Information Bureaux and Special Libraries

Date:
19 September - 22 September 1930
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/37/7
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Information Bureaux and Special Libraries. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/122 (page 22)
    PUBLISHERS’ CATALOGUES. The following resolution was passed at the 1929 Conference of the Association at Cambridge : That this Conference would like to draw the attention of those responsible to the inadequate bibliographical details given in the majority of publishers’ catalogues. The minimum information which should be supplied is: Author, title, editor, and, or, translator (if any), date, illustrations (if any), number of pages, binding, edition ot impression, size and price. In addition the Conference deplores the common mis-use of the terms ‘“ Reprint,” ‘‘ impression,” and “‘ edition.” They would suggest that much confusion would be avoided and much time saved if the precise meaning of these terms were strictly adhered to by all concerned. The Council have been in communication with the Publishers’ Association in regard to this matter, and it has been the subject of informal discussion with individual publishers. Although the Publishers’ Association is not primarily concerned with matters of this kind, the subject of the resolution has in part been considered by a joint committee of the Publishers’ Association and the Associated Booksellers. Many members of ASLIB will be interested in the following recommendations of the joint committee : (1) That the title page of every book should bear the date of the year of publication ; #.e., of the year in which the impression, or the re-issue, of which it forms a part, was first put on the market. (2) That when stock is re-issued in a new form, the title page should bear the date of the new issue, and each copy should be described as a “‘ re-issue,” either on the title page or in a bibliographical note. (3) That the date at which a book was last revised should be indicated either on the title page or in a bibliographical note. They recommend the adoption of the following definitions : ImpRESSION.—A number of copies printed at any one time. When a book is reptinted without change it should be called a new impression, to distinguish it from an edition as defined below. Eprt1ion.—An impression in which the matter has undergone some change, or for which the type has been re-set. Re-Issuz.—A re-publication at a different price, or in a different form, of part of an impression which has already been placed on the market. . The Publishers’? Association have no power to enforce these recommendations upon publishers generally, and do not desire to exercise any such power. It would seem that the way of reform is for book purchasers to lose no opportunity of impressing upon book- sellers and publishers their dissatisfaction in cases where books and announcements of books are defective in regard to bibliographical information. ‘LURICH CONFERENCE. Rarlier in the year the Council received an invitation for a repre- sentative to present a paper at the Conference of the International Institute of Bibliography which was held at Zurich in August. They were most fortunate in that Colonel Sir Frederic Nathan was attending the Conference and he agreed to speak on “ The Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux and its work.” Sir Frederic’s paper gives a most interesting survey of the establishment