NEWS: Birds of America, the world's most expensive illustrated book, has been sold for a record price of 7.3 million pounds ($11.5 million) at an auction in London. Sotheby's auction house on Tuesday said the price paid for the work of celebrated ornithologist and painter John James Audubon was a record for any printed book at auction. News at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11937736 There are only 119 copies of this book available and most of them must be owned by libraries. Just imagine the wealth situating at libraries as rare books, or on another dimension; imagine libraries auctioning out these books for generating library funding. ------ Dr. J. K. Vijayakumar, Ph.D, Science & Technology Specialist Librarian, King Abdullah University of Science & Technology -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.