2 New Portals for Bibliophily and Book History: Part 2

They're not twittering, but two Belgian bibliophile societies with seats at Antwerp and Brussels are sounding new drums online. And the portal for book history in the Dutch-speaking part of the country became fresh-faced as well.

Part II
Contrary to Brussels, the bibliophiles at Antwerp have not opted for an individual portal. Issued from the Flemish (Dutch-speaking) northern part of this country, there is now 1 single portal for news about rare books: Boekgeschiedenis.be.

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Boekgeschiedenis.be is the joint portal (and more) for Vlaamse Werkgroep Boekgeschiedenis (society for book historians in Flanders) and Vereniging van Antwerpse Bibliofielen, bibliophile society at Antwerp, with its seat at the Plantin-Moretus Museum.

Plenty of book historians of the Werkgroep being members of the Antwerpse Bibliofielen, and many of them sitting on the editorial board of De Gulden Passer, journal of the Vereniging van Antwerpse Bibliofielen, seem to be the main reasons behind this.

Members of both respectively can access the pages related to their society. Both already worked with memberships, and retain access to certain pages as a privilege for members. New visitors can easily become new members.

Boekgeschiedenis.be is available in Dutch only. It is work in progress, but the bonus lies in centralized access via Boekgeschiedenis.be to both De Gulden Passer, with future promises of digitization, and Kroniek van het gedrukte boek in de Nederlanden, searchable book reviews of books on books.
De Gulden Passer has turned into the journal of book history available from Flanders. Published as a yearbook, it will soon accelerate pace, and publish 2 issues a year.

Kroniek van het gedrukte boek in de Nederlanden is the chronicle of book reviews that since 1971 has been appearing in Archives et bibliothèques de Belgique = Archief- en bibliotheekwezen in België, paper journal edited at the Royal Library of Belgium.

In 2002, Johan Hanselaer performed the herculean task of bringing all book reviews online separately, known simply as "de Kroniek". Dutch only, and search options still limited, but this is an easy tool for anyone looking for recent literature or studies about the subject of the book.

2 New Portals for Bibliophily and Book History: Part I

They're not twittering, but two Belgian bibliophile societies with seats at Antwerp and Brussels are sounding new drums online. And the portal for book history in the Dutch-speaking part of the country became fresh-faced as well.

Part I

The Société royale des bibliophiles et iconophiles de Belgique (SRBIB) presented its new website, Bibliobel.be, officially to its members on 1 April 2009. In 3 languages: French, Dutch and English. Access for members and non-members alike, but members have a closed section related to activities.
The journal of the SRBIB is called Le livre et l'estampe. For all 162 issues that have appeared between 1954 and 2004, the website provides indices on subject and author in printable documents. No hyperlinks; full text for the journal is not digitized, and remains a privilege to subscribers and institutional members.
The occasional visitor can however glean through the list of catalogues and publications that this society has published, and can easily order the items that are still available.

The SRBIB is looking forward to its 100th anniversary in 2010, and is preparing a sumptuous exhibition with treasures by its members at the Royal Library at Brussels called Belgica nostra.
More on that event later.