SHEPPARD'S CONFIDENTIAL

Sheppard's Confidential is a digital newsletter emanating from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, UK where it is published by Rivendale Press on behalf of Sheppard's World.

The newsletter is concerned about events and activities in the world of antiquarian and second-hand books. if this is an area of interest to you then get yourself on their mailing list by clicking on the above link.

Here is an excerpt from the latest issue, number 53, which suggests that second hand booksellers are experiencing a significant impact from the Internet.

Richard Budd's Last Catalogue
It was with the usual excitement that we opened Catalogue 94 from Richard Budd (please see the entry on our Book Catalogues page), but we were immediately saddened by the news that this was to be his last catalogue and indeed consists of Richard's large and varied reference library.
His observations in the preface to this catalogue rang true:
The book world I joined all those years ago is changing now as the impersonal internet takes over. How dull it will eventually become when there are no more second-hand bookshops, no catalogue booksellers and no fairs, with everything available on the net. ...we will never find the books we didn't know we wanted or those we used joyfully to chance upon in catalogues or at fairs or shops. Such books sometimes changed our lives.
The osmosis of information between collector, writer, academic and bookseller will be gone forever. We and bibliography will all be poorer for that and, as rare books become just another commodity, our business will lose its humanity.
Happily, we have not yet reached that point and, with luck, we may avoid it.