By Bruce McKinney

On Sunday February 15th from 8:00 to 11:00 am, during the ABAA show weekend in San Francisco, the future of book, manuscript and ephemera collecting is on display in an exhibition as History Restored - 45 paintings, maps, broadsides and ephemera as well as 3,000 other items on shelves - collected and organized as Wiki Bibliographies. Bruce and Jenny McKinney of the Americana Exchange host the event. Wikis are online community building tools, organized around ever-evolving bibliographies that create an intense focus for collectors, dealers and scholars to follow in a quick and efficient manner all activity within a collecting area. The first examples are already on line and many more under development.

The book business has become increasingly dependent on listing sites as shops have closed and dealers issued fewer catalogues. Wikis reconstruct the person to person aspect of dealing and collecting by creating an intense subject-centric, always updating, view on material in the news, at auction and on listing sites. For both buyers and sellers this is the next big thing.

The open house takes place in the morning 8:00 to 11:00 am before the doors open on the final day of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association Book Fair at the Concourse Exhibition Center.

The material on display relates to the Hudson River Valley of New York and in particular the printings of Joel Munsell of Albany, 19th Century Rondout and Kingston, and Life on the River. The Munsell and Rondout collections are the current subject of Wiki Bibliographies. Life on and along the Hudson is under development. The logic and form of the collections are relevant to most types of collecting today.

These Wikis-in-the-flesh are the first substantive evidence of the effectiveness of creating on-line living bibliographies that are constantly matching new material introduced to the net over-night. Once found the Wiki bibliographer, and all who follow these emerging Wikis, have an ever-evolving standard collecting reference, a view of new material, the opportunity to remain current on changes, and optional access to pricing and frequency of appearance information in the Americana Exchange Database. A variety of Wikis are under construction. Wiki Bibliographers include dealers, auction houses, collectors and historical societies.

The address is 2723 Pacific Avenue, midway between Scott and Divisidero in the Pacific Heights section of San Francisco. The zip is 94115. Click here for directions from the ABAA Fair to the open house site at 2723 Pacific Ave.

The Americana Exchange develops databases and tools for integration of manuscripts, maps and ephemera into unified collecting focus.

RSVP is preferred but not required. By email its bmckinney@americanaexchange.com or by phone at 415.823.6678 Stop by. The future of bookselling is on display.