Abook is awritten work of substantial length by one or moreauthors. They can be distributed in various forms including as printed books,audiobooks, and electronic books (ebooks). Books are broadlyclassified intofiction (containing invented content, often narratives) andnon-fiction (containing content intended as factual truth).
The term can also refer to the physical or electronic object that contains such a work. Modern printed books are typically composed of many pagesbound together and protected by acover. This is known as thecodex format. Codices have been created for centuries and were used even before printed books were available to create manuscript books by hand. Older formats includescrolls andclay tablets.
The modern book industry has seen several major changes due to new technologies, including ebooks and audiobooks (recordings of books read aloud). Awareness of the needs of people withprint disabilities has led to a rise informats designed for greater accessibility such asbraille printing andlarge-print editions.
Google Books estimated in 2010 that approximately 130 million total unique books had beenpublished. The book publishing process is the series of steps involved in book creation and dissemination.Books are sold at general retail stores and specialized bookstores, as well as online (for delivery), and can be borrowed fromlibraries orpublic bookcases. Thereception of books has led to a number of social consequences, includingcensorship.
Books are sometimes contrasted withperiodical literature, such as newspapers or magazines, where new editions are published according to a regular schedule. Related items, also broadly categorized as "books", are left empty for personal use: as in the case ofaccount books, appointment books,autograph books,notebooks,diaries andsketchbooks.
Etymology
The wordbook comes from theOld Englishbōc, which in turn likely comes from theGermanic root*bōk-,cognate to "beech".[1] InSlavic languages likeRussian,Bulgarian,Macedonianбукваbukva—"letter" is cognate with "beech". InRussian,Serbian andMacedonian, the wordбукварь (bukvar') orбуквар (bukvar) refers to a primary school textbook that helps young children master the techniques of reading and writing. It is thus conjectured that the earliestIndo-European writings may have been carved on beech wood.[2] The Latin wordcodex, describing the format used by a modern book, bound and with separate leaves, originally meant "block of wood".[3]
Definitions
A book is traditionally composed of many pages bound together along one edge and protected by a cover, but technological advances have expanded the meaning of the term substantially over time with the evolution of communication media.[4] A specific definition was given byUNESCO in 1964 for recording national statistics on book production: "a non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages, exclusive of the cover pages, published in the country and made available to the public". This distinguished them from other written material such aspamphlets.[5][6] Kovačet al. critiqued this definition as not accounting for new formats. They proposed four criteria (length, textual content, a defined form, and "information architecture [such as] linear structure and key textual elements") that different types of books would meet to different degrees. In their "hierarchy of the book", formats that fulfill more criteria are more similar to the traditional printed book.[7][8]
Historian of booksJames Raven has suggested that when studying how books have been used to communicate, they should be defined in a broadly inclusive way as "portable, durable, replicable and legible" means of recording and disseminating information, rather than relying on physical or contextual features. This would include, for example, ebooks,newspapers, andquipus (a form of knot-based recording historically used by cultures inAndeanSouth America), but not objects fixed in place such as inscribed monuments.[9][10] Professor of book history and publishing studies Zoran Velagić wrote that "consensus does not exist 'even at the level of a basic definition'" for the book.[7]
The earliest forms of writing were etched on tablets, transitioning to palm leaves and papyrus in ancient times. Parchment and paper later emerged as important substrates for bookmaking, introducing greater durability and accessibility.[11] Across regions likeChina, theMiddle East,Europe, andSouth Asia, diverse methods of book production evolved. The Middle Ages saw the rise of illuminated manuscripts, intricately blending text and imagery, particularly during the Mughal era in South Asia under the patronage of rulers like Akbar and Shah Jahan.[12][13]
Prior to the invention of theprinting press in the 15th century, made famous by theGutenberg Bible, each text was a unique handcrafted valuable article, personalized through the design features incorporated by the scribe, owner, bookbinder, and illustrator.[14] Its creation marked a pivotal moment for book production. Innovations like movable type and steam-powered presses accelerated manufacturing processes and contributed to increased literacy rates. Copyright protection also emerged, securing authors' rights and shaping the publishing landscape.[15] The Late Modern Period introducedchapbooks, catering to a wider range of readers, and mechanization of the printing process further enhanced efficiency.
The 20th century witnessed the advent of typewriters, computers, and desktop publishing, transforming document creation and printing.Digital advancements in the 21st century led to the rise of ebooks, propelled by the popularity of ereaders and accessibility features. While discussions about the potential decline of physical books have surfaced, print media has proven remarkably resilient, continuing to thrive as a multi-billion dollar industry.[16] Additionally, efforts to make literature more inclusive emerged, with the development of braille for the visually impaired and the creation of spoken books, providing alternative ways for individuals to access and enjoy literature.[17]
Some of the earliest written records were made on tablets. Clay tablets (flattened pieces of clay impressed with astylus) were used in theAncient Near East throughout theBronze Age and well into theIron Age, especially for writing incuneiform. Wax tablets (pieces of wood covered in a layer of wax) were used inclassical antiquity and throughout theMiddle Ages.
The custom of binding several wax tablets together (Romanpugillares) is a possible precursor of modern bound books.[18] The etymology of the wordcodex (block of wood) suggests that it may have developed from wooden wax tablets.[19]
Scrolls made frompapyrus were first used for writing inAncient Egypt, perhaps as early as theFirst Dynasty, although the earliest evidence is from the account books of KingNeferirkare Kakai of the Fifth Dynasty (about 2400 BC). According toHerodotus (History 5:58), thePhoenicians brought writing and papyrus toGreece around the 10th or 9th century BC. Whether made from papyrus, parchment, or paper, scrolls were the dominant writing medium in theHellenistic, Roman, Chinese,Hebrew, and Macedonian cultures. The codex dominated in the Roman world byLate Antiquity, but scrolls persisted much longer in Asia.[20][21]
The codex is the ancestor of the modern book. It introduced the format where sheets of uniform size werebound along one edge, and typically held between two covers made of some more robust material. Unlike modern books, the early codices were hand-written manuscripts, and the pages were not made from paper, but typicallyparchment orvellum, derived from animal hides.[22] The first written mention of the codex as a form of book is fromMartial, in hisApophoretaCLXXXIV at the end of the first century, where he praises its compactness.[23] The codex format gradually displaced the scroll. The vast majority of surviving Christian texts from before the 5th-century AD (158 of 172 documents as of 2002) are codices. Paganauthors were slower to transition, but nearly all Greek texts were being composed as codices rather than scrolls by the end of the 4th century AD.[24] InIslam, many of theearliest manuscript copies of theQuran were composed as codices.[25] Jewish authors were slower to adopt the new format—the oldest surviving Jewish codices date to the 10th century AD—resulting in the scroll becoming a visual shorthand for Jewish culture.[24] To the present day,Torah scrolls are still read aloud in synagogues duringJewish prayers.[26]
Scribes independently developed a similar codex format inpre-Columbian Mesoamerica.[27][28] TheMaya codices andAztec codices were manuscript books written onto long folded strips of either fig bark (amatl) or plant fibers and bound between wooden planks. Only a handful have survived.[29]
Manuscripts, handwritten and hand-copied documents, were the only form of writing before the invention and widespread adoption of print. Advances were made in the techniques used to create them.
In the earlyWestern Roman Empire,monasteries continuedLatin writing traditions related toChristianity, and the clergy were the predominant readers and copyists. The bookmaking process was long and laborious. They were usually written onparchment orvellum, writing surfaces made from processed animal skin. The parchment had to be prepared, then the unbound pages were planned and ruled with a blunt tool or lead, after which the text was written by ascribe, who usually left blank areas for illustration andrubrication. Finally, it was bound by a bookbinder.[30]
Because of the difficulties involved in making and copying books, they were expensive and rare. Smaller monasteries usually had only a few dozen books. By the 9th century, larger collections held around 500 volumes and even at the end of the Middle Ages, the papal library inAvignon and Paris library of theSorbonne held only around 2,000 volumes.[31]
The rise of universities in the 13th century led to an increased demand for books, and a new system for copying appeared. The books were divided into unbound leaves (pecia), which were lent out to different copyists, so the speed of book production was considerably increased. The system was maintained by secularstationers guilds, which produced both religious and non-religious material.[32]
Burgundian author and scribeJean Miélot, from hisMiracles de Notre Dame, 15th century
In India, bound manuscripts made of birch bark or palm leaf had existed since antiquity.[33] The text inpalm leaf manuscripts was inscribed with a knife pen on rectangular cut and cured palm leaf sheets; coloring was then applied to the surface and wiped off, leaving the ink in the incised grooves. Each sheet typically had a hole through which a string could pass, and with these the sheets were tied together with a string to bind like a book.
Woodblock printing
Bagh print, a traditional woodblock printing technique that originated inBagh, Madhya Pradesh,India
In woodblock printing, a relief image of an entire page is carved into blocks of wood, inked, and used to print copies of that page. It originated in theHan dynasty before 220 AD, used to printtextiles and later paper, and was widely used throughoutEast Asia. The oldest dated book printed by this method isThe Diamond Sutra (868 AD). The method (calledwoodcut when used in art) arrived in Europe in the early 14th century. Books (known asblock-books), as well asplaying-cards andreligious pictures, began to be produced by this method. Creating an entire book was a painstaking process, requiring a hand-carved block for each page, and the wooden blocks could crack if stored for too long.
Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Son Masters, the earliest known book printed with movable metal type, printed in Korea, in 1377,Bibliothèque nationale de France
Steam-powered printing presses became popular in the early 19th century. These machines could print 1,100 sheets per hour,[35] but workers could only set 2,000 letters per hour.[36]Monotype andlinotype typesetting machines were introduced in the late 19th century. They could set more than 6,000 letters per hour and an entire line of type at once. There have been numerous improvements in the printing press. In mid-20th century, European book production had risen to over 200,000 titles per year.
During the 20th century, libraries faced an ever-increasing rate of publishing, sometimes called aninformation explosion. The advent ofelectronic publishing and theinternet means that new information is often published online rather than in printed books, for example through adigital library. "Print on demand" technologies, which make it possible to print as few as one book at a time, have made self-publishing (andvanity publishing) much easier and more affordable, and has allowed publishers to keep low-selling books in print rather than declaring them out of print.
Presently, books are typically produced by a publishing company in order to be put on the market by distributors and bookstores. The publisher negotiates a formal legal agreement withauthors in order to obtain thecopyright to works, then arranges for them to be produced and sold. The major steps of the publishing process are: editing and proofreading the work to be published; designing the printed book; manufacturing the books; and selling the books, including marketing and promotion. Each of these steps is usually taken on by third-party companies paid by the publisher.[5] This is in contrast toself-publishing, where an author pays for the production and distribution of their own work and manages some or all steps of the publishing process.[37]
Left page (verso if printing is left to right,recto if right to left)
Gutter
Modern books are organized according to a particular format called the book'slayout. Although there is great variation in layout, modern books tend to adhere to a set of rules with regard to what the parts of the layout are and what their content usually includes. A basic layout will include afront cover, aback cover and the book's content which is called itsbody copy orcontent pages. The front cover often bears the book's title (and subtitle, if any) and the name of its author or editor(s). Theinside front cover page is usually left blank in both hardcover and paperback books. The next section, if present, is the book'sfront matter, which includes all textual material after the front cover but not part of the book's content such as a foreword, a dedication, a table of contents and publisher data such as the book's edition or printing number and place of publication. Between the body copy and the back cover goes theend matter which would include any indices, sets of tables, diagrams, glossaries or lists of cited works (though an edited book with several authors usually places cited works at the end of each authored chapter). Theinside back cover page, like that inside the front cover, is usually blank. Theback cover is the usual place for the book'sISBN and maybe a photograph of the author(s)/ editor(s), perhaps with a short introduction to them. Also here often appear plot summaries, barcodes and excerpted reviews of the book.[40]
The body of the books is usually divided into parts, chapters, sections and sometimes subsections that are composed of at least a paragraph or more.
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover.[41] A series of terms commonly used by contemporary libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books ranges fromfolio (the largest), toquarto (smaller) andoctavo (still smaller). Historically, these terms referred to the format of the book, a technical term used by printers and bibliographers to indicate the size of a leaf in terms of the size of the original sheet. For example, a quarto was a book printed on sheets of paper folded in half twice, with the first fold at right angles to the second, to produce 4 leaves (or 8 pages), each leaf one fourth the size of the original sheet printed – note that aleaf refers to the single piece of paper, whereas apage is one side of a leaf. Because the actual format of many modern books cannot be determined from examination of the books, bibliographers may not use these terms in scholarly descriptions.
While some form of book illustration has existed since the invention of writing, the modern Western tradition of illustration began with 15th-centuryblock books, in which the book's text and images were cut into the same block.[42] Techniques such asengraving,etching, andlithography have also been influential.
Manufacturing
Several book spines displayed on a shelf
The methods used for the printing and binding of books continued fundamentally unchanged from the 15th century into the early 20th century. While there was moremechanization, abook printer in 1900 still used movable metal type assembled into words, lines, and pages to create copies. Modern paper books are printed onpaper designed specifically for printing. Traditionally, book papers are off-white or low-white papers (easier to read), are opaque to minimize the show-through of text from one side of the page to the other and are (usually) made to tightercaliper or thickness specifications, particularly for case-bound books. Different paper qualities are used depending on the type of book:Machine finished coated papers,woodfree uncoated papers,coated fine papers andspecial fine papers are common paper grades.
Today, the majority of books are printed byoffset lithography.[43] When a book is printed, the pages are laid out on the plate so that after the printed sheet is folded the pages will be in the correct sequence. Books tend to be manufactured nowadays in a few standard sizes. Thesizes of books are usually specified as "trim size": the size of the page after the sheet has been folded and trimmed. The standard sizes result from sheet sizes (therefore machine sizes) which became popular 200 or 300 years ago, and have come to dominate the industry. British conventions in this regard prevail throughout the English-speaking world, except for the US. The European book manufacturing industry works to a completely different set of standards.
Hardcover books have a stiff binding, whilepaperback books have cheaper, flexible covers which tend to be less durable. Publishers may produce low-cost pre-publication copies known asgalleys or "bound proofs" for promotional purposes, such as generating reviews in advance of publication. Galleys are usually made as cheaply as possible, since they are not intended for sale.
Some books, particularly those with shorter runs (i.e. with fewer copies) will be printed on sheet-fed offset presses, but most books are now printed onweb presses, which are fed by a continuous roll of paper, and can consequently print more copies in a shorter time. As the production line circulates, a complete "book" is collected together in one stack of pages, and another machine carries out the folding, pleating, and stitching of the pages into bundles ofsignatures (sections of pages) ready to go into the gathering line. The pages of a book are printed two at a time, not as one complete book. Excess numbers are printed to make up for any spoilage due to make-readies or test pages to assure final print quality.
Amake-ready is the preparatory work carried out by the pressmen to get the printing press up to the required quality ofimpression. Included in make-ready is the time taken to mount the plate onto the machine, clean up any mess from the previous job, and get the press up to speed. As soon as the pressman decides that the printing is correct, all the make-ready sheets will be discarded, and the press will start making books. Similar make readies take place in the folding and binding areas, each involving spoilage of paper.
Recent developments in book manufacturing include the development of digital printing. Book pages are printed, in much the same way as an office copier works, usingtoner rather than ink. Each book is printed in one pass, not as separate signatures. Digital printing has permitted the manufacture of much smaller quantities than offset, in part because of the absence of make readies and of spoilage. Digital printing has opened up the possibility of print-on-demand, where no books are printed until after an order is received from a customer.
12-metre-high (40 ft) sculpture of a stack of books at the BerlinWalk of Ideas, commemorating the invention of modern book printing
After the signatures are folded and gathered, they move into thebindery. In the middle of last century there were still many trade binders—stand-alone binding companies which did no printing, specializing in binding alone. At that time, because of the dominance of letterpress printing, typesetting and printing took place in one location, and binding in a different factory. When type was all metal, a typical book's worth of type would be bulky, fragile and heavy. The less it was moved in this condition the better: so printing would be carried out in the same location as the typesetting. Printed sheets on the other hand could easily be moved. Now, because of increasingcomputerization of preparing a book for the printer, the typesetting part of the job has flowed upstream, where it is done either by separately contracting companies working for the publisher, by the publishers themselves, or even by the authors. Mergers in the book manufacturing industry mean that it is now unusual to find a bindery which is not also involved in book printing (and vice versa).
If the book is a hardback its path through the bindery will involve more points of activity than if it is a paperback. Unsewn binding is now increasingly common. The signatures of a book can also be held together by "Smyth sewing" using needles,"McCain sewing", using drilled holes often used in schoolbook binding, or"notch binding", where gashes about an inch long are made at intervals through the fold in the spine of each signature. The rest of the binding process is similar in all instances. Sewn and notch bound books can be bound as either hardbacks or paperbacks.
Finishing
"Making cases" happens off-line and prior to the book's arrival at the binding line. In the most basic case-making, two pieces of cardboard are placed onto a glued piece of cloth with a space between them into which is glued a thinner board cut to the width of the spine of the book. The overlapping edges of the cloth (about 5/8" all round) are folded over the boards, and pressed down to adhere. After case-making the stack of cases will go to thefoil stamping area for adding decorations and type.
An example of someone using ascreen reader showing documents that are inaccessible, readable and accessible
Accessible publishing is an approach to publishing and book design whereby books and other texts are made available in alternative formats designed to aid or replace the reading process. It is particularly relevant for people who are blind,visually impaired or otherwiseprint-disabled.
Alternative formats that have been developed to aid different people to read include varieties of largerfonts, specialized fonts for certain kinds ofreading disabilities, braille, ebooks, and automated audiobooks andDAISY digital talking books.
Accessible publishing has been made easier through developments in technology such as print on demand, ebook readers, theXML structured data format, theEPUB3 format and the Internet.
An audiobook or talking book is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions areabridgements.
Spoken audio has been available inschools andpublic libraries and to a lesser extent inmusic shops since the 1930s. Manyspoken word albums were made prior to the age ofcassettes,compact discs, anddownloadable audio, often ofpoetry andplays rather than books. It was not until the 1980s that the medium began to attract book retailers, and then book retailers started displaying audiobooks on bookshelves rather than in separate displays.
An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on theflat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices.[44] Although sometimes defined as "an electronic version of a printed book",[45] some ebooks exist without a printed equivalent. Ebooks can be read on dedicatede-reader devices and on any computer device that features a controllable viewing screen, includingdesktop computers,laptops,tablets andsmartphones.
In some markets, the sale of printed books has decreased due to the increased use of ebooks. However, printed books still largely outsell ebooks, and many people have a preference for print.[46][47][48][49]
Dummy books
Cigarette smuggling with a book
Dummy books (or faux books) are books that are designed to imitate a real book by appearance to deceive people, some books may be whole with empty pages, others may be hollow or in other cases, there may be a whole panel carved with spines which are then painted to look like books, titles of some books may also be fictitious.
There are many reasons to have dummy books on display such as; to allude visitors of the vast wealth of information in their possession and to inflate the owner's appearance of wealth, to conceal something,[50] for shop displays or for decorative purposes.
In early 19th century atGwrych Castle,North Wales,Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh was known for his vast collection of books at his library, however, at the later part of that same century, the public became aware that parts of his library was a fabrication, dummy books were built and then locked behind glass doors to stop people from trying to access them, from this a proverb was born, "Like Hesky's library, all outside".[51][52]
Libraries, bookstores, and collections commonly divide books intofiction andnon-fiction, though other types exist beyond this. Other books, which remainunpublished or are primarily published as part of different business functions (such as phone directories), may not be sold by bookstores or collected by libraries. Manuscripts, logbooks and other records may be classified and stored differently byspecial collections orarchives.
Fiction
Fiction books are invented material, typically narratives. Other literary forms such aspoetry are included in the broad category. Most fiction is additionally categorized byliterary form andgenre.
Thenovel is the most common form of fiction book. Novels are extended works of narrative fiction, typically featuring a plot, setting, themes and characters. The novel has had a tremendous impact on entertainment and publishing markets.[53][better source needed] Anovella is a term sometimes used for fictionprose typically between 17,500 and 40,000 words, and anovelette between 7,500 and 17,500. Ashort story may be any length up to 10,000 words, but these word lengths vary.
Comic books orgraphic novels are books in which the story is illustrated. The characters and narrators use speech or thought bubbles to express verbal language.
Non-fiction books are in principle based on fact, encompassing subjects such as history, politics, social and cultural issues, as well asautobiographies andmemoirs. Nearly allacademic literature is non-fiction.
Reference books are non-fiction books intended to be quickly referred to for information, rather than read beginning to end. The writing style used in these works is informative; the authors avoid opinions and the use of the first person, and emphasize facts.
Analmanac is a very general reference book, usually one-volume, with lists of data and information on many topics. Anencyclopedia is a book or set of books designed to have more in-depth articles on many topics. A book listing words, their etymology, meanings, and other information is called adictionary. Anatlas is a book containing a collection ofmaps. A specialized reference work giving information about a particular field or technique, often intended for professional use, is often called ahandbook. Books which try to list references and abstracts in a certain broad area may be called anindex, such asEngineering Index, orabstracts such as chemical abstracts and biological abstracts.
Books with technical information on how to do something or how to use some equipment are calledinstruction manuals. Other popular how-to books includecookbooks andhome improvement books.
Educational
Students often carrytextbooks and schoolbooks for study purposes.Lap books are a learning tool created by students.Elementary school pupils often useworkbooks, which are published with spaces or blanks to be filled by them for study orhomework. In UShigher education, it is common for a student to take an exam using ablue book.
Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which variousreligions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments andlaws, ethical conduct, spiritual aspirations, and admonitions for fostering a religious community.
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created forchildren. In addition to conventionalliterary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reader, ranging frompicture books for the very young toyoung adult fiction for those nearing maturity.
Children's literature can be traced to traditional stories likefairy tales, which have only been identified as children's literature since the eighteenth century, and songs, part of a wideroral tradition, which adults shared with children before publishing existed. The development of early children's literature, before printing was invented, is difficult to trace. Even after printing became widespread, many classic "children's" tales were originally created for adults and later adapted for a younger audience. Since the fifteenth century much literature has been aimed specifically at children, often with a moral or religious message. Children's literature has been shaped by religious sources, like Puritan traditions, or by more philosophical and scientific standpoints with the influences of Charles Darwin and John Locke.[54] The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are known as the "Golden Age of Children's Literature" because many classic children's books were published then.
Personal and public libraries, archives and other forms of book collection have led to the creation of many different organization and classification strategies. In the 19th and 20th century, libraries and library professionals systematized book collecting and classification systems to respond to the growing industry. The most widely used system isISBN, which has provided unique identifiers for books since 1970.
TheLibrary of Celsus inEphesus, Turkey, was built in 135 AD, and could house around 12,000 scrolls.
A library is a collection of books, and possibly othermaterials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location, a virtual space, or both. A library's collection normally includes printed materials which may be borrowed, and usually also includes a reference section of publications which may only be utilized inside the premises. Resources such as commercial releases of films, television programs, other video recordings, radio, music and audio recordings may be available in many formats. These includeDVDs,Blu-rays,CDs,cassettes, or other applicable formats such asmicroform. They may also provide access to information, music or other content held onbibliographic databases.
Libraries can vary widely in size and may be organized and maintained by a public body such as a government, an institution (such as a school or museum), a corporation, or a private individual. In addition to providing materials, libraries also provide the services oflibrarians who are trained experts in finding, selecting, circulating and organising information while interpreting information needs and navigating and analyzing large amounts of information with a variety of resources.
Library buildings often provide quiet areas for studying, as well as common areas for group study and collaboration, and may provide public facilities for access to their electronic resources, such as computers and access to the Internet.
The library's clientele and general services offered vary depending on its type: users of apublic library have different needs from those of aspecial library or academic library, for example. Libraries may also be community hubs, where programs are made available and people engage in lifelong learning. Modern libraries extend their services beyond the physical walls of the building by providing material accessible by electronic means, including from home via the Internet.
In 2011, theInternational Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) created theInternational Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) in order to standardize descriptions in bibliographies and library catalogs. Each book is specified by an International Standard Book Number, or ISBN, which is meant to be unique to every edition of every book produced by participating publishers, worldwide. It is managed by the ISBN Society. An ISBN has four parts: the first part is the country code, the second the publisher code, and the third the title code. The last part is acheck digit, and can take values from 0–9 and X (10). TheEANBarcodes numbers for books are derived from the ISBN by prefixing 978, forBookland, and calculating a new check digit.
Commercial publishers in industrialized countries generally assign ISBNs to their books, so buyers may presume that the ISBN is part of a total international system, with no exceptions. However, many government publishers, in industrial as well as developing countries, do not participate fully in the ISBN system, and publish books which do not have ISBNs. A large or public collection requires acatalogue. Codes called "call numbers" relate the books to the catalogue, and determine their locations on the shelves. Call numbers are based on aLibrary classification system. The call number is placed on the spine of the book, normally a short distance before the bottom, and inside. Institutional or national standards, such asANSI/NISO Z39.41 – 1997, establish the correct way to place information (such as thetitle, or the name of the author) on book spines, and on "shelvable" book-like objects, such as containers forDVDs,video tapes andsoftware.
Books on library shelves and call numbers visible on the spines
One of the earliest and most widely known systems of cataloguing books is theDewey Decimal System. Another widely known system is theLibrary of Congress Classification system. Both systems are biased towards subjects which were well represented in US libraries when they were developed, and hence have problems handling new subjects, such as computing, or subjects relating to other cultures.[55] Information about books and authors can be stored in databases likeonline general-interest book databases.Metadata, which means "data about data" is information about a book. Metadata about a book may include its title, ISBN or other classification number (see above), the names of contributors (author, editor, illustrator) and publisher, its date and size, the language of the text, its subject matter, etc.
Book and paper conservation seeks to prevent and, in some cases, reverse damage due to handling,inherent vice, and the environment.[57][58] Conservators determine proper methods ofstorage for books and documents, including boxes and shelving to prevent further damage and promote long-term storage.[59] Carefully chosen methods and techniques of active conservation can both reverse damage and prevent further damage in batches or single-item treatments based on the value of the book or document.[60]
Historically, book restoration techniques were less formalized and carried out by various roles and training backgrounds. Nowadays, the conservation of paper documents and books is often performed by a professional conservator.[58][61] Many paper or book conservators are members of a professional body, such as theAmerican Institute for Conservation (AIC) or theGuild of Bookworkers (both in the United States), theArchives and Records Association (in the United Kingdom and Ireland), or theInstitute of Conservation (ICON) (in the United Kingdom).[62]
The impact of books can be various, and record of that reception comes in several formats: starting with initial public reception in contemporary newspapers,pop culture and correspondence, and then developing with different forms of literary criticism by professional and academic critics. For the publishing industry the "book review" is an important part of increasing awareness and reception of a book: able to make or break the public opinion about a new book.[citation needed]
Abook review is a form ofliterary criticism in which a book is described, and usually further analyzed based on content, style, and merit.[63] A book review may be aprimary source, an opinion piece, a summary review, or a scholarly view.[64] Books can be reviewed for printed periodicals, magazines, and newspapers, as school work, or for book websites on the Internet. A book review's length may vary from a single paragraph to a substantialessay. Such areview may evaluate the book based on personal taste. Reviewers may use the occasion of a book review for an extended essay that can be closely or loosely related to the subject of the book, or to promulgate their ideas on the topic of a fiction ornon-fiction work.
Book censorship is the act of some authority taking measures to suppress ideas and information within a book.[65]Censorship is "the regulation of free speech and other forms of entrenched authority".[66] Censors typically identify as either a concerned parent, community members who react to a text without reading, or local or national organizations.[67] Books have been censored by authoritarian dictatorships to silence dissent, such as thePeople's Republic of China,Nazi Germany and theSoviet Union. Books are most often censored for age appropriateness, offensive language, sexual content, amongst other reasons.[68] Similarly, religions may issue lists of banned books, such as the historical example of theCatholic Church'sIndex Librorum Prohibitorum and bans of such books asSalman Rushdie'sThe Satanic Verses byAyatollah Khomeini,[69] which do not always carry legal force. Censorship can be enacted at the national or subnational level as well, and can carry legal penalties. In many cases, the authors of these books could face harsh sentences, exile from the country, or even execution.[70][71]
Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element ofcensorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question.[72] Book burning can be an act of contempt for the book's contents or author, intended to draw wider public attention to this opposition, or conceal the information contained in the text from being made public, such as diaries or ledgers. Burning and other methods of destruction are together known as biblioclasm or libricide.
In other cases, such as theNazi book burnings, copies of the destroyed books survive, but the instance of book burning becomes emblematic of a harsh and oppressive regime which is seeking to censor or silence some aspect of prevailing culture.
^abFeather, John; Sturges, Paul (2003).International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 41–44.ISBN0-415-25901-0.OCLC50480180.
^Blair, Sheila; Bloom, Jonathan (1997). "Penmen and Painters: The Arts of the Book".Islamic Arts. London: Phaidon. pp. 193–220.
^Hillenbrand, Robert (2002). "The Arts of the Book in Ilkhanid Iran".The Legacy of Genghis Khan. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 134–167.
^Sardar, Marika (October 2003)."The Art of the Mughals after 1600".Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York.Archived from the original on June 1, 2021. RetrievedMay 21, 2021 – via The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
^Pearson, David (2011).Books As History: The Importance of Books Beyond Their Texts. London: The British Library and Oak Knoll Press. p. 23.ISBN978-0-7123-5832-3.
^Lyons, Martyn (2011).Books: A Living History. Los Angeles: Getty Publications. p. 116.ISBN978-1-60606-083-4.
^Avrin, Leila (2010).Scribes, Script, and Books: The Book Arts from Antiquity to the Renaissance. American Library Association. p. 173.ISBN9780838910382.
^Young, Edd. Frances; Ayres, Lewis; Louth, Andrew; White, Ron (2004).The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature. Cambridge University Press. pp. 8–9.
^Diehl, Edith (1980).Bookbinding : its background and technique. New York: Dover Publications. pp. 14–16.ISBN0-486-24020-7.OCLC7027090.
^Joachim, Martin D. (2003).Historical Aspects of Cataloging and Classification. New York: Haworth Information Press. p. 452.ISBN9780789019813.OCLC683191430.
^Clapham, Michael, "Printing" inA History of Technology, Vol 2.From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, edd. Charles Singeret al. (Oxford 1957), p. 377. Cited fromElizabeth L. Eisenstein,The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (Cambridge University, 1980).
^Roberts, Matt; Etherington, Don (1982).Bookbinding and the conservation of books: a dictionary of descriptive terminology. Library of Congress. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress.ISBN978-0-8444-0366-3.
^Gardiner, Eileen and Ronald G. Musto. "The Electronic Book." In Suarez, Michael Felix, and H. R. Woudhuysen.The Oxford Companion to the Book.Archived September 12, 2019, at theWayback Machine Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 164.
^"e-book".Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Archived fromthe original on February 8, 2011. RetrievedSeptember 2, 2010.
^"Caring for Your Treasures".American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works. Archived fromthe original on November 4, 2014. RetrievedApril 26, 2014..
^"What is Conservation".Institute of Conservation. The Institute of Conservation. Archived fromthe original on May 13, 2020. RetrievedMarch 9, 2020.
^Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (2011)."Book reviews".Scholarly definition document. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Archived fromthe original on September 10, 2011. RetrievedSeptember 22, 2011.
^Chapman, Roger; Ciment, James (2014).Culture Wars in America : an Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices (2nd ed.). Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe.ISBN978-0765683175.OCLC881383488.
^Swan, John (1991). "'The Satanic Verses,' the 'Fatwa,' and Its Aftermath: A Review Article".The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy.61 (4):429–443.
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