This twenty-sixth volume of ABHB (Annual bibliography of the history of the printed book and libraries) contains 3753 records, selected from some 1000 periodicals, the list of which follows this introduction. They have been compiled by the National Committees of the following countries*: Arab Countries Latvia Australia Luxembourg Belarus Mexico Belgium The Netherlands Canada Poland Croatia Portugal Estonia Rumania Finland Russia Germany South Africa Great Britain Spain Hungary Switzerland Iceland Turkey Ireland Ukraine Italy USA Latin America Benevolent readers are requested to signal the names of bibliographers and historians from countries not mentioned above, who would be willing to co-operate to this scheme of international bibliographic collaboration. The editor will greatly appreciate any communication on this matter. Subject As has been said in the introduction to the previous volumes, this biblio­ graphy aims at recording all books and articles of scholarly value which relate to the history of the printed book, to the history of the arts, crafts, techniques and equipment, and of the economic, social and cultural envi­ ronment, involved in its production, distribution, conservation, and descrip­ tion. Of course, the ideal of a complete coverage is nearly impossible to at- * Unfortunately the French and Austrian contributions could not be submitted in time. They will be added to the next volume. VIII INTRODUCTION tain. However, it is the policy of this publication to include missing items as much as possible in the forthcoming volumes. The same applies to coun­ tries newly added to the bibliography.