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Three-volume novels (3-deckers)

My great-great-aunt Alice M. Browne wrote three Victorian novels which I am collecting and reading. This has been great fun (when else do I get to read melodramatic love stories with happy endings?) and has also taught me a bit about the history of publishing.

The only copy of her novel ‘The Rector of Amesty’ (using the pseudonym John Ryce, and incorrectly catalogued as ‘Amnesty’) that I could trace in Australia is held in the rare books library at Sydney University. I took two days off in the holidays to sit there in scholarly silence reading it.

It was bought by Sydney University as part of a collection of triple-decker novels – of which the university has the best collection in the world.

Triple-decker novels are three-volume novels, but not just any three-volume novel. They were a popular publishing format throughout the 19th century. New novels were published in strong, elegant bindings in short runs for use by subscription libraries such as Mudie’s. The three-volume format meant that three borrowers could be reading the one book at the same time. The quality bindings – and the extra volumes – meant that publishers could make more money per book than with a one-volume novel, and this meant, apparently, that new authors who would not otherwise have been economically viable could be published. read more

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VALA 2014 Conference reports

Two papers reporting on exhibitors at the VALA 2014 Conference Exhibition – general comments and then one with a focus on ebooks and one report on conference papers.

VALA 2014 Conference Exhibition – other

Online Currents June 2014

VALA 2014 Conference Exhibition – ebooks

Online Currents June 2014

VALA 2014 Conference – report on papers

Online Currents volume 28 part 4

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Website Indexing, 1st Edition — Auslib Press 2001

Cover of the Korean edition
Cover of the Korean edition

This Edition is no longer available.

Cover of the Korean edition

Reviews

Australian Society of Indexers Newsletter v.25 n.5 June 2001

By Roxanne Missingham

‘Website Indexing…provides a timely review of indexing principles, the challenges and history of development of web indexing, and a road test of an html index product. The combination of a narrative approach to indexing plus the demonstration of new software is appealing.’

‘It is a good read and generally well-presented.’

Internet Reference Services Quarterly v.6 n.1 2001

By David J. Bertuca, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

‘This book is a clear, concise introduction to indexing publications, whether for Web or print publication. The materials are presented well and give help to beginning indexers, as well as to more experienced professionals. It is a good tool for librarians who want to index their publications well, and also for those who wish to know how the process works so that they can contract with a professional indexer and know what to expect. This publication would be valuable to librarians, Web designers, book publishers, and to anyone with a project requiring an indexing process.’ read more

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Website Indexing 2nd Edition — Free download (Self-published, 2004)

WEBSITE INDEXING PDF now available for FREE DOWNLOADwebsiteindexing2nded

As the second edition of Website Indexing is now 17 years old, we have decided to offer it free to all interested people. Click the link in the box below to move to a download page.

We retain copyright and moral rights in this work. Please do not forward it to other people (although you can forward download details) and please do not use or alter it without permission and attribution.

In 2001 Glenda and Jon produced the first edition of Website indexing: enhancing access to information within websites, the definitive guide to producing book-style indexes for the Web. The book was published by Auslib Press and sold to information science professionals around the world, as well as being translated into Korean. An updated and expanded second edition was published in 2004 to encompass changes in technology and approaches since the first edition was released. read more