An attempt to build the ultimate poker book collection

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

Not sure if anyone will want to help; but

I was looking at Amazon.com the other day and there seemed to be about 600 poker books you could possibly buy. Trinity College library is legally entitled to a free copy of every book sold in the UK or Ireland; and yet only has 41 poker books (for many of the books you have to request them from the publishers before they will send the free copy; and obviously requesting poker books is not high on the library staff's agendas). As a postgrad in college I can submit a request for the library to acquire any book they don't currently have, and it will be fulfilled.

Given that there is no cost to the library; I was thinking of aiming to create in Trinity library the largest collection of poker books in any library in the world (or at least in the top five library poker collections). My aim is to get the collection up to about 200 in the next few months and then continue to grow the collection.

Don't know why I want to do it; but it just seems like a fun thing to do.

What's frustrating me at the moment is that it is administratively quite cumbersome to compile all details of the books (including ISBN, publisher, etc). At the moment it seems necessary to go into each record on Amazon and write down the details bit-by-bit. Would anyone have a database of poker books that i could use? Or would anyone know where i could easily get such a list?

p.s. anyone can get a day-pass to go into the library, as long as they can demonstrate that the material they want to access is only available in Trinity library. Thus, the collection would be, broadly speaking, a resource for the wider poker community.

henbane

Try emailing conjelco.com or some of the other gaming publishers. They should be able to provide a catalogue in a useful format.

Hagar

Not so sure you're right there.
I think they are entitled to a copy of every book "published" in Ireland/Britain not "sold".

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

if the book sells more than 50 copies between the UK and Ireland they are entitled to it

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

In fact, just checked and they even have the US published version of Playboy on file. It is under the delightful subject category of "Girlie magazines -- Periodicals"!

Doc Farrell

Playboy and poker. tis a fine contribution ur making to the world of academia!

I order in books from the states on poker for customers in Ireland and Amazon, because they are affiliated to so many tiny distributors, really is the most reliable and up to date source. The cardoza website is pretty good.

Cheers, Des.

MadsL

In fact, just checked and they even have the US published version of Playboy on file. It is under the delightful subject category of "Girlie magazines -- Periodicals"!

Why, I say, Provost, a 28% increase in library usage in the last 3 days...what can it mean?

kinaldo

i think it's a great idea, those poker books are damn expensive

Hagar

TCD says

"In addition to the purchases and donations of almost four centuries, since 1801 the Library has had the right to claim all British and Irish publications under the terms of successive Copyright Acts. The bookstock is now over four million volumes and there are extensive collections of manuscripts, maps and music."

Wikipedia says

"The Library of Trinity College is the largest research library in Ireland. As a deposit library, it is entitled legally to a copy of every book published in Britain and Ireland, and contains 4.25 million books"

Neither mention rights to books sold.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

There is a bit of confusion over it. But, books in Trinity are acquired by an organisation called "Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries". On their website (http://www.llgc.org.uk/cla/) they give the following rule saying that all printed material that is sold in the UK and Ireland (even if published outside) is entitled to be claimed by the legal deposit libraries:

"What are publishers required to deposit?
Printed items published and distributed in the United Kingdom and in Ireland are liable for deposit, as are items originally published elsewhere but distributed in the United Kingdom and Ireland. These items are publications which are deemed available for sale or are freely available. The requirement for deposit remains, irrespective of the place of publication or printing, the nature and size of the imprint or the extent of distribution."

Trinity just chooses to go with the general rule of thumb that only publications that sell over 50 will be requested, in order to reduce the volume of publications they will receive.

Hagar wrote:

TCD says

"In addition to the purchases and donations of almost four centuries, since 1801 the Library has had the right to claim all British and Irish publications under the terms of successive Copyright Acts. The bookstock is now over four million volumes and there are extensive collections of manuscripts, maps and music."

Wikipedia says

"The Library of Trinity College is the largest research library in Ireland. As a deposit library, it is entitled legally to a copy of every book published in Britain and Ireland, and contains 4.25 million books"

Neither mention rights to books sold.

jd

he

i remember tcd had the furry freak brother comics-they were in stacks out in Santry though.

We put a request in and they were delivered (by taxi, i think..!!)
jd

Hagar

Sorry RoundTower2. Not trying to spoil your thread, I had never heard of the agency you mentioned I only knew about the publishing bit and the two sites seemed to confirm my thoughts.

Great idea for a poker library. Full marks for coming up with that. Good luck with the project.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

Thanks. No problem. I actually wasn't fully sure what the situation was myself. If you hadn't made the point i would probably have never researched it, so today has actually been a productive day research-wise!!