Book Industry Statistics from the R. R. Bowker Company

Jean Peters

The R. R. Bowker Company has been compiling and publishing statistics on the book industry for more than a century. The history of this effort is reported, with details on how the collection, classification, and publication of data have evolved. Bowker provides statistics on book title output, booksellers (retail and wholesale), and libraries.

T he R. R. Bowker Company has been providing statistics on the book in- dustry since 1880, when the newly published titles listed each week in the

"Weekly Record"- -a t that time a section of Publishers W e e k l y - - w e r e catego- rized by subject at the end of the year and counted. The resulting compilation and analysis appeared in the January 29, 1881, issue of The Publishers Weekly, and an annual count of the title output of the U.S. publishing industry has ap- peared, gradually expanded and enhanced, every year since.

This method of deriving statistics by enumerat ing and analyzing data col- lected essentially for the purpose of listing the data themselves in bibliographic or directory form has resulted in annual statistics from Bowker for two other areas of the book industry. The number of booksellers--retai l and wholesa le - - in the United States and Canada are tabulated from entries in the American Book Trade Directory; and the number of libraries in the United States and Canada, from entries in the American Library Directory. These statistics, categorized by type of bookseller and type of library, are recorded in the respective directo- ries at the beginning of each annual volume.

Another Bowker publication, The Bowker A n n u a l Library and Book Trade A lma- nac, reprints these statistics and provides additional ones in each annual edition. Together, these sources supply a core of basic statistics about the U.S. book industry.

The R. R. Bowker Company

The company that was incorporated in 1911 as the R. R. Bowker Company began operation in 1872 as the publishers of a weekly magazine for the book industry, The Publishers" and Stationers" Weekly Trade Circular. The following year the title was changed to The Publishers" Weekly. The company ' s founder ,

Jean Peters is the librarian at the Frederic G. Melcher Library, Cahners Publishing Company, formerly the library of the R. R. Bowker Company. Address for correspondence: 249 West 17th Street, New York N.Y. 10011.

Peters 13

Frederick Leypoldt, a young German bookseller and bibliographer, wanted to publish periodicals, bibliographies, and reference works for the professional book world, in his own words: "to meet every need of the book trade." He was joined in 1873 by Richard Rogers Bowker, a young literary journalist writing for the New York Evening Mail. Bowker soon became editor of The Publishers' Weekly, a position he held except for a few years in the early 1880s until his death in 1933. Together, under the company name of The Office of The Pub- lishers' Weekly, Leypoldt and Bowker brought out not only Publishers' Weekly but also a series of reference works for the trade beginning with Publishers Trade List Annual, a collection of publishers' catalogues bound together in alphabeti- cal sequence, and the American Catalogue, a trade bibliography of books pub- lished and for sale in the United States, the predecessor of today's Books in Print. In 1876, they launched Library Journal, followed by a variety of bibliographical publications for librarians.

On Leypoldt's unexpected death in 1884, Bowker took over the company and continued Leypoldt's publishing program, beginning publication of such present-day standard Bowker titles as the American Book Trade Directory and the American Library Directory. He incorporated the company as the R. R. Bowker Company. In 1918, he brought into the company Frederic G. Melcher, who became the legendary editor of Publishers Weekly and, upon Bowker's death in 1933, president of the company. Under Melcher's direction, the Bowker Com- pany continued to publish new directories for the book industry, including in 1940 the Literary Market Place. During the 1940s the publishing program for the professional book world expanded further to meet the needs not only of pub- lishers, booksellers, and librarians but also those of the antiquarian book trade.

In 1948, Frederic Melcher's son, Daniel, who had joined the company the previous year, launched Books in Print, the title that has become synonymous with the Bowker name. This was followed by Paperbound Books in Print in 1955, Subject Guide to Books in Print in 1957, and Forthcoming Books, the cumulative bi- monthly supplement to Books in Print, in 1966. All continued to be staples of the Bowker list.

Bowker gave up its independence in 1967 when it was acquired by the Xerox Corporation. In 1985 Xerox sold Bowker to Reed International. At that time the magazine division of Bowker (of which Publishers Weekly and Library Journal are a part) was split off from the rest of the company and made a part of another Reed-owned company, Cahners Publishing Company, a publisher of trade and consumer magazines.

U.S. Book Title Output Statistics

When the annual count of books published and distributed in the United States appeared in The Publishers" Weekly of January 29, 1881, the figures were presented in a single small table in the editorial of that issue. When its counter- part appeared one hundred and eleven years later in the April 6, 1992, issue,

14 Publishing Research Quarterly/Fall 1992

the title output of 1990 and the prel iminary figures for 1991 consisted of ten related tables together with analysis. In the intervening years the procedures for collecting and compiling the data have evolved from a simple tabulation of the new titles submitted to Publishers Weekly for listing in its "Weekly Record" section to a complex computerized operation. And the role of Publishers Weekly has changed from being both the source and the disseminator of the statistics to being only the disseminator of statistics now compiled in Bowker's database publishing division from bibliographic records of titles listed in the company 's monthly publication, the American Book Publishing Record. In turn, these biblio- graphic records are based on Library of Congress cataloging records as well as on cataloging by Bowker of books supplied by publishers.

Because from the beginning the title output statistics have been derived from a count of actual titles listed in Bowker publications, the accuracy and integrity of the statistics have been dependent on what was listed and how it was classified and counted.

In the early years there was ambiguity about the most basic question: what constituted a book. At first pamphlets were listed and counted as books be- cause there was no clear definition of the distinction between the two. Later pamphlets were omitted, and then for a while restored. Decisions on this issue varied until 1959, when the Bowker Company conformed with the international definition of a book used by UNESCO: a nonperiodical publication of forty- nine pages or more not including covers. This definition is still used, though occasionally an exception is made if the compilers feel that the subject matter of a pamphlet is important enough for inclusion.

In 1967 another change in definition for listing titles occurred that affected the annual title count. Previously a mul t ivolume set was counted as a separate unit if each volume was sold separately. Starting in 1967, each volume of a set was counted separately only if it had a different title and formed a complete unit in itself. This definition continues to be used today.

Earlier than that, in 1959, a major change began in the method of collecting the data from which the statistics are derived. When fully implemented, this change resulted in a more sophisticated and accurate system of subject classifi- cation and broader coverage. In November of that year the Bowker Company began cooperation with the Library of Congress catalog card division to in- clude Dewey Decimal Classification numbers and Library of Congress subject headings in the entries in the "Weekly Record." This meant that "Weekly Record" listings would take the format of the Library of Congress catalog card, use L.C. descriptive and subject cataloguing, and use Dewey classification numbers assigned by L.C. This would carry over into the annual statistical count of American book title production where the twenty-three subject classi- fications in the book title product ion statistics in Publishers Weekly would be supplied with the corresponding range of Dewey numbers. For Bowker it would bring about publication in 1960 of a monthly cumulat ion of the entries in the "Weekly Record" into a separate periodical titled the American Book Pub-

Peters 15

lishing Record. This would be itself cumulated into an annual bibl iography of books published and distributed in the United States. For the first time librar- ians, publishers, and other users of the annual book title production statistics wou ld have an annual cumulat ion of the bibliographic records represented in the statistical tables.

For more than a decade after the start of the Bowker /Library of Congress collaboration, the "Weekly Record" cont inued to be published as a section of Publishers Weekly, and the "booklisting" depar tment that created it was a part of the PW staff. But as the "Weekly Record" began to become more computer- ized, its operations became more compatible with those of Bowker 's Books in Print in the data services depar tment of the company, and in January 1973 the "Weekly Record" became a part of that department. The following year the publication itself was split off from Publishers Weekly, and on September 2, 1974, the Weekly Record was issued for the first t ime as a separate publication. As a part of Publishers Weekly since the issue of October 19, 1878, it has served as a weekly bibliography of newly published titles and the basis for PW's annual book title product ion statistics for just under one hundred years. As a separate publication, it cont inued to do so for the next seventeen years; but with the December 23, 1991, issue, it ceased. The bibliographic record of new books that it provided is being continued in the American Book Publishing Record Monthly, and the book title production statistics are supplied from that published source.

Al though the collaboration with the Library of Congress improved the "Weekly Record" in most respects and in so doing improved also the annual statistics, problems eventually began to arise in two areas, and the staff at Bowker set about to correct them.

With the enormous increase in publishers and titles in the mid-1970s, L.C. could not catalog all of the year 's titles in the calendar year. In the Publishers Weekly statistical issue of 1977, there appeared no annual book title product ion statistics for 1976 titles because the title count data were considered incom- plete at publication date of the statistical issue. It was noted that the figures would be reported in a later issue. This was the beginning of a policy that continues today of issuing two sets of statistics each year: the prel iminary or "12 month" figures based on listings in the Weekly Record dur ing the twelve months of the calendar year, which are included in the statistical issue of PW each year; and the final figures, based on eighteen months of report ing that includes six months of additional work on the same year 's books. The final figures appear in a late summer or early au tumn issue of Publishers Weekly, and these figures are used in comparative tables of prior years' book title production.

The second problem concerned the report ing of mass market paperback titles. Because the Library of Congress does not catalog most mass market paper- backs, these books were under repor ted in the Weekly Record and therefore undercoun ted in the annual statistics. Bowker decided to r emedy this by using the database of another of its publications, Paperbound Books in Print, as the base for mass market paperback title product ion statistics. The subject headings in

16 Publishing Research Quarterly / Fall 1992

the Paperbound Books in Print Subject Index were analyzed and grouped into the twenty-three classifications used in the title production statistics. The re- sulting tabulation appeared for the first time in the PW statistical issue of 1982 (March 12, 1982), covering 1981 titles. The unusually large increase in book title production in 1981 over 1980--6,421 titles--was attributed in large part to the new reporting of mass market paperbacks. The procedure continues to be in effect today. Mass market paperback production is listed in a separate table in the annual statistical issue and in the final figures later in the year, and of course this count is included in the subject categories in the table giving total book production title figures for all hardcover and paperback books.

In 1989 another problem developed, which has not at this writing been en- tirely resolved. The Library of Congress, burdened apparently beyond its ca- pacity to handle the increasing number of new titles that required cataloging, implemented a program of abbreviated cataloging for newly published titles in certain categories. This cataloging does not include Dewey numbers or L.C. subject headings, and so the titles that fall into this program could not be listed in the Weekly Record until completed cataloging was provided. The titles are given priority codes by L.C. and are eventually catalogued according to the code. Completed cataloging records for these titles were included in the Weekly Record and are now included in the American Book Publishing Record Monthly if the imprint date of the title meets Bowker's publication date criteria. However, completed cataloging for more than 2,000 titles published in 1990 was so de- layed that these titles could not be included in the final title output count of 1990. Therefore, the count that appeared in the September 20, 1991, issue of Publishers Weekly had to be revised in early 1992. The corrected final title output for 1990 was included in the annual summary number of Publishers Weekly, April 6, 1992. The corrected figures are also included here in table 1.

In this table, "American Book Title Production," final title output for 1990 (including both trade books and textbooks, hardcover books and paperbacks) is given by subject, each of the twenty-three subject categories representing Dewey Decimal Classification numbers. The count is also divided by newly published books and new editions of previously published books. Excluded from the count are government publications, subscription books, dissertations, and pamphlets of under forty-nine pages. The revised total 1990 output of 46,738 titles is considerably below the 1987 high of 56,027, and the lowest recorded by Bowker since 1980. (See table 2 for a comparison of annual title output since Bowker started the count in 1880.)

In the report giving the 1990 revised figures, trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks each have their own output table, as do imported titles and translations into English. These are followed by a series of tables providing average per-volume prices, again in the twenty-three subject categories, for hardcover books (see table 3), hardcover books costing under $81, mass mar- ket paperbacks, and trade paperbacks. The final table in the report is also a price table, but its source is Publishers Weekly, not the Weekly Record. It lists av-

Peters 17

TABLE 1 American Book Title Production Categories with Dewey Decimal Numbers

Categories with Dewey 1990 FINAL Decimal Numbers HARD & TRADE PAPER ALL HARD

Books Editions Totals &PAPER Agriculture (630-639; 712-719) 428 85 513 514 Art (700-711; 720-779) 1,113 137 1,250 1,262 Biography (920; 929; B) 1,674 225 1,899 1,957 Business (650-659) 880 295 1,175 1,191 Education (370-379) 867 157 1,024 1,039 Fiction 2,725 184 2,909 5,764 General Works (000-099) 1,456 260 1,716 1,760 History (900-909; 930-999) 1,840 375 2,215 2,243 Home Economics (640-649) 595 119 714 758 Juveniles 4,496 243 4,739 5,172 Language (400-499) 487 145 632 649 Law (340-349) 649 244 893 896 Literature (800-810; 813-820; 823-899) 1,802 219 2,021 2,049 Medicine (610-619) 2,438 545 2,983 3,014 Music (780-789) 223 59 282 289 Philosophy, Psychology (100-199) 1,350 2 t 2 1,562 1,683 Poetry, Drama (811; 812; 821; 822) 826 44 870 874 Religion (200-299) 2,005 267 2,272 2,285 Science (500-599) 2,276 457 2,733 2,742 Sociology, Economics (300-399; 350-369; 380-399) 6,146 846 6,992 7,042 Sports, Recreation (790-799) 721 116 837 973 Technology (600-609; 620-629; 660-699) 1,687 391 2,078 2,092 Travel (910-919) 365 I01 466 495

Total 37,049 5,726 42,775 46,743

NOTE: Figures for mass market paperbound book production are based on entries in R. R. Bowker's Paperbound Books in Print. Other figures are from the Weekly Record (American Book Publishing Record) database. Source: R. R. Bowker Co.

erage and m e d i a n prices of ha rdcover adver t i sed books in three ca tegor ies - - novels, b iography , and h i s t o r y - - f r o m the Fall A n n o u n c e m e n t n u m b e r s of P W

over the mos t recent seven years. This table has been in formal ly and m a n u a l l y p r o d u c e d by P W ' s statistician and former editor in chief, Chand le r B. Grannis , for more than forty years. In our office we receive more quest ions about the book price t rends shown in the above-ment ioned five tables than any other of our statistics except title output . The price t rends are used especial ly by librar- ians in p repar ing acquisi t ions budgets .

H o w e v e r m a n y statistics one can provide , there are a lways requests for addi- t ional o n e s - - u s u a l l y for ones that are not k n o w n to be available. A l though people w h o use the Bowker publ i sh ing statistics are pleased to have a subject b r e a k d o w n , to have some means to measure the subject they are researching, it

18 Publishing Research Quarterly/Fall 1992

TABLE 2 One Hundred and Ten Years of United States Book Production:

U.S. Title Output, 1880-1990.

Total number Total number Total number Total number Year of titles Year of rifles Year of titles Year of titles 1990 46,743 1962 21,904 1934 8,198 1907 9,620 1989 53,446 1961 18,060 1933 8,092 1906 7,139 1988 55,483 1960 15,012 1932 9,035 1905 8,112 1987 56,027 1959 14,876 1931 10,307 1904 8,291 1986 52,637 1958 13,462 1930 10,027 1903 7,865 1985 50,070 1957 13,142 1929 10,187 1902 7,833 1984 51,058 1956 12,538 1928 9,176 1901 8,141 1983 53,380 1955 12,589 1927 8,899 1900 6,356 1982 46,935 1954 11,901 1926 8,359 1899 5,321 1981 48,793 1953 12,050 1925 8,173 1898 4,886 1980 42,377 1952 11,840 1924 7,538 1897 4,928 1979 45,182 1951 11,255 1923 7,178 1896 5,703 1978 41,216 1950 11,022 1922 6,863 1895 5,469 1977 42,780 1949 10,892 1921 6,446 1894 4,484 1976 41,698 1948 9,897 1920 6,187 1893 5,134 1975 39,372 1947 9,182 1919 8,594 1892 4,862 1974 40,896 1946 7,735 1918 9,237 1891 4,665 1973 39,951 1945 6,548 1917 10,060 1890 4,559 1972 38,053 1944 6,970 1916 10,445 1889 4,014 1971 37,692 1943 8,325 1915 9,734 1888 4,631 1970" 36,071 1942 9,525 1914 12,010 1887 4,437 1969 29,579 1941 11,112 1913 c 12,230 1886 4,676 1968 30,387 1940 11,328 1912 10,903 1885 4,030 1967 b 28,762 1939 10,640 1911 11,223 1884 4,088 1966 30,050 1938 11,067 1910 13,470 1883 3,481 1965 28,595 1937 10~12 1909 10,901 1882 3,472 1964 28,451 1936 10:36 1908 9,254 1881 2,991 1963 25,784 1935 8,766 1880 2,076

aA significant rise in the number of titles reported for 1970 may not be due as much to more books being published as to better reporting. bThe decline in title output from 1966 to 1967 indicated in this table does not mean a decline in American book production as such; rather it reflects a revision that was made in the method of counting at the beginning of 1967. CThese data do not include pamphlets after 1912. From 1880 to 1912 pamphlets are included. Source: R. R. Bowker Company.

of ten h a p p e n s that they w o u l d ra ther have uni ts or dol lar a m o u n t s sold b y subject ins tead of the title o u t p u t w e can give them. Also, they are s o m e t i m e s u n h a p p y wi th the classifications we use. C o o k b o o k s and h o w - t o books are the categories mos t f requen t ly inqui red a b o u t for which w e can p rov ide no an- swers .

Peters 19

TABLE 3 Hardcover Average Per-volume Prices

CATEGORY 1990 FINAL VOLS. $ TOTAL PRICES

Agriculture 359 $19,472.60 $54.24 Art 759 32,014.30 42.18 Biography 1,337 39,547.10 29.58 Business 748 34,017.46 45.48 Education 562 21,759.75 38.72 Fiction 1,962 38,915.69 19.83 General Works 1,035 56,685.05 54.77 History 1,450 52,829.98 36.43 Home Economics 357 8,498.26 23.80 Juveniles 3,675 47,817.98 13.01 Language 312 13,408.80 42.98 Law 596 36,227.32 60.78 Literature 1,312 46,975.79 35.80 Medicine 2,215 160,019.61 72.24 Music 184 7,702.20 41.86 Philosophy, Psychology 963 39,079.83 40.58 Poetry, Drama 486 15,642.71 32.19 Religion 977 30,585.32 31.31 Science 2,028 150,855.34 74.39 Sociology, Economics 4,504 189,623.83 42.10 Sports, Recreation 403 12,300.49 30.52 Technology 1,521 116,808.11 76.80 Travel 181 5,504.18 30.41

Total 27,926 $1,176,291.50 $42.12

Source: R. R. Bowker Co.

Booksel ler Statistics

Bowker began publishing its directory of bookstores and wholesalers in the United States and Canada, the American Book Trade Directory, in 1915, but it was not until 1956 that the directory began to include in its introductory matter a statistical table providing the number of outlets included. Reading through this material in the directories of the last thirty-five years, it is possible to see

20 Publishing Research Quarterly / Fall 1992

TABLE 4 Books tores in the U n i t e d States b y T y p e , as I d e n t i f i e d in

A m e r i c a n B o o k Trade Directory the

1957 1962 1967 1972 1977 1982 1987 1991 Antiquarian 1,008 1,048 Antiquarian--

mail order - - College 1,240 1,623 Department Store 682 735 Drugstore 116 75 Educational (other than college) 97 116 Exporter-importer 12 13 Foreign language 76 73 General 1,941 1,937 Gift shop 174 187 Juvenile 57 51 Law 57 42 Mail order (general) 34 226 Medical 41 61 Museum store and art gallery - - Newsdealer 42 33 Office supply 57 85 Paperback" 23 352 Religious 1,976 1,840 Remainders ~ Rental 90 46 Science- technology 48 36 Special b 297 277 Stationer 292 304 Used ~ - - Total Bookstores 8,360 9,160

954 90Z 1,119 1,048 1,257 1,283

- - - - 625 719 566 1,815 2,538 2,607 2,718 3,100 3,293

858 1,012 1,089 1,167 436 c Z626 d 44 40 32 20 23 22

129 106 93 98 125 167 51 48 34 32 18 13 80 61 76 81 124 123

2,081 3,065 4,281 5,603 6,581 6,694 219 153 102 109 161 196

33 50 94 141 245 433 38 48 58 61 43 40

162 108 150 326 352 575 72 97 97 113 38 35

- - 115 133 245 393 463 80 62 125 132 154 139 80 98 48 56 71 84

564 609 800 733 686 611 1,702 1,698 2,752 3,490 3,871 3,817

- - - - - - 19 14 23 31 17 6 2 2 0

50 57 48 57 43 37 370 648 1,024 1,472 2,134 2,872 315 254 146 140 118 94

M 274 561 1,111 1,323

9,728 11,786 15,188 19,049 21,819 25,529

~This figure includes bookstores that stock paperback books only; it does not include paperback departments of general bookstores, department stores, stationers, drugstores, or wholesalers handling paperbacks. bThis indicates stores specializing in subjects other than those specially given in the table. cThe decrease in the department store category between 1982 and 1987 can be attributed to the closing of many traditional department stores as well as to the closing of book departments in many of the surviving stores. dThe unusually large increase in the department store category in 1991 is because of the inclu- sion for the first time in the American Book Trade Directory of the Reader's Market chain of stores. Source: R. R. Bowker Company.

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TABLE 5 Independent and Chain Booksellers, Retail and Wholesale, in the United States,

as identified in the American Book Trade Directory

Independents Chains Total

1984 16,985 5,715 22,700 1986 15,699 7,079 22,778 1988 15,156 7,887 23,043 1990 15,687 8,489 24,176 1991 15,702 11,076" 26,778

*The unusually large increase in chain stores in 1991 is because of the inclusion in the American Book Trade Directory for the first time of the Reader's Market chain of stores. Source: R. R. Bowker Company.

how the number of bookstores overall in the United States has grown and how categories or types of stores have changed, stores of some types having increased in number greatly, others having fallen off, and one category having disap- peared entirely. Table 4 shows bookstore growth by category of store since 1957, as reflected in the American Book Trade Directory. As the table illustrates, in thirty-four years the bookstore universe has more than tripled, with the greatest increase coming in the general bookstore category. The large increase in this category can be partially attributed to the rise of the two major bookstore chains, Dalton and Waldenbooks, and to a number of other chains whose stores fall into this category.

The directory is compiled annually by questionnaire. New businesses are nominated for each edition through a check of the membership lists submitted by the American Booksellers Association, the National Association of College Stores, and the Christian Booksellers Association to the Standard Book Num- bering Agency (SAN), whose U.S. headquarters are at Bowker; through a regu- lar search of the trade literature for ment ion or listing of new stores; and through a check of telephone directories from all across the United States. In addition, chain store headquarters regularly provide Bowker with lists of new branch stores.

In the current edition of the directory (1991-92), the statistics are presented in numerical tables and also for the first time in graph and pie-chart form showing percentages of distribution. The three numerical tables represent bookstores categorized by type (antiquarian, college, depar tment store, general, juvenile, etc.); wholesalers (general and paperback); and the bookselling retail and wholesale universe broken out by chain and independent operations. In this latter table, retail booksellers and wholesalers are combined because some chain stores have both retail and wholesale operations. Chain store headquar- ters and branches are listed separately, showing that of the 11,076 chain

22 Publishing Research Quarterly / Fall 1992

TABLE 6 WhoIesalers in the United States, as Identified in the American Book Trade Directory

Y e a r N o . o f W h o l e s a l e r s

1967 877

1972 1,031

1977 1,029

1982 1,025

1987 1,198

1991 1,249

Source: R. R. Bowker Company

bookselling operations in the United States in 1991, 1,076 were headquarters operations and 10,000 were chain branches. In a separate section of the directory, the major chain and franchise booksellers are listed by name with the number of branch stores of each.

The statistics on chain and independent stores were first made available in 1984. Table 5 shows the rise in chain stores from 1984 through 1991. Despite the growth of chains shown in the table, the independent stores still outnumber the chains by a considerable margin. In 1991, the pie chart in the American Book Trade Directory shows that 59 percent of bookselling operations in the United States were independents, while 41 percent were chain stores.

A separate count of wholesalers came a decade after the bookstore statistics. Prior to 1967, wholesalers were interspersed in the directory with the bookstores. But changing conditions in the field, especially in paperback distribution, made it advisable by the mid-1960s to separate out the wholesalers, and this made a count of the wholesalers in the directory possible. Table 6 shows the growth of wholesale bookselling operations in the United States since 1967. Included are wholesalers and jobbers of hardcover and paperback books who supply book- stores, colleges, and public, school, academic, special and government libraries; also included are independent magazine distributors and wholesale remainder dealers. A graph showing the number of wholesalers supplying these various categories of customers is contained in the 1991-92 edition of the directory.

Library S ta t i s t i c s

The American Library Directory, Bowker's directory of libraries and library- related organizations and information in the United States and Canada, has been published since 1923. From the earliest edition available in our office, published in 1935, through the 44th edition, 1991-92, the introductory matter has contained a table showing the number of libraries listed in the directory by type. All types are included except elementary and secondary school libraries. In the 1992-92 edition, 31,127 public, academic, armed forces, government,

Peters 23

and special libraries in the United States are listed and described. Canadian libraries are listed in a separate section. New libraries are nominated for inclu- sion primarily through a check of the official state directories that come from the library development office within each state library. Also, library periodi- cals are searched regularly for mention of new libraries or library branches.

The library count in the current edition of the American Library Directory shows that in 1991 there were 14,948 public libraries, 4,613 academic libraries, 485 armed forces libraries, 1,773 government libraries, and 9,348 special libraries in the United States. This is a dramatic increase over the figures of fifty-six years ago in the 1935 edition of the directory, our earliest source of comparisons when the total number of U.S. libraries was only 9,212, of which 6,123 were public libraries, 1,817 were academic, 769 various types of special libraries, 244 were government, and 259 were classified as miscellaneous.

The directory is compiled by questionnaire, and the resulting library profile contains a variety of information that can help publishers learn about the library market. Perhaps the most important information for this purpose is the figures for library expenditures on books and other materials. The expendi~.ure figures for each library that has responded to the question appear in the library's entry in the directory, but the figures are also tabulated by state and totaled. This compilation appears annually in another Bowker reference book, The Bowker Annual. The materials expenditures included in the tables are for books, peri- odicals, documents, manuscripts and archives, audiovisual materials, audiovi- sual equipment, microforms, binding, conservation, machine-readable materials, and database fees. For more than twenty years these tables have been compiled for public and academic library acquisition expenditures, and since 1987 for special and government libraries as well.

The Bowker Annual was first published in 1956 under the title, American Li- brary Annual. It assumed its present title in 1962. In its section on "Research and Statistics," The Bowker Annual includes many other library and book indus- try statistics. Some are original to it, such as the above-mentioned library ac- quisition expenditures tables and another originally compiled table, "Book Review Media Statistics" in which the major book-reviewing publications are listed with the number of reviews carried by each during the year. Other statistics and reports are reprinted from other sources. It reprints all of the annual statistics from Bowker discussed here: book title output, average per- volume prices, U.S. bookstores and wholesalers, and U.S. libraries. It includes from other sources such statistics as "Estimated Book Publishing Industry Sales" from the Association of American Publishers, "U.S. Book Exports and Imports" from the U.S. Department of Commerce, "World Book Title Output" from the UNESCO Statistical Yearbook, and reports on several topics from the National Center for Education Statistics. With these and many other statistical reports and summary articles on books and libraries, The Bowker Annual serves as a statistical abstract of the book industry.