Book

A book is a written work of substantial length created by one or more authors. They can be
distributed in various forms such as printed books, audiobooks, and electronic books (ebooks).
Books are broadly classified into fiction, containing invented narrative or other imaginary content;
and non-fiction, containing content intended as factual truth.

The Gutenberg Bible, published in the mid-15th century,

one of the first books to be printed using the printing press

The term may also refer to the physical or electronic object containing such a work. Modern
books are typically printed in a codex format, composed of many pages bound together and
protected by a cover. Before the wide adoption of the modern printing press, codices were used
to create handwritten manuscripts. Older writing media include scrolls and clay tablets.

The book publishing process is the series of steps involved in its creation and dissemination,
often undertaken in modern times by a commercial publishing company. The publishing industry
has recently seen major changes due to new technologies, including ebooks and audiobooks
(recordings of books read aloud). Awareness of the needs of people with print disabilities has led
to a rise in accessible publishing formats such as braille printing and large-print editions. Google
Books estimated in 2010 that roughly 130 million total unique books have been published.
 Reader holding a small French literary
booklet in a public space

Books are sold at general retail stores and specialized bookstores, as well as online, and can be
borrowed from libraries or public bookcases. The reception of books has led to several social
consequences, including censorship.

Books are sometimes contrasted with periodical literature, such as newspapers or magazines,
where new editions are published according to a regular schedule. Some objects broadly
described as "books" are left empty for personal use, such as notebooks, diaries, sketchbooks,
account books, and autograph books.

Etymology

The word book comes from the Old English bōc, which is similar to Old Norse bók and Old Saxon
bōk. These may all come from hypothesized Germanic *bōks, thought to mean "beech".[1] In
Slavic languages like Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian буква bukva—"letter" is cognate with
"beech". In Russian, Serbian and Macedonian, the word букварь (bukvar') or буквар (bukvar)
refers to a primary school textbook that helps young children master the techniques of reading
and writing. It is thus conjectured that the earliest Indo-European writings may have been carved
on beech wood.[2] The Latin word codex, 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] 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.[5]

One definition was given by UNESCO in 1964 for recording national statistics on book
production: a book is "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 books
from other written material such as pamphlets.[6][7] Kovač et al. critiqued the UNESCO definition
for 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 meet to different degrees. In their "hierarchy of the book", formats
that fulfill more criteria are more similar to the traditional printed book.[5][8]

Historian of books, James 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, and
quipus (a form of knot-based recording historically used by cultures in Andean South America),
but not objects fixed in place such as inscribed monuments.[9][10]

History

Jiahu symbols written on

tortoise shells, such as the eye
symbol in the bottom-right, are
regarded as a form of proto-
writing[11]

The modern book is the product of a long history of gradual development punctuated by several
major disruptive innovations. Librarian Fred Kilgour identified the most significant technological
changes to the book as: clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, the codex, printing, steam power, offset
printing, and electronic books.[12] Many cultures have independently developed pictographic
symbols that represent physical things, concepts, and words but lack the capacity to transcribe a
spoken language. These systems, often called proto-writing, typically have a more narrow or
specialized function than a full writing system.[13][14]

In at least three cases, proto-writing has been independently developed into writing systems that
can be used to transcribe spoken language: Sumerian cuneiform in Mesopotamia, written
Chinese, and the Maya script in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.[15] For example, the small number
of Jiahu symbols found inscribed onto bones and tortoise shells in 8,600-year-old Chinese
graves are believed by archaeologists to be precursors to the Chinese writing system that only
fully emerged thousands of years later.[16][17] Various forms of pictographs, described by art
historian Elizabeth Boone Hill as "non-writing and beyond writing", developed alongside linguistic
writing and continue to be used in modern texts including maps, diagrams, logical notation,
mathematical notation, musical notation, and chemistry's structural formulas.[18] Some of the
oldest surviving written records were made on tablets.[19]

Tablet

Clay tablets from the library of

Ashurbanipal

The earliest surviving texts widely accepted as writing are cuneiform tablets. They emerged from
earlier traditions of sealed clay envelopes called bullae, which contained physical tokens, and
logographic proto-cuneiform written to represent the physical tokens. Created beginning circa
3200 BC during the Uruk period in modern-day Iraq, the tablets were made from flattened pieces
of clay that scribes impressed with a stylus.[20] The clay tablets were used in the Ancient Near
East for thousands of years throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age.[21] Clay tablets
are very durable compared to other early writing materials and many survive to the present
day.[20] Stored in libraries and private residences, they were used in many of the ways that
modern writing is used, including to record literature.[22] The Standard Babylonian version of the
Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest surviving work of poetry, was written on a series of about 12 tablets
each with over 300 lines of cuneiform verse.[23] Depending on the definition of 'book', the tablets
are considered either a very early form of the book or a precursor to true books.[24]
Scroll

Book of the Dead of Hunefer; c. 1275 BC;

ink and pigments on papyrus; 45 × 90.5 cm;
British Museum (London)

In Ancient Egypt, a formal writing system known as hieroglyphs developed in parallel to

Mesopotamian cuneiform.[25] Ancient Egyptian scribes wrote hieroglyphic texts on papyrus rolled
into scrolls, with the oldest surviving (unused) roll of papyrus found preserved in the 2900 BC
tomb of Hemaka.[26] The scribes wrote in contrasting black and red ink, with the red used to
contrast elements like titles, section heading, and authorship. This practice, called rubrication,
was used for millennia in manuscript book production.[27][a] Early scroll books, like The Maxims
of Ptahhotep written circa 2400 BC, were philosophical books in the Egyptian sebayt or
"teaching" genre.[29]

Hebrew, Greek, and Roman scribes adopted the format, often with a central handle around which
the papyrus was rolled. Parchment was not frequently used in scrolls as it increased a
manuscript's weight.[27] The codex dominated in the Roman world by Late Antiquity,[30] but
scrolls persisted into the earlier era of printed books in Asia.[31]

Codex

Tenth-century Codex Egberti

The codex is the ancestor of the modern book. It introduced the format where sheets of uniform
size were bound 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 typically parchment or vellum, derived from animal
hides.[32] The first written mention of the codex as a form of book is from Martial, in his
Apophoreta CLXXXIV at the end of the first century, where he praises its compactness.[33] The
codex format was possibly developed from the Roman custom of binding wax tablets (wooden
boards containing wax for writing temporary notes with a stylus) together.[34][35]

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. Pagan authors
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.[36] In Islam, many of the earliest manuscript copies of
the Quran were composed as codices.[37] 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.[36] To the present day, Torah scrolls are still read aloud in
synagogues during Jewish prayers.[38]

Scribes independently developed a similar codex format in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.[39] They

wrote manuscripts onto long folded strips of either fig bark (amatl) or plant fibers and bound
them between wooden planks, although only a few have survived. Pictographic writing was
widespread, and the Maya developed a phonetic syllabary.[40] The oldest of the surviving Maya
codices dates to the 11th century AD.[41] Most of the pre-Columbian Aztec codices were
destroyed by the Spanish,[42] but a few, such as the Codex Borbonicus date to around the time of
European arrival.[43]

Manuscript

Folio 14 recto of the 5th-century Vergilius

Romanus contains an author portrait of
Virgil. Note the bookcase (capsa), reading
stand, and the text written without word
spacing in rustic capitals.

Manuscripts, handwritten and hand-copied documents, were the dominant form of writing before
the invention and widespread adoption of print.[44] Before the invention of the printing press in
the 15th century, each text was a unique handcrafted valuable article, personalized through the
design features incorporated by the scribe, owner, bookbinder, and illustrator.[45]
In the early Western Roman Empire, monasteries continued Latin writing traditions, and the
clergy were the predominant readers and copyists. The bookmaking process was long and
laborious. The pages had to be prepared, planned, and ruled before a scribe could copy the text,
while leaving spaces for illustration and rubrication, before being bound.[46] Manuscript books
were expensive and rare. Even at the end of the Middle Ages, the large Paris library of the
Sorbonne held only around 2,000 volumes.[47] The rise of universities in the 13th century led to an
increased demand for books, and a faster system appeared in which unbound leaves, called
pecia, were lent to different copyists.[48] In India, bound manuscripts made of birch bark or palm
leaf had existed since antiquity.[49] The text in palm 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

The intricate frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra

from Tang dynasty China, i.e. 868 CE, the oldest
known dated printed book in the world (British
Library)

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 the Han dynasty before 220 AD, used to print
textiles and later paper, and was widely used throughout East Asia. The oldest dated book
printed by this method is The Diamond Sutra (868 AD). The method (called woodcut when used in
art) arrived in Europe in the early 14th century. Books, known as block-books, were produced by
this method, but their creation was a painstaking process, requiring a hand-carved block for each
page, which could crack if stored for too long.
Movable type

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

The Chinese inventor Bi Sheng made movable type of earthenware c. 1045, but there are no
known surviving examples of his printing. Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg independently
invented movable type in Europe, along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix
and hand mould. Movable type made books quicker and less expensive to produce, and therefore
more widely available. The earliest printed books created before 1501 in Europe are known as
incunables or incunabula.[50]

Steam-powered presses further accelerated manufacturing processes and contributed to

increased literacy rates.[51] Steam-powered printing presses could print 1,100 sheets per hour
and became popular in the early 19th century.[52] Copyright protection also emerged, securing
authors' rights and shaping the publishing landscape.[51] Two types of machines were invented
to cast molten metal into type blocks from key presses in the late 19th century: Monotype, which
cast a single letter similar to movable type, was used heavily in book publishing, and linotype,
which cast an entire "line of type" in one block, was adopted more by newspapers.[53]

Modern publishing technologies

Offset printing of individual pages

The 20th century witnessed the advent of typewriters, computers, and desktop publishing,
transforming document creation and printing. Offset printing largely replaced movable type, and
mass market books are still typically printed this way.[54] Offset printing, a form of lithography,
allows for faster printing, color printing, and broader range of layouts that can easily include
photographs and illustrations. In offset printing, an image is transferred onto a metal plate, which
is mounted on a rotating plate cylinder. Water rollers fill the negative space on the plate, ink
rollers ink the image, and the ink is offset onto a rubber blanket on another roller that transfers it
to the paper. Unlike the older letterpress printing, the paper does not have to press into the roller
and can move through the machine much faster. In 1954, Publisher Staley T. McBrayer invented
web offset printing, where paper is fed in as a continuous web of paper that is machine-cut into
pages.[55]

Ebooks on a range of devices

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.[56] 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.[57]

The advent of electronic publishing and the internet means that new information is often
published online rather than in printed books, for example through a digital library. "Print on
demand" technologies, which make it possible to print as few as one book at a time, have made
self-publishing (and vanity publishing) much easier and more affordable, and have allowed
publishers to keep low-selling books in print rather than declaring them out of print.
Contemporary publishing

New books titles per million people

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 with authors
to obtain the copyright 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.[6] This is in contrast to self-publishing, where an author pays for the production and
distribution of their own work and manages some or all steps of the publishing process.[58]

English-language publishing is currently dominated by the so-called "Big Five" publishers:

Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan
Publishers. They were estimated to make up almost 60 percent of the market for general-
readership books in 2021.[59]

Design

Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the
various elements of a book into a coherent unit.[60]

Layout
 Diagram of a book
1. Belly band

2. Flap

3. Endpaper

4. Cover

5. Head

6. Fore edge

7. Tail

8. Right page (recto if printing is left to right, verso if right

to left)

9. Left page (verso if printing is left to right, recto if right to

left)

10. Gutter

Modern books are organized according to a particular format called the book's layout. 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 a front cover, a back cover and the book's content which is called its body copy or content
pages. The front cover often bears the book's title (and subtitle, if any) and the name of its author
or editor(s). The inside front cover page is usually left blank in both hardcover and paperback
books. The next section, if present, is the book's front 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 the end 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). The inside
back cover page, like that inside the front cover, is usually blank. The back cover is the usual place
for the book's ISBN 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.[61]

The body of a book is usually divided into parts, chapters, sections, and sometimes subsections
that are composed of at least a paragraph or more.

Size

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.[62] A series of terms commonly used by contemporary libraries
and publishers for the general sizes of modern books ranges from folio (the largest), to quarto
(smaller) and octavo (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 a leaf refers to the single piece of
paper, whereas a page 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.

Illustration

Illustration from "The House that Jack

Built" in The Complete Collection of Pictures
& Songs; engraving and printing by Edmund
Evans, illustration by Randolph Caldecott
(1887)

While some form of book illustration has existed since the invention of writing, the modern
Western tradition of illustration began with 15th-century block books, in which the book's text
and images were cut into the same block.[63] Techniques such as engraving, etching, and
lithography have also been influential.

Manufacturing

Paperback book covers and pages being

bound with a hot glue binding machine

Books tend to be manufactured nowadays in a few standard sizes. The sizes of books are
usually specified as "trim size": the size of the page after the sheet has been folded and trimmed.
Hardcover books have a stiff binding, while paperback books have cheaper, flexible covers. A
hardback book will have more steps in its creation than a paperback.

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. Each book is printed in one
pass. Digital printing has permitted the manufacture of much smaller quantities than offset.
Digital printing has opened up the possibility of print-on-demand, where books are printed only
after an order is received.

Modern paper books are printed on paper designed specifically for printing, traditionally off-white
or low-white papers, and opaque to minimize the text showing through from the opposite side of
the page. Different paper qualities are used depending on the type of book: Machine finished
coated papers, woodfree uncoated papers, coated fine papers and special fine papers are
common paper grades.

Audiobooks

10:20

Audiobook of Helen Keller's

autobiography[64]

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 are
abridgements.
Spoken audio has been available in schools and public libraries and to a lesser extent in music
shops since the 1930s. Many spoken word albums were made prior to the age of cassettes,
compact discs, and downloadable audio, often of poetry and plays 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.

Ebooks

A Kindle e-reader

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 the flat-panel display
of computers or other electronic devices.[65] Although sometimes defined as "an electronic
version of a printed book",[66] some ebooks exist without a printed equivalent. Ebooks can be
read on dedicated e-reader devices and on any computer device that features a controllable
viewing screen, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

In some markets, the sale of printed books has decreased due to the increased use of e-books.
However, printed books still largely outsell ebooks, and many people have a preference for
print.[67][68][69][70]
Accessible publishing

An example of someone using a screen

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 otherwise print-disabled.

Alternative formats that have been developed to aid different people to read include varieties of
larger fonts, specialized fonts for certain kinds of reading disabilities, braille, ebooks, and
automated audiobooks and DAISY digital talking books.

Accessible publishing has been made easier through developments in technology such as print
on demand, ebook readers, the XML structured data format, the EPUB3 format, and the Internet.

Content

A Bouquiniste in Paris selling secondhand

and antiquarian books

Libraries, bookstores, and collections commonly divide books into fiction and non-fiction, though
other types exist beyond this. Some stores specialize in buying and selling secondhand or used
books. Other books, which remain unpublished 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 by
special collections or archives.
Fiction

Fiction books are invented material, typically narratives. Other literary forms such as poetry are
included in the broad category. Most fiction is additionally categorized by literary form and genre.

The novel 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.[71] A novella is a term sometimes
used for fiction prose typically between 17,500 and 40,000 words, and a novelette between 7,500
and 17,500. A short story may be any length up to 10,000 words, but these word lengths vary.

Comic books or graphic novels are books in which the story is illustrated. The characters and
narrators use speech or thought bubbles to express verbal language.

Non-fiction

A page from a dictionary

Non-fiction books are in principle based on fact, encompassing subjects such as history, politics,
social and cultural issues, as well as autobiographies and memoirs. Nearly all academic
literature is non-fiction.

References

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.

An almanac is a very general reference book, usually one-volume, with lists of data and
information on many topics. An encyclopedia 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 a dictionary. An atlas is a book containing a collection of maps. A
specialized reference work giving information about a particular field or technique, often
intended for professional use, is often called a handbook. Books which try to list references and
abstracts in a certain broad area may be called an index, such as Engineering Index, or abstracts
such as chemical abstracts and biological abstracts.

Technical

An atlas

Books with technical information on how to do something or how to use some equipment are
called instruction manuals. Other popular how-to books include cookbooks and home
improvement books.

Educational

Students often carry textbooks and schoolbooks for study purposes. Lap books are a learning
tool created by students. Elementary school pupils often use workbooks, which are published
with spaces or blanks to be filled by them for study or homework. In US higher education, it is
common for a student to take an exam using a blue book.

Religious

Religious texts, including scripture, are texts that various religions consider to be of central
importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs,
ritual practices, moral commandments, and laws, ethical conduct, spiritual aspirations, and
admonitions for fostering a religious community.

Hymnals are books with collections of musical hymns that can typically be found in churches.
Prayerbooks or missals are books that contain written prayers and are commonly carried by
monks, nuns, and other devoted followers or clergy.
Children's books

A mother reads to her children in a mid- to

late 19th century lithograph by Jessie
Willcox Smith.

Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are
created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is
classified by the intended age of the reader, ranging from picture books for the very young to
young adult fiction for those nearing maturity.

Children's literature can be traced to traditional stories like fairy tales, which have only been
identified as children's literature since the seventeenth century, and songs, part of a wider oral
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.[72] 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.
 A page from a notebook used as
handwritten diary

Collection and classification

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
centuries, libraries and library professionals systematized book collecting and classification
systems to respond to the growing industry. The most widely used system is ISBN, which has
provided unique identifiers for books since 1970.

Libraries

The Library of Celsus in Ephesus, Turkey,

was built in 135 AD, and could house
around 12,000 scrolls.

A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials 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 that may be borrowed, and usually also
includes a reference section of publications that 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 include DVDs, Blu-
rays, CDs, cassettes, or other applicable formats such as microform. They may also provide
access to information, music, or other content held on bibliographic 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 of librarians 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 a public
library have different needs from those of a special 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.

Identification and classification

ISBN with barcode

In 2011, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) created the
International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) 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 is the publisher code, and the third is the title code.
The last part is a check digit, and can take values from 0–9 and X (10). The EAN Barcodes
numbers for books are derived from the ISBN by prefixing 978, for Bookland, 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 that do not have ISBNs. A large or public
collection requires a catalogue. Codes called "call numbers" relate the books to the catalogue,
and determine their locations on the shelves. Call numbers are based on a Library 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 as ANSI/NISO Z39.41 – 1997,
establish the correct way to place information (such as the title, or the name of the author) on
book spines, and on "shelvable" book-like objects, such as containers for DVDs, video tapes and
software.

Books on library shelves and call numbers

visible on the spines

One of the earliest and most widely known systems of cataloguing books is the Dewey Decimal
System. Another widely known system is the Library 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.[73] Information about books and authors can be stored in databases
like online 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.

Classification systems

Bliss bibliographic classification (BC)

Chinese Library Classification (CLC)

Colon Classification

Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)

Harvard–Yenching Classification

Library of Congress Classification (LCC)

 New Classification Scheme for Chinese Libraries

Universal Decimal Classification (UDC)

Conservation

A conservation technician examining an

artwork under a microscope at the
Indianapolis Museum of Art

The conservation and restoration of books, manuscripts, documents, and ephemera is dedicated
to extending the life of items of historical and personal value made primarily from paper,
parchment, and leather. When applied to cultural heritage, conservation activities are generally
undertaken by a conservator. The primary goal of conservation is to extend the lifespan of the
object as well as maintain its integrity by keeping all additions reversible. Conservation of books
and paper involves techniques of bookbinding, restoration, paper chemistry, and other material
technologies including preservation and archival techniques.[74]

Book and paper conservation seeks to prevent and, in some cases, reverse damage due to
handling, inherent vice, and the environment.[75][76] Conservators determine proper methods of
storage for books and documents, including boxes and shelving to prevent further damage and
promote long-term storage.[77] 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.[78]

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.[76][79] Many paper or book conservators are members
of a professional body, such as the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) or the Guild of
Bookworkers (both in the United States), the Archives and Records Association (in the United
Kingdom and Ireland), or the Institute of Conservation (ICON) (in the United Kingdom).[80]

Social aspects

Literary criticism

A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and
interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is
the philosophical analysis of literature's goals and methods. Although the two activities are
closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been, theorists.[81][82][83]

Whether or not literary criticism should be considered a separate field of inquiry from literary
theory is a matter of some controversy. For example, The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory
and Criticism[84] does not distinguish literary theory and literary criticism, and almost always uses
the terms together to describe the same concept. Some critics consider literary criticism a
practical application of literary theory, because criticism always deals directly with particular
literary works, while theory may be more general or abstract.[85]

Book reviews

A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is described, and usually further
analyzed based on content, style, and merit.[86] A book review may be a primary source, an
opinion piece, a summary review, or a scholarly view.[87] 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 substantial essay. Such a review 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 or non-fiction work.

Some journals are devoted to book reviews, and reviews are indexed in databases such as the
Book Review Index and Kirkus Reviews; but many more book reviews can be found in newspaper
and scholarly databases such as Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation
Index, and discipline-specific databases.
Book censorship and bans

Book censorship is the act of some authority taking measures to suppress ideas and information
within a book.[88] Censorship is "the regulation of free speech and other forms of entrenched
authority".[89] Censors typically identify as either a concerned parent, community members who
react to a text without reading, or local or national organizations.[90] Books have been censored
by authoritarian dictatorships to silence dissent, such as the People's Republic of China, Nazi
Germany, and the Soviet Union. Books are most often censored for age appropriateness,
offensive language, sexual content, amongst other reasons.[91] Similarly, religions may issue lists
of banned books, such as the historical example of the Catholic Church's Index Librorum
Prohibitorum and bans of such books as Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses by Ayatollah
Khomeini,[92] 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.[93][94]

Book burning

A copy of House of Leaves being burned

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 of censorship and
usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question.[95]
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 some cases, the destroyed works are irreplaceable and their burning constitutes a severe loss
to cultural heritage. Examples include the burning of books and burying of scholars under China's
Qin dynasty (213–210 BCE), the destruction of the House of Wisdom during the Mongol siege of
Baghdad (1258), the destruction of Aztec codices by Itzcoatl (1430s), the burning of Maya
codices on the order of bishop Diego de Landa (1562),[96] and the burning of Jaffna Public
Library in Sri Lanka (1981).[97]
In other cases, such as the Nazi 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.

See also

Books portal

Education portal

Writing portal

Accessible Books Consortium

Book desert

Book Lovers Day

Books for the Blind

Books to Prisoners

Independent bookstore

Lists of books

Open access book

Outline of books

World Book Capital

World Book Day

Notes

a. The oldest surviving papyrus with hieroglyphic writing is the Diary of Merer, a logbook
recording the transport of stone used to build the Great Pyramid of Giza.[28]

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Further reading

Eliot, Simon; Rose, Jonathan, eds. (August 16, 2019). A Companion to the History of the Book.
Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9781119018179.

Borsuk, Amaranth (May 4, 2018). The Book. MIT Press Essential Knowledge series. MIT Press.
ISBN 9780262535410.

Phillips, Angus; Bhaskar, Michael, eds. (April 18, 2019). The Oxford Handbook of Publishing.
Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198794202.001.0001 ([Link]
1093%2Foxfordhb%2F9780198794202.001.0001) . ISBN 9780198794202.

External links

Media related to Book at Wikimedia Commons