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How to describe the sourcesPage 1 of 3
School textbooks must be cited as any other book: complete title of the book, place of edition, publishing house, and year of publication; but being very careful about not omitting certain additional valuable information for the historical-educational research. School manuals gather a large and varied group of books with singular characteristics. The peculiarities of these documents are due to two key factors: the recipients (students) and the aim of the work (to teach). These two elements are very relevant when searching for the information to cite a school book. It is very important, for example, to write the complete title of the book, including the subtitle, if there is one. We must bear in mind that the latter may not be shown in the cover, but in the title page (first page of the book which usually has all the publishing information). Subtitles normally give the information previously mentioned regarding the recipients and the teaching: the age and sex of the students (girls, boys, or both), the level or grade of instruction, and the subject of study. Numerous school textbooks are part of collections of books. These are manuals which have been elaborated following a pedagogical sequence and organization of the contents, and they are destined to a specific school level or grade. Other manuals include the subjects, disciplines or teaching contents in a second or third section which does not seem to belong to the title. All this information, when it is clearly written on the book, must not be omitted. Even the level or grade of instruction, when it is not added to the title or the subtitle, it is necessary to include it to the reference. We frequently find this data in the prologue or introduction of the book. As it happens with any other book, the name of the publishing house is utterly important to carry out the research. Sometimes, there is simply an absence of a publishing house as well as of an editor. On other occasions what we find is the name of the printing press or library, as a substitute for the publishing house. In this case, such information must be included. Various reasons justify this decision. One of them, for example, is the fact that the names of the publishing houses sometimes change. They go through their own transformations and evolution. It is very important to write down these names with particular precision. Some manuals have what has been named an “institutional authorship”. In some occasions all authors are mentioned, but in other occasions, these names do not appear because they constitute an editorial group of writers (usually large) or because the publishing house wants to hold itself responsible for the contents of the book. |
