{"id":4059,"date":"2021-10-28T07:48:30","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T15:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=4059"},"modified":"2021-10-28T07:48:30","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T15:48:30","slug":"a-reference-book-workshop-q-a-with-our-master-and-commander-vic-zoschak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=4059","title":{"rendered":"A Reference Book Workshop Q & A with our Master-and-Commander Vic Zoschak"},"content":{"rendered":"

As it is fall and us book folk cannot seem to help ourselves when it comes to books and study, we decided to do a little sit down Q&A with Vic Zoschak… leader of Tavistock Books, previous ABAA President, awarder of Rare Book School Scholarships, all-around mentor and teacher of a popular Reference Book Workshop! Due to unforseen circumstances (after all, who could have possibly forseen 2020) we haven’t\u00a0been able to hold our Reference Book Workshop in a number of years. So this week\u00a0we decided to answer some important questions for those just beginning in the business of bookselling!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Q: V, you’ve been in the business of bookselling for a few decades now… and you’ve mastered plenty of roles within it! You own your own store, you’ve advised and trained employees, given Rare Book School scholarships, been the President of the ABAA, and offered several years of workshops\u00a0at Tavistock Books on Use of Reference Books\u00a0for beginning booksellers… How many years have you been mentoring others, and how did you begin to do so?<\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Well, Ms P, mentoring isn’t something I consciously sought out, rather opportunities to lend a helping hand came my way… \u00a0besides a personal wish to help a given individual, as you know, I’m a long-time advocate for the ABAA, and in many of those beginning booksellers, I saw a potential ABAA member. \u00a0As a result, many whom I’ve aided over the years are now ABAA colleagues as well.<\/p>\n

As to my workshops, I started those about 2 decades ago… \u00a0I think the first was on “First Edition Identification”, and was offered to help new IOBA members in this particular area. \u00a0The workshops then morphed into a day long seminar on the use of Reference Books in the Antiquarian Book Trade, where, besides reviewing trade jargon & condition descriptors, I mainly tried to expose newbie booksellers to the standard references they’ll encounter \/ need in a few basic subject areas: Literature, \u00a0Childrens; Americana, with an emphasis on Western Americana & Californiana.<\/p>\n

Now that the pandemic is waning, perhaps time to think about hosting another. \u00a0We’ll see.<\/p>\n

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Q: If we had to pick the most important lesson you could offer an up-n-coming bookseller, which would it be?<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Actually two:<\/p>\n

– \u00a0with a nod to Stephen Covey, “Begin with the end in mind”<\/p>\n