A Comparison of the Production Costs of Different Physical Forms of Catalogue Output

Abstract

The paper is based on a study carried out for the British Library. The 10 production methods compared (5 for printed and 5 for microform catalogues) are: 1. line printer on 3‐part stationery; 2. line printer to offset/litho master; 3. COM master to offset/litho; 4. graphic arts quality COM to offset/litho; 5. phototypesetting to offset/litho; 6. microfiche; 7. microfilm; 8. graphic arts quality microfiche; 9. graphic arts quality microfilm; 10. PCMI ultrafiche. Tables show the approximate costs of producing different numbers of copies of different sizes and with varying cumulation frequencies (ranging from weekly to annual). Over a wide range of catalogue size and number of copies, some form of microform output is usually cheapest.

Citation

Tucker, C.J. (1974), "A Comparison of the Production Costs of Different Physical Forms of Catalogue Output", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 59-74. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb046700