From The Private Library's Archives: The Private Library...International

We are pleased to see that a lot of international visitors stop by this blog on a daily basis:

Although this is an English-language blog, it always has been our intent to cover private library topics of worldwide interest.  To that end, we ask that our international visitors please let us know if we have missed resources in their native language that might be useful to others:

There are bookish search engines available in a wide variety of languages.  ABEbooks (formerly Advanced Book Exchange; now wholly-owned by Amazon) offers country-specific searches:

• ABEbooks Australia & New Zealand
• ABEbooks Canada
• ABEbooks France
• ABEbooks Germany
• ABEbooks Italy
• ABEbooks Spain
• ABEbooks UK

Antiqbook also allows country-specific searches.  In fact, all four of the AntiqBook sites offer searches in English, French, German & Dutch:

• Antiqbook Belgium
• Antiqbook New Zealand
• Antiqbook UK
• Antiqbook Worldwide

Other bookish search engines also allow you to search their databases in multiple languages:

• Antikvariant (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, English)
• Bibliophile (English, German, French, Italian)
• Bibliopoly (English, Spanish, German, French, Italian)
• ChooseBooks (English & German)
• International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (English & French)
• Livre-Rare-Book (English, Spanish, Portugese & French)
• MareMagnum (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish)

Although we much prefer to make our own purchases at brick-and-mortar bookshops owned by independent booksellers (for serendipity, if nothing else), search engines such as those noted above have certainly made it much easier to find that otherwise difficult-to-locate title that you may have been seeking for years beyond count....