already heard, the American Bookbinders Museum is excited to announce that we will be attending the California International Antiquarian Book Fair in Oakland February 6-8! We will have a selection of early bookbinding manuals on display as well as bookbinding tools and equipment. To get you

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Penguin Bindings: A Short History

I love merchandise, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Especially if it’s book-related. Lately, I’ve found myself drawn to the plethora of items sold by Penguin that recall the nostalgia of their classic binding. You know which one I mean – the three horizontal stripes, famously orange, with the

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Saturday’s Bookbinding Tutorial

This past saturday we held our first bookbinding tutorial here at the museum.  4 of our volunteers came out and learned how to do a simple pamphlet stitch as well as the more complex sewing over tapes with a french fold, then casing into a hard cover.  Since one of

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Construction Update: An interview with our Executive Director, Stacey Smith

We are so excited about the new space for the museum!  Many of you might have been wondering about the progress at 856 Folsom Street. Here are some photos of the space as it is right now: View of the current front window from the second Floor

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Ephemera of the Month: An Introduction to Bookbinders’ Tickets

Few things as brazenly flout their etymological origins as the idea of collected ‘ephemera.’  In Greek, ephemera lasts only a day, and the word was often specifically used in reference to short-lived creatures, like mayflies. Printed ephemera, too, was meant to be transient–one-off or single-use items that were expected to

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Why A Museum to American Bookbinding?

The American Bookbinder’s Museum There is nothing quite like the feeling of an old book in your hands, the smell of the yellowed pages hitting you as you open it.  As you get comfortable and settle in to spending some time with this remarkable object, you may wonder at how

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