SRRT Resolutions 1997: Resolution on Cataloging-In-Publication for Self-Published Materials

Text of 1997 SRRT resolution, adopted at ALA Midwinter Meeting, calling upon the Library of Congress to provide Cataloging-in-Publication data to all requesting publishers regardless of size or number of authors.

Resolution on Cataloging-In-Publication for Self-Published Materials

Adopted at 1997 Midwinter Meeting

WHEREAS the Library of Congress refuses to provide Cataloging-In-Publication (CIP) data for “books paid for or subsidized by individual authors; books published by a house which published only the works of one author;” and

WHEREAS such titles have become an important segment of the small press movement, covering a broad range of topics and disciplines; and

WHEREAS the absence of CIP entries unquestionably limits the distribution, sale, and processing of self-published works and is so unfair and discriminatory, blocking these materials from a greater readership and wider attention; and

WHEREAS this policy, if in effect in 1885, would have denied a CIP entry to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass; therefore be it

RESOLVED that the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association calls upon the Library of Congress to provide CIP data to all requesting publishers regardless of size or number of authors.