============================================================================== RED CIENTIFICA PERUANA LIBROS ============================================================================== FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 1) Where can I find book X by author Y? 2) How can I access On-line university catalogs through internet? 3) Addresses/phone numbers of publishers 4) Email addresses / toll free numbers of technical bookstores -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Where can I find book X by author Y? The United States's most complete bookstore is the combination of BOOKS IN PRINT and the U. S. Post Office. BIP will tell you the price and the publisher's address. Send them a check for the price and they will be happy to send you the book. We do it all the time. Some publishers grudgingly send a note with the book saying "Next time please include N% for postage and handling," but that is unusual. Nobody has ever refused to send the book and at least once they sent a check with the book because if ordered direct, they gave a discount. We rarely order through a bookstore because it is so much easier to order the book and have it sent to us directly. (This is probably not true for mass-market paperbacks where the handling charges would be more than the book!) If, on the other hand, you just want to borrow it, ask your library about inter-library loans--chances are good they can find it for you in a library they have reciprocal agreements with even if they don't have it themselves. Most used book stores participate in an informal network (not a computer network) of clearinghouses on information about used books. It is usually possible within a few days to locate copies of used books with indications of their condition. The service usually costs between nothing and two dollars a book. What is BOOKS IN PRINT? Just about every public library and every bookstore in the country has, for public use, a multi-volume reference work called "Books in Print." It is just about what the title claims it is. It is a listing by title, by author, and by subject of every book currently listed by publishers as being currently in print in the United States. (There may be editions for other countries as well.) It tells you the list price and the publisher. It also has a volume of out-of-print books and a separate volume that lists the mailing addresses of the publishers. The local B. Dalton keeps it at the information desk. Almost any bookstore or public library will have a set that they would be happy to have you look at. There is a similar reference set called "Paperback Books in Print." I am not sure what it would list that would not be listed in its bigger cousin, but that reference might also be of interest. In Britain, there is "British Books in Print." (For used books, there is BOOKMAN'S, the used book trade magazine. Lots of books are advertised there that haven't been in print for decades. You may be able to find the annual bound copy of BOOKMAN'S PRICE INDEX (the used book dealer's pricing bible) in your local library. There's no guarantee that the book you want will still be for sale if you go that way, but it is a good way to plan your budget.) One way of getting out-of-print titles is to get in touch with University Microfilms, Inc. (or other such companies). They'll print a copy of a book from microfilm, generally within 3 weeks of your order. They take care of the copyright issues & royalty payments, and you get the book (although the printing quality is what you'd expect for a photoreprint from microfilm). They're a standard resource for librarians. A 106-page book was recently quoted as US$30.00, with a US$6.00 surcharge for cloth binding. (The default is paperbound). And of course, not all books are available for reprinting--they've obviously specialized in academic books. University Microfilms, Inc. 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48106 313-761-4700 800-521-0600 800-343-5299 (works in Canada) (Most of this entry was contributed by Mark Leeper leeper@mtgzy.att.com. Thanks to Barry Meikle (meikle@r-node.gts.org) for the UMI info.) (Extracted from the rec.arts.books FAQ by Evelyn C. Leeper) Other Credits: Al Whaley ------------------------------------------- 2) How can I access On-line university catalogs through internet? The lists of online library catalogs are available for anonymous ftp on ftp.unt.edu, in directory library. Read the aaareadme.txt file for an index. The file you probably need is libraries.txt or libraries.ps One extensive catalog: The University of California MELVYL Catalog melvyl.ucop.edu or 31.1.0.1, 31.0.0.11, 31.0.0.13, 31.1.0.11 for journals and books. Credits: Yoshiyasu Takefuji ----------------------------------------- 3) Addresses/phone numbers of publishers Cambridge University Press GBR: The Edinbourgh Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 2RU, GBR. HongKong: P. O. Box No. 98629, Tsim Sha Tsui Post Office, Hong Kong. USA: Cambridge University Press, 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211 Phone: toll-free 800-872-7423 MIT Press USA: 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA02142 MORGAN KAUFMANN PUBLISHERS, INC. USA: Department B8, 2929 Campus Drive, Suite 260, San Mateo, CA 94403, USA Phone: (800) 745-7323 (Toll Free for North America) (415) 578-9928 Fax: (415) 578-0672 email: morgan@unix.sri.com PRENTICE HALL USA: Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ Phone: (800) 526-0485 email: books@prenhall.com(Internet) catalogs@prenhall.com Japan: Phone: (81) 3-238-1050 Kluwer Academic Publishers USA: Kluwer Academic Publishers Order Department, P.O. Box 358 Accord Station, Hingham, MA 02018-0358 Credit Card Customers call: (617)871-6600 Fast Convenient Service: Fax (617)871-6528 or Email:kluwer@world.std.com Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. USA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. Advanced Book Program 350 Bridge Parkway, Suite 209 Redwood City, CA 94065 Telephone: (415)594-4467 Fax: (415)594-4440 CANADA: Addison-Wesley (Canada) Ltd. P. O. Box 580, 26 Prince Andrew Place, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3C 2T8 Telephone: (416)447-5101 Fax: (416)443-0948 Telex: 06986743 WORLD: International Division, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. Reading, MA 01867 Japan: Addison-Wesley Phone: 03-3291-4581 Addr: 1-2-2, Sarugaku, Chiyoda-ku, TOKYO Springer Verlag Japan: Springer Verlag Phone: 03-3812-0331 3-30-10, Hongou, Bunkyou-ku, TOKYO Oxford University Press Japan: Oxford University Press Phone: 03-5995-3901 2-4-8, Kaname, Toshima-ku, TOKYO Routledge, Chapman & Hall USA: Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001-2291 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 103A Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472 (707)829-0515, 800-998-9938 in the US and Canada, FAX 707-829-0104 Questions about prices and ordering: nuts@ora.com Questions or comments about technical content: bookquestions@ora.com Subscribe to the O'Reilly e-mail mailing list: book-info-request@ora.com Credits: Osamu Saito. -------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Email addresses / toll free numbers of technical bookstores (just in case your city doesn't have a good bookstore) Since this list is expected to grow, there is no room for addresses or non-800 numbers. Computer Literacy Bookshop, San Jose CA, orders@clbooks.com, Quantum Books, Cambridge, MA quanbook@world.std.com Total Information, Rochester, NY, 800-876-4636 Wordsworth Books, Cambridge MA, 800-899-2202, 73457.315@compuserve.com TECHbooks Beaverton, OR, bip@techbook.com (send the word "help" in the subject line) Softpro Burlington, MA, softpro@world.std.com Credits: John R. Levine, Dominic Duggan, Quantum Books ---------------------------------------------------------------- .