24th ILAB International Antiquarian Book Fair - Vereinigung der ...

Welcome to ILAB’s 40th Congress in Lucerne
and to the 24th International Antiquarian Book
Fair in Zurich!
First of all I would like to sincerely thank our
Swiss colleagues and the Swiss Association,
VEBUKU, for organizing and inviting us to
this major bi-annual event of the International
League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB).
ILAB is very pleased to be invited again by the
Association which has not only given ILAB its
first President, William S. Kundig, but which
hosted Congresses in 1952, in 1962, and a Congress
and a Book Fair in 1978.
It may seem odd to organize a meeting every
two years where booksellers from around the
globe are invited to meet, talk, and discuss topics
and problems of mutual interest, make new
friends or renew old friendships. Our world is
global and globalizing and we have a wide varie-
Welcome
ty of means of communication at our disposal.
Why bother to travel a long way to meet real
people? We «meet» them on Facebook and we
follow them on Twitter and we communicate
through email. However, just as the virtual book
is not a substitute for a real book, just as we
want to see, feel, and touch a real physical book,
we want to meet real people, see them, and talk
to them, face-to-face, as we prefer to «meet» a
book «face-to-face». Modern technology is an
additional tool for our profession but it neither
replaces the real world nor the real books. And
that is precisely what the ILAB Congresses
and Book Fairs have offered over the decades
and what they still offer today: the possibility
to meet colleagues, collectors, librarians, and
real books, and the possibility for collectors,
librarians and real books to meet us!
Amor Librorum Nos Unit!
Arnoud Gerits
President
International League of Antiquarian
Booksellers (ILAB)
V