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From: jon@lindy.stanford.edu (Jon Corelis)
Newsgroups: alt.book.technical,rec.arts.books,comp.edu,fidonet.library
Subject: Re: Why city and state in bibliographies?
Message-ID: <jon.657598485@lindy>
Date: 3 Nov 90 02:14:45 GMT
References: <1990Nov2.024548.7207@techbook.com>
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   A proper bibliographical citation should identify exactly what
edition of a given title is being referred to.  Editions published in
different places are potentially different in pagination, physical
appearance, price,  and even content.  This may not be so true of major
modern publishers in developed countries, where publishing practices
are fairly standardized, but it can be important in regard to small
presses, older titles, and titles published in countries where the
publishing industry is not so highly organized.  And even in the case
of current books of big publishers, it's still useful to have as much
information about the book as possible in order to track it down.

   I've noticed that some people on the net give the ISBN as a
reference.  The intention of giving precise information is commendable,
but the ISBN really isn't one of the most important pieces of
information.  (It can be useful if you want a bookstore to order the
book, but if you have a proper citation, it's easy to look up the ISBN.
On the other hand, if you have an insufficiently detailed citation, it
can be difficult to find the book even if you have the ISBN.) The most
important bibliographical information is the author's full name, book
title, publisher, year, and edition if relevant; other information is
useful but optional.

   So this might be a good place to make a plea for better book citations
on the net.  As an example, here is a bad citation:

      I read about this theory that flying saucers really come from 
      Tibet in this book called I think Himalian (sp?) Aliens by a 
      guy named Smith or something like that.

And here is a good citation:

      I read about this theory that flying saucers really come from
      Tibet in the book Aliens of the Himalayas:  The Tibetan UFO
      Connection, by Geoffrey Quackenbush Smythe (Crackpot Pub. 
      2nd ed. 1987.)
--


Jon Corelis               jon@lindy.stanford.edu
Stanford University       BITNET:  GF.JXC@FORSYTHE.STANFORD.EDU