Book History — A Link between Information Science and Humanities: The Value of Information Contained in Book-Sellers Catalogues

This poster is briefly presenting the results of research that the author completed as part of her PhD theses. The research included analysis of 8 booksellers catalogues published in Zagreb, Croatia, between 1796 and 1823. The large amount of data extracted from the catalogues enables insight into the book-trade in Zagreb at that time. This data informs us about the books that were available for the reading audience in Zagreb, in terms of languages and script the books were printed in, places they were published at and were imported from. The variety of genres speaks about the book-sellers ability to cater for a variety of interests of local readers, including local professionals and scholars. The information on book-prices and discounts allows for conclusions on the buying power and also offers at least a partial business perspective of book-sellers as traders and managers. Other aspects of booksellers’ work, such as classification, standardization, orthography, printing practices, etc. can also be discussed based on information from the analysed catalogues