PROGRESS IN DOCUMENTATION: NON‐BOOK MATERIALS: The control of non‐book materials in the United Kingdom

An account of the present ‘state of the art’ of the librarianship of non‐book materials must begin with a note on terminology. ‘Audiovisual materials’, ‘non‐print items’, and more imaginatively, ‘metabooks’, are some attempts at a collective description of film materials, sound recordings, and pictures of all kinds. The National Council for Educational Technology (NCET) favour ‘non‐book materials’, abbreviated to NBM. ‘One day, perhaps, the word “document” will be commonly accepted as connoting simply an embodiment of evidence, whether it be in print or pictures or whatever, and we shall take for granted that arrangements for the handling of documents should make provision as a matter of course for all media. In the meantime, the case must not be overlooked, and as an expression “non‐book material” is probably no more offensive and no less apt than its several rivals. “Non‐print document” is perhaps more accurate but is not yet in common use.’ I have adopted NBM.