Astrology Library Progress Report, 19th December, 2015

Astrolearn astrology library progress report

– No. 18: 19th December, 2015

During the past week, I have completed uploading the main books section of the bibliography at Astrolearn. This is a long-awaited achievement and I’m delighted that it has met with an appreciative reception among friends in the astrological and academic communities. I had initially expected to get this ready by the early Autumn before being called away at short-notice to England for a month in August and then finding that there was more work to do than I’d allowed for on the offline catalogue over the months to follow.

You can find the book catalogue spread over 213 web-pages of roughly equal length, ordered alphabetically by author.

Additionally this past week, I have converted to the ideal format and uploaded a few minor sections to the bibliography, such as Spanish, Italian and Dutch journals, CDs and Tapes, and other non-book items. The links for these are found towards the foot of the bibliography index page.

I am deliberately holding back the German-language periodicals sections until next year, however, for two reasons. One is that a friend in Germany is kindly holding a few almanacs that I need to pay to have sent on in January. The other is that I’m dissatisfied with the standard of collecting I have reached in certain areas with the German-language periodicals, and would ideally like another year or so to fill in for a few obvious gaps. I am undecided about how long to leave it at this stage, however. I might decide to upload what I have got at the end of the first quarter of 2016, or I might leave it until December 2016  to allow a better opportunity to make progress on my extremely limited private budget. In either case, it will be something to look forward to at a later date.

Meanwhile, I am also looking ahead to filling in some gaps in the books section in the first six months of 2016. There have been several important academic releases these past two years that I have not been able to afford yet. It is my hope to gradually rein these in over the first six months of 2016 and upload them to the catalogue. And that is not all.

There are some new general astrology books of recent years that I also want to procure for the archive, including at least four by personal friends in the astrological community. Because of very limited funds, I have not been able to afford these yet. It will also be my aim to obtain several of these over the course of 2016, although I cannot give a definite timescale to when I’ll be able to afford it just yet.

In all, I’m looking ahead to further developing acquisitions in the months to come. As and when significant new arrivals are posted to the catalogue, I shall announce them in future updates here.

Finally, I have updated the “About” page on the website to clarify my open appeal for funding and to add a little more autobiographical context that seeks to show the position I am coming from in relation to the study of the history of astrology.

I don’t know to what extent this is commonly understood, but I am not independently wealthy and do not make nearly enough to live off from sales of Astrolearn scanned vintage astrology book products alone. If I am to continue to be of service on a full-time basis through this website, it is increasingly imperative that I obtain financial sponsorship in the time to come. Failing that, I shall be left with no choice but to seek outside employment and reduce my involvement with Astrolearn to spare-time hobby-level engagement. I would much rather develop it into an excellent resource of international importance for the study of astrology and its history. Nonetheless, I have plenty of plans for additions to it in the year ahead.

Wishing everyone a pleasant festive season in the weeks ahead.

Philip