Devon bibliography. Introduction

Devon Bibliography. Introduction

In June 2013 I recommenced the compilation of the Devon bibliography, which had lapsed in 2004. This was prompted by the alarming decline in the coverage of the catalogue of the Devon Heritage Centre and was intended to fill the gap caused by the lack of activity in what used to be the Westcountry Studies Library since its transfer to the Centre. It is appreciated that in a time of draconian cutbacks by central government many activities have to be curtailed, but the havoc wrought on what has long been considered a core function of the public library, the documentation of the region's printed heritage, is greatly to be regretted. In the absence of any designated staff to maintain the library collections or any significant bookfund, gaps in coverage are emerging which will be very difficult to fill. Coming to grips with the increasing amount of local documentation on the internet will also be impossible. It is to be hoped that this problem can be addressed in the near future, once the South West Heritage Trust is set up to care for museums, record offices and local studies libraries in Somerset and Devon.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The present situation regarding the local studies library in Exeter is threatening to end a tradition of collecting and documenting the region’s printed heritage which extends back to the foundation of Exeter Public Library in 1870. From the start the scope of the collection was Devon and the adjoining counties, making it a major collection of regional significance. The bulk of the collection survived the Blitz but, although collecting continued after 1945, little was done to reconstitute the public catalogues which had been destroyed in 1942. The situation changed after local government reorganisation in 1975 and the establishment of the Westcountry Studies Library which began to tackle the immense backlog of cataloguing. In 1977 the University of Exeter published The Devon union list : a collection of written material relating to the county of Devon, compiled by Allan Brockett. Of the 8,300 titles listed the majority were from the Westcountry Studies Library. In the hope of continuing this record the Devon History Society initiated the annual Devon bibliography. This was compiled by Geoffrey Paley, largely from information supplied by the Westcountry Studies Library, until his death in 1984. From 1985 it was taken over by Devon Library Services but was discontinued in 2004 on the retirement of the County Local Studies Librarian. From the 1980s the local studies collections of Devon were mounted on a digital database and the Devon bibliography began to appear in digital format on the County website from 1998. The last printed version covered the year 2000. For many years the bibliography was cumulated from the monthly local studies booklist which was used as an ordering tool for reference and lending libraries throughout the county. The following tables chart the changing coverage of the Devon bibliography and local studies database across the centuries.

The first table gives figures of books, pamphlets and ephemera recorded in the local studies database for centuries and decades. The general picture is of steady growth, interrupted only by the two World Wars. 

Period	Titles on database	Period	Titles on database
1500-1599	68	1900-1909	2287
1600-1699	701	1910-1919	1734
1700-1799	2119	1920-1929	2274
1800-1809	318	1930-1939	2450
1810-1819	456	1940-1949	1799
1820-1829	581	1950-1959	3698
1830-1839	623	1960-1969	4768
1840-1849	607	1980-1979	7592
1850-1859	673	1980-1989	13289
1860-1869	771	1990-1999	18141
1870-1879	1080	2000-2009	9465
1880-1889	1363
1890-1899	1751

The second table gives year by year breakdowns to show the effect of the two World Wars, periods when book production actually declined.

World War 1		World War 2
Year	Titles on database	Year	Titles on database
1912	224	1936	239
1913	201	1937	227
1914	202	1938	238
1915	136	1939	202
1916	116	1940	153
1917	107	1941	118
1918	94	1942	95
1919	152	1943	95
1920	259	1944	107
		1945	132
		1946	214
		1947	279
		1948	296

The third table gives the total number of items for each year since the establishment of the Devon bibliography in 1980. The third column gives the total number of records in the Devon Bibliography for the same year. 

Year	Titles on database	Devon Bibliography	Year	Titles on database	Devon Bibliography
1980	1140	272	1997	1651	488
1981	1088	316	1998	1509	580
1982	1210	230	1999	1325	504
1983	1182	329	2000	1300	520
1984	1178	373	2001	1164	410
1985	1242	820 (490)	2002	1142	389
1986	1229	421	2003	1065	332
1987	1372	525	2004	955	376
1988	1811	657	2005	922	discontinued
1989	1798	648	2006	807	-
1990	1788	595	2007	781	-
1991	1883	613	2008	715	-
1992	1800	613	2009	607	-
1993	2087	643	2010	539	-
1994	2108	770	2011	257	-
1995	2025	736	2012	131	-
1996	1943	643	2013	123	-

The progressive decline, especially since 2010, is alarming, the decrease over 2001-2005 is about 80%. By contrast the decrease during war years is only some 50%. So, the effect of the present changes is much more drastic even than during wartime. In fact the level of purchase in 2012 was equivalent to that in the 1870s when book production was much lower than today.

Ian Maxted

July 2014.

This page last updated: 28 July 2014.