On Tue, 4 Oct 2005 apw(a)ap-woolrich.co.uk wrote:
The following argument is not valid. I can think of
several titles
relevant to the the history of technology which are not in the BL
catalogue, and not listed on the C19 Short Title Catalogue which
covers a range of copyright libraries. This is particularly true for
trade catalogues which are outside outside UK copyright deposit rules
and so never recorded.
Then where should one turn to verify that these books exist? Is there
the information in an online database? Or even a printed reference
work that would be available at a large public or college library?
The whole point of proving a citation is to allow others to either
confirm or extend our research. If they can't find a copy of the
material cited, then the citation isn't very useful. That's the
reason unpublished materials or private conversations aren't permitted
sources in Wikipedia.
Unless we can verify that the source exists, then we might as well
allow every kook in who cites this certain book that was printed a
few years ago, but almost every copy has been destroyed, & the
publisher was forced out of business. (Or claims that it was given
to him by an angel, a crewman of a UFO, or a talking salamander.)
Geoff