The Anatomy of Bibliography - Illinois

Title page (Sep. 14, 11)
Sources
A book about bibliography needs to be filled with citations: To bibliographers, they are the dogs
who take their masters for their morning walks. They are meant, here and most often, not as random
displays of authorial erudition, but as guidance for readers; and not all of them by any means, but
only those who want to probe. If I have omitted important titles, the very latest ones in particular, it
could be either that I have not yet become aware of them, or that I know them but do not know what
to make of them. Nor can I claim to have read all of what I have cited. (Some will argue that I have
misread what I have cited.) There are also writings that I once knew but forgot about, whether many
years or an hour ago; and much more will be written in the future. This selection desperately begs to
be expanded by those who know the specialties better than I do.
Citation Style.
The style designed to be concise but sufficient for readers who know and use printed and online
bibliographies and library catalogues. The citations are mainly for reading, secondarily for searching:
it is more important for readers to recognize them than for them to adhere strictly to cataloguing
rules. I have preferred personal names to corporate entries, for instance, which are often cumbersome,
unclear, and changeable, often pretentious. Imprint dates are of first editions and only major revisions.
Cities are named only when the publisher’s name is uncommon. No publishers before ca. 1900 are
cited: the endorsement of the publishers’ good names is rarely important today.
For the many online sources mentioned here, I do not cite URLs. They are soporific on paper, easy
to garble (they are for machines to read, not people), and changeable. URL’s became common only as
recently as the late 1990s, and by the time readers use this book, their formulations, perhaps even the
concept, may again have changed. (The recent term “linkrot” is suggestive, although it seems now to
be rotting and will likely be soon forgotten.) Online searching, however, is now wonderfully easy, and
should be even easier as search engines improve. I have fitted in words that may be useful in online
searches or will carry some special import to those who know the literature personally.
Major Sources.
The works identified in brief form are as follows:
ALA Guide: the ALA Guide to Reference, online,
also its precursors, the Guide to Reference Books
ALA, 1902–96, edited successively by Alice
Bertha Kroeger, Isidore Gilbert Mudge,
Constance Winchell, Eugene Sheehy, and
Robert Balay.
Balsamo: Luigi Balsamo, Bibliography: Story of a
Tradition (Bernard M. Rosenthal [Berkeley],
1990); Transl. by William A. Pettas of La
bibliografia: storia di una tradizione. Sansoni, 198).
BAM: D. W. Krummel, Bibliographies: Their Aims
& Methods. (Mansell, 1984). A guide for
compilers. Its concepts are developed in this
book, but many of its practices are obsolete,
thanks mostly to the use of personal computers
and the advent of the Internet.