what the world needs now

[truepenny]

Is a database like the invaluable IMDb, only for books.

Original publication information, reprints, later editions ... so that, as a completely random example, if I were to want to know when Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley was first published, I could simply go find out, rather than have to wade through the efforts of a site like HugeSouthAmericanRiver.com to sell me what's available now.

Is there such a site out there? As free and readily accessible as the IMDb? Anybody know?

Comments

[arcaedia.livejournal.com]

Well...there's this (http://isfdb.tamu.edu/sfdbase.html) for spec fic (sf, f, horror). I'm not sure if there's anything similar for all fiction (it would be a huge endeavour). Or nonfiction. I'm afraid I often have to resort to Amazon myself.

[libskrat]

Closest you're likely to get is WorldCat, which is far from complete, but pretty amazingly nifty nonetheless. It is not open to the general public, but as a UW student you have access through the library; look for it in the databases listing.

[hhw]

You can get to WorldCat from many public libraries, also. and in both cases, there's a good chance you can login from home, too.

OCLC has been experimenting with open access for WorldCat; I think you can get to it through a slightly circuitous route from Alibris (?)

I've also used one of the huge state-wide university catalogs like OhioLink and whatever the California one is called now; both are open to the public for searching.

[arcaedia.livejournal.com]

Oh....and I also just realized I have a link to this (http://www.ibdof.com/) too. Though I'm not entirely sure how useful it is.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I use http://www.mxbf.com for this. It's not what it's designed for, obviously, but I can generally discover when and where a book was published. Of course, it fails completely for a rare book that no bookseller is currently offering.

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

Er. Off the top of my head, without checking it out -- Library of Congress? Do they have a searchable website?

[hhw]

yes, their catalog is online: http://catalog.loc.gov/

[oursin.livejournal.com]

If it was published in the UK, http://blpc.bl.uk/ (it's free! it's public!) - which does include things like paperback editions and reprints. Every so often someone gets up and whinges about the money being spent on accessioning and cataloguing Mills and Boon romances (specifically) by the British Library, but as the central copyright library it did get free copies of more or less everything published in the UK by something calling itself a publisher. I use it quite a bit myself. However, I don't think either the Library of Congress or the New York Public Library have quite such exhaustive coverage for the US?

[jenett]

Library of Congress (http://catalog.loc.gov) is the place copyright copies get deposited in the US (which doesn't always mean new editions, generally, but does mean when something was first published.)

It is sometimes slow (or you have to wait for a connection to free up: usually well within 5 minutes).

However, a quick search on the title in question pulls up the movie (also on deposit) and a 1955 date and a 2000 date (looks like a new publisher there.)

[reannon.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I have yet to find a more comprehensive site than Amazon.com. I did a search yesterday for an obscure independent graphic novel that's been out of print for years, and still didn't stump it. Yeah, it's trying to sell you stuff, but it has the publisher and original publication date and so on.

[bibliotrope.livejournal.com]

Amazon is spotty on older books, and some of their entry information is incomplete.

Someone already mentioned Bookfinder. A similar source is http://www.abebooks.com, which contains listings from many old/used/rare book dealers. Probably not complete, but it's another good source for older books.

The Library of Congress (for American books) and British Library (for UK) are probably your best bets. They're certainly the most authoritative -- librarians get very fussy over putting the information exactly thus-and-so in our catalogs -- and as the host agencies of the copyright offices they probably have access to more titles than anyone else. And LC's interface is much easier now than it used to be, although given the sheer numbers in their collection (millions of books sounds like fun until you need to find just one) you need patience sometimes to sort through it all.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Books in Print, surprisingly, also lists books out of print. Don't know if it's subscription-based or what (I suppose I could find out, but I'm suprisingly unhelpful for a library worker):

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Books in Print, surprisingly, also lists books <i>out</i> of print. Don't know if it's subscription-based or what (I suppose I could find out, but I'm suprisingly unhelpful for a library worker): <a href="http://www.globalbooksinprint.com/GlobalBooksInPrint/"?http://www.globalbooksinprint.com/GlobalBooksInPrint/</a>

And many libraries, public or academic, likely have subscriptions.

[bibliotrope.livejournal.com]

Books in Print is a subscription, and a rather pricey one at that. But libraries that subscribe to the online version may make it available to their patrons through a link on the library's website (our library does).