Once again this year in June and July 2012, the Institute of English Studies in the University of London will run the London Rare Books School (LRBS), a series of five-day, intensive courses on a variety of book-related subjects to be taught in and around Senate House, which is the centre of the University of London's federal system. The courses will be taught by internationally renowned scholars associated with the Institute's Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies, using the unrivalled library and museum resources of London, including the British Library, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Senate House Libraries, and many more.

All courses will stress the materiality of the book so you can expect to have close encounters with remarkable books and other artefacts from some of the world's greatest collections. For full details see the London Rare Books School website.

The Book Collector is the only printed journal in the world dealing with book-collecting, but it is much more than that – a bridge that joins together collectors, librarians and booksellers, and all who are interested in books, to have, to read, to enjoy in any way.

Published quarterly, The Book Collector (http://thebookcollector.co.uk/) publishes authoritative articles on subjects from medieval libraries to modern first editions, collects news and reviews of auctions, publications and trade catalogues, bibliographies and checklists, private press books, exhibitions and much else.

With the advent of the Internet anyone with a computer and a few books can set up as a rare bookseller, and it's occasionally difficult to tell who is an expert, who is a casual hobbyist, and who is an Internet scammer. Here are a few simple reasons to buy from an ILAB bookseller from Tom Congalton of Between the Covers Rare Books:

1. High Standards
Individual bookseller members are admitted to their national organizations, and to ILAB through a process of sponsorship, investigation, and the vote of their peers, after they have demonstrated expertise, excellence, and experience as rare booksellers.