The Press and Registration of Books Act and the bibliographic control of Bengali publications

Abstract

Deals with the role of legal deposit law particularly the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 and its resultant current bibliographies in bibliographic control of Bengali publications. Issues of comprehensiveness of coverage and currency of inclusion of titles and the publishers’ participation in terms of compliance of the provisions of the Act under study are dealt with by means of quantitative analysis of bibliographic records of latest available five annual volumes of the said bibliographies. The results of a survey of regional publishers, exposing their perceptions about the Act and the bibliographies are also reported. Concludes that the resultant bibliography of the said Act should be able to serve the business interest of the publishers in terms of promotion of their titles to sustain the direct flow of bibliographic information into the system of bibliographic control of any level