Books in Print

Years: 1948-

Frequency: annual

Relationships: was Series-Title-Author index to Publishers Trade List Annual from 1948 until the 1970s; basis for many derivative bibliographic tools

Originally served as a Series-Title-Author index to PTLA and relied on PTLA for its information until the 1970s when it extended beyond the publishers' catalogs in PTLA. Database access today: http://www.booksinprint.com.  

There were several supplements/additions to the Books in Print family:

An interesting series of errors occurred with the 1968 Books in Print, explained as having occurred "during the conversion of a data bank including more than 250,000 entries from manual to computer processing," "Books in Print" Addendum to Correct 1968 Volume, PW, Dec. 2, 1968, at 17.  An Addendum volume to the 1968 BIP was issued to purchasers of the volume in early 1969. The PW article about the errors also has detailed information about the BIP production schedule that are useful for understanding how the work was made. 

Sources:

Bowker Announces New Index, "Books in Print", PW, May 15, 1948, at 2093. 

Daniel Melcher, New Composing Technique Speeds Production of the New Bowker "Books in Print" Index, PW, Sept. 11, 1948, at 1038-1043. 

Daniel Melcher, Editing a Major, New Trade Tool, "Subject Guide to Books in Print", Dec. 9, 1957, at 12-17. 

Daniel Melcher, Computerizing Bowker's Current Bibliographies, PW, June 10, 1968, at 76-78.