Rare Book School
Preliminary Reading List
Before you arrive in class, please:
1. Browse
a. The listings of trade and national bibliographies (pp. 43-105) in Robert Balay, Guide to Reference Books (11th ed., Chicago: ALA, 1996); or
b. Friedrich Domay, Bibliographie der Nationalen Bibliographien/A World Bibliography of National Bibliographies (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1987); or
c. The suggested sections of Gavin Higgens, Printed Reference Material (London, 1980; 2nd ed., 1984): Ch. 15-17 ("Current General Bibliographies"; Geoffrey Groom's chapter on "Bibligraphies of Older Material"; and David Lee's on "Subject Bibliographies"). For these particular chapters, the several editions are nearly identical.
2. If you have done very little bibliographical searching or may feel intimidated, Martha Hackman, The Practical Bibliographer (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970), may be reassuring.
3. For a sense of the instructor's perspective, read the review essay, "Guides to National Bibliographies," in Libraries and Culture (earlier title: Journal of Library History), 24 (1989), 217-30.