Paper K

SPANISH PRESENT DAY OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONSNOlES ON BIBLIOGRAPH ICAL SOURCES

Indicates the bibliographical sources ofSpanish official publications such as monthlyclassified record of books, copy-right lists,serial publications, directory of officialagencies. Mentions the lack of overall co-ordination. Enumerates the publicationsissued by various Government agencies. Tracesthe importance of Government publications andthe need for proper bibliographic control.

PRESENT POSITION

An attempt in print at a comprehensivestatement relating to Spanish official publica-tions appears on pages 179-181 of A study ofcurrent bibliographies of national officialpublications, edited by Jean Meyriat for theInternational Committee for Social SciencesDocumentation and published by UNESCO inParis at the beginning of 1958 as no. 7 in theUNESCO Bibliographical handbooks series.The following quotations from the statementin free translation from French seem to re-pr e s ent a reasonable impression of the prob-lem s involved:

"The reproduction of most officialpublications is entrusted to variousprivate printing establishments. Cer-tain ministries and agencies •.• oper-ate their own printing facilities. Pub-lication and sale of government publi-cations is not centralized.Numerous agencies issue lists of theirown publications. There is no generalbibliography of official publications ••••All publications [not having personalauthors] are registered in the generalbibliographies under titles as anonyrnou sentries. "

V 6 N 3 Sep 1959

JAMES B CHILDSLibrary of Congress, Washington D.C.

The above together with information gleanedduring a considerable survey at the Library ofCongress of Spanish official publications forthe period from mid-1936 to 19551 and added tosubsequently serves as a basis for the followingobservations, which may have not only specificand special application but may contain somegeneral guidance in the appraisal a~d ~se of .official publications wherever the bfbldog ra phd-ca l control seems rather meager and inexact.

2 CORPORATE ENTRY:SPANISH CODE

In Spanish libraries under state control andsupervision, official publications, not havingan individual author, initially received atten-tion for treatment under corporate entry in thesecond edition (1941) of the Spanish officialcataloging code2 as may be noted in the follow-ing quotation in free translation from Spanishfrom the preface [p, VI-VII): "For the firsttime there appears in the instructions achapter devoted to the publications of agenciesand corporations, both official and private,authorizing henceforth the consideration ofcollective authorship and differentiating thesefrom anonymous works proper. The greatnumber of works of this character existingin libraries and the convenience of collectingthem under the heading of the agency respon-sible for the publication to facilitate use of thecatalog has been the motivation for fifteengeneral rules, susceptible of subsequentelaboration ••••• " In the new section3 thefollowing seems to be the form of entry pre-ferred for official agencies:

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K2 CHILDS

DIRECCION GEI\'ERAL DE BELLAS ARTES.Espana.

MINISTERIO DE EDUCACION NACIONAL.Espana.

The basic rule (no. 117, p. 70) reads in freetranslation as follows:

"The publications of agencies and corpo-rations which are the result of their ownactivities such as 'b01etines, anua r ios ,acta s , rnernor ia s , informes, dic tarn erie s ,notas, proyectos, estatutos, reglamentos,instrucciones, listas, ca ta logo s , inverr-tarios, estadi~ticas, presupuestos,cuentas, balances,' and other works areto be cons ide r ed as edited by said agen-cies, these being considered as the realauthors. "

21 Treatment as Anonymous Works

Nevertheless, rule 126 (p. 77-78) still conti-nues treatment of a specific group of officialpublications as anonymous works under title asfollows (in free English translation):

"Certain special classes of publica-tions which emanate directly from. thecentral administration of the State orf r-orn parliaments, such as politicalcons titutions of countrie s , collectionsof laws, single laws, decrees, orders,regulations> ordinance s , instructions,grants, corporate charters, privileges,etc., som et.irne s including the name ofthe responsible agency or official cor-poration and sometimes not."

22 List of Headings forOfficial Spanish Agencies:

In keeping with the new provisions of theofficial cataloging code, the list of about athousand headings for present-day officialSpanish agencies prepared by Dona AngelaGarc~ Rives and Dona Maria Poves Barcenasof the Biblioteca Nacional at Madrid for use inthe catalog of Spanish libraries4, seem .• elo-quent evidence of the problem created by theincreasing representation of official publica-tions in the libraries of Spain. At the sametime, it would seem to be evidence of a very

70

considerable and increasing body of officialpublications being issued and published by thevarious ministries and other instrumentalitiesof the Government of Spain, to which no over-all record exists currently or retrospectively.

3 SOURCES

31 Monthly Clas s ified Record

The monthly classified r ecor-d of books inthe book trade published by the InstitutoNac iona l del Libro Espanol in the periodicaientitled ~~ Lib£o espanol, 5 although includingregularly some official publications, makesno perceptible use of corporate entries anddoes not index in any way by agency.

32 Copyright Lists

At the same time, the monthly Boletht deldeposito legal de obras impresas, ·which beganpubiicatio~-under the-I5·ireccid;: -de Archivos yBibliotecas with April 1958, is arranged incla s s if'ied order and seems to include officialpublications, the entries being according tothe official code, yet there being no indexingby agency. The requirement for deposit inclu-de s not only books, pamphlets, periodicals,music, maps, films, prints, recordings,picture postcards, but does not specify parti-cularly official publications.

33 Serial Publications

For serial publications in particular, volume2 (Rev Is ta.s] of Ano III (1954) of the Anuario dela prensa espanola, edited by the DirecciOn-----Gene-~aldeTaP-ie~na, discloses through care-ful scanning of the various sections of the clas-s ifdcat ion nearly two hundred titles that seemto be identified as emanating from variousagencies of the national government. The briefsection "Adrnin.is tr ac Idn Central, /I on pages276-279, includes only official publications andhas but twelve titles. There is no indexing bymin'istry or other agency. Although VOlume 1(Diarios) of Ano IV (1956) has been seen, nocopy of a corresponding volume 2 has beenavailable.

34 Ddrec tor y of Official Agencies

Turning next to pinpointing and identifica-tion of official agencies, the F.A.C. (Fichero

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SPANISH OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS

de altos cargos), a directory published on cardslOx 15 crn , by Angel Estirado Perez, ManuelCortina 10, Madrid, and kept up to date month-ly by reprinting the cards as changes occur,is arranged in the following order: Jefatura delEstado (including Cortes, F.E.T. y de lasJ. O. N. S.), Pres idencia del Gobierno, minis-tries in alphabetical order, ba nca , otrosorganismos, and datos de irrter e s general. TheF. A. C. gives citations to laws organizingagencies and lists the principal officials, butdoes not list official publications. Likewise,the Anuario general de Espana (Bailly-Bail-li~re-Riera), published at Barcelona by"Anuarios Bailly-BaillH~re y Riera Reunidos, IISociedad Anon irna , includes a directory of theSpanish National Government at the beginningof volume I, but does not list official publica-tions. Neither did the annual Gu~ oficial deEspana which began in 1722, and ceased pub-lication with 1930, ever attempt to list offi-cial publications.

35 Annual National Budget

In the annual national budget, issued byMinisterio de Hacienda under the title Pre-supue stos generales del Estado para elejercicio ec onom ic o, there are to Some extentunder the ministries, the general bureaus, andother agencies occasional items allocated tothe preparation and printing and distributionof official publications. At times there arementions of specific titles. Yet, nowhereunder any of the ministries or elsewhere doesthere seem to be mention of general govern-ment press or system of government pressesor overall plan for the printing, publication,sale, and distribution of official publications.In the use of the budget, it must be borne inmind that the law of December 18, 1950, pro-vided that the budgets be enacted for biennialperiod, the volume for the first or even yearbeing the full executive budget and that forthe second or odd year being only for addi-tional and amendatory items. AlISO, therehas been regularly a supplementary budgetin separate form entitled Presupuestos de losorganismos autonomo s para el ejercicioec onom Ico, apd these autonomous agencieswould need to be taken into account to helpobtain a full picture of the situation.

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K5 .

4 LACK OF OVERALLCOORDINATION

A Secretaria General Tecnica de la Presi-dencia del Gobierno was created as a generaladministrative department by decree of Decem-ber 20, 1956, has been accompanied by thedevelopment of similar agencies in the variousministries, but seems not yet to have COrneto grips with the problems of official publica-tions. In the very illuminating a,dministrativecharts of the various ministries accompanyingmost monthly numbers of its Documentac ionadministrativa beginning with January 1958,it is possible to secure a visual impression oftheir organization and ramifications, withthe direct agencies, the dependent agencies,and the autonornou a agencies.

41 Value of Official Publications

Indeed, emphasis for many official publica-tions, other than those of general culturalvalue, and of legal, historical, statistical,and scientific character, would seem to beupon their value for the legislator, the govern-ment official, the agencies, and for thosec/ooperating with them or affected by theiractions, as it still seems to be in many othercountries.

5 GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

Since as stated in Meyriat's Study and asspecified above, there now seem to be nooverall source for current bibliographicalinformation for the apparently very consider-able and important body of Spanish officialpublications, it will be useful to consider thevarious agencies in the following administra-tive order to ascertain what bibliographicalsources may be revealed:

J efatura del E stado,Presidencia del Gobierno,Ministerio del Agricultura,Ministerio del Aire,Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores,Ministerio de Comercio,Ministerio de Educacion Nacional,Ministerio de Ejercito,Ministerio de Gobe rnac Ion,

71

Mini,~~eFiQ,d;;,H4C~eq99-',Mi.l')isterJp';~e ,~~us~ria:, ,Ministerio de Infor ma.c ion y 'I'u r is m o,

. :":;¥0i~}~n,i~de,, ~ustici;1,"".;Mj.:n,~ste:do d~},,1arina. '

.."lv{~n~;ter~q de 0'9rFl5 'p~blkast"M,ini\'i):erjo,de T'r a ba jo , and

',< ' ,lvLil1~~~eri()de.Viviencla.

. ,.:5i J~fa:tura del E stado

u~l~rthe Jefa turadel E sta do are includedthe C;~"~~eJo'del Reine, the Cortes Espanoles, thethe Cons'eJo Nac iona l , the Instituto de E studios

, i , .. :. '".--, .

Polidcos,,' wbiCh by'lCtW of September 9, 1939,tookov'ert~ei}ibrary of the fo r rner Senate andthe Secreti~i;l'T~cnica of the former Congresode 105 Diputados asta body to study and investi-gate "con criterio politico y rigor cientllico105 pr oble ma s ry rna n.ife sta c ione s de 1,"v idaadm in is tra t iva , "econo..-nico, social e intE'l"-na c ic na l d.e Ia T'a t r ia, II is the only one ofthe~'epub1ishir,lg e'xt cns ive ly , in 1946 a.ppea r eda 207.;.p.ig~'de?'c~ipt1V:e catalog under the titleEdici.o;,;,es 'del 'fnsi:i'ti,lt6 de Estudi

SPANISH OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS

considerable part and coordinating the re-search activities of the Ministry, prepared a47-page Catalogo de publicaciones for distri-bution at the Feria del Libro in Madrid.

54 Ministerio del Aire

For the Ministerio del Aire, there seem tobe no general lists of publications. The Se rv i-cio Meteorold'gico Nac iona l , the Spanish WeatherBureau, under the Ministry, regularly includeson the covers of the Boletin mensual rne te or o=Iog ic o a listing of the Weather Bureau publica-tions.

55 Ministerio de AsuntosExteriores

Under the Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores,it may be mentioned that the 9"'Volume Ca ta log o,de Ia Bibliotaca, 1941-48, does not focus at-tention upon the publications of the Ministry asa separate unit. In 1951, the Ddr-ec c Ioh Generalde Relaciones Culturales made available a 16-page list entitled Publicaciones de la Direcc-ion General de Relaciones Cu ltu r-ale s , Fur-ther, the Instituto de Cultura Hispanica, theother agency in connection with the Ministryhaving a considerable publishing program,issued in 1949 a 24-page Catalogo de publica-ciones, and through its publishing affiliateEdiciones Cultura Hfs pan ica is sued in 1953 a31-page.c.atalog and in 1955 a 62-page catalog.

56 Ministerio de Comercio

The Ministerio de Comercio, separatedfrom the Ministerio de Industria y Comercioin 1951, is included in the catalog preparedby the Comision de Enlace de Publicacionesde los Ministerios de Industria y Comercioand is sued from time to time under the titleMinisterios de Industria y de Comercio:Catalogo de las publicaciones editadas por Iosdiferentes servicios de ambos departamentos,the edition of 1956 having 77 pages. Somefive or six editions of the catalog had beenissued before the division in 1951.

57 Ministerio de Educacio'nNacional

For the Ministerio de Ed uca c ion Na.cioria l ,the Servicio de Rublicaciones was established

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K57

in 1952 to have charge of printing, publishing,and distribution of official publications of theMinistry proper, and announced in the middleof 1952 the imminent appearance of a catalogof the publications of the Ministry proper andof the Direcciones Generales. Finally as of1958, the Ministerio de Educacion Nacional hasmade available the long-announced 187-pageCa ta'log o de publicaciones. The arrangementis by bureaus and other agencies as follows:Cornisari~ de Extension Cultural, D'ir ec c ionGeneral de Archivos y Bibliotecas, Direcci6n,General de Bellas Artes, Direccion Generalde Eris efianza La.bor a l , Direccion General deEnsenanza Media, Direccion Ge ner al deEnsenanza Primaria y Junta Nac iona l contrael Analfabetismo, Direccion General deEnsenanza Tecnica, Instituto de F'or-rnac ion deProfesorado de Ensenanza La bor al , SecretariaGeneral Tecnica, Seccion de Publicaciones,Se cr eta r ia de Ia Junta Central de FormacionProfesional Industrial. To facilitate acquisi-tion, the "',ldress of each agency is given. Thecatalog constitutes number 22 of the series ofthe "Primer Centenario del Cuerpo Facultativode Archiveros, Bibliotecarios y Arque6logos,1858-1958."

The Catalogo de la Biblioteca for the Lib-rary of the Ministry, distributed in loose-leafform beginning with 1944, does not include thepublications of the Ministry as a separate class.Aside from the many individual institutions andorganizations connected with the Ministry, onlytwo services can be mentioned further.

Under the date of 1958, the Direcci6n Gene"ral de Archivos y Bibliotecas of Spain hasedited a classified Cat

K57 CHILDS

pays particular attention to its publicationsas well as of those of the services and insti-tutions functioning under it. The bibliographyof the work of the Cuerpo itself, as of 1946,is contained on pages III-XIII of C.u~rp?_fCLcul-:-tativo de archiveros, bibliotecarios y a r que o-logos: Bibliografia y personal (XVII, lOSp:),eaTIecf in 1946 by the Junta Te'cnica de Archivos,Bibliotecas y Museos ,

The Consejo Superior de InvestigacionesCientificas, the national organization for thepr ornot ion of most research, with about 145institutes and centers, openecl in 1950 a centralsales office for its publ Ica tions under the nameLibreria Cientilica Medinaceli, Duque deMedinaceli 4, Madrid. The CSIC had in 1949a 140-page Catalogo, with a sup~lement 1949-53, kept up to date by the Boletin bibliogra-fico. In 1955 appeared a 46-page Catalogo de;:~vistas, and for the Feria del Libro;' Madrid,1956~ 20-page catalog entitled ~9'y'~da~E!i3,Abril 1955-Abril 1956.

58 Ministerio de Eje'rcito

Under the Ministerio de Ej er c ito, there isan official publishing house or service calledsometimes Editorial Ejercito and sometimesEdiciones Eje'r c ito , but no catalog or list ofpublications has been seen.

591 Ministerio de la Gobernacion

Under the Ministerio de la Gober nac ion ,which has control over local government, pub-lic health, communication services, etc , , thevarious agencies each seem to have their ownpublishing facilities, and there seems to belittle ev idence of any systematic Li.st ing ,

592 Ministerio de Hacienda

For the Ministerio de Hacienda the onlysource is the Ca ta Iogo de la Biblioteca Cen-tral, 699 pages for the approximately 13,000volume central library of the Ministerio deHacienda, prepared by Antonic Matilla Tas-con, Carmen Nieto, and Elisa Parra, issuedlate in 1955. The arrangement of the morethan 8,000 entries is by the Universal Decimal

74

Classification, with indexes to persons and totopics. The catalog itself reflects the variousinterests of the Ministry of Finance, includingits official publications and should be helpfulfor bibliographical suggestions to the oneworking seriously in any of the fields cover edby that Ministry.

593 Ministerio de Industria

For the Ministerio de Industria, referencemay be made to the statement under the Minis-terio de Comercio. For the Instituto Geolo'-gico y Minero, not included in the joint cata-log, a 366-page ana Iyt ica I Ca.taIogo de publi-cac ione s , prepared by Jose Meseguer Pardoappeared in 1947, and a supplementary listin 1952. Each year in the tv/a series Ofstatistical publications of the Comision parala Distribution del Carbon is a retrospectivelis t of the publications for the Commis sionand its predecessor agencies. The Escuelade Minas also has a separate list.

594 Ministerio de Informaciony Turismo

Under the Ministerio de Informacion yTuroismo, the Ddr-e ccion General" de Informa-cion has supervision over the offic ia l EditoraNacional, created in 1937 to publish materialaccording to the principles of the NationalMovement, which has available as of 1955 a102-page Ca ta Iogo de publicaciones, includingonly those in print. A list of the publicationsof the Ddr ecc Ion General itself for the years1946-47 (31 p.) was printed with the RevistaNacional de educac ion, number 30. Some-times the Dfr ecc ion General uses the desig-nation "Publicaciones Nac iona les , " butwhether in the sense of a separate publishinghouse seems uncertain. For the Feria delLibro, 1945, in Madrid, the Instituto Nacionaldel Libro Espanol, the center for the currentnational bibliography, issued an 8-page Cata-logo of its publications.

595 Ministerio de Justicia

F6r the Ministerio de Justicia, a smallCa ta Iogo de publicaciones of 133 pages wasprepared for dir.tribution at the Feria del Libro

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SPANISH OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS

in 1951. In 1956 appeared the 17?ge Catatogode publicaciones of the Institute Nacional deEstudios Juridicos, which functions also inconnection with the Consejo Superior de Inves-tigaciones Cientihcas.

596 Ministerio de Marina

Under the Ministerio de Marina, there isthe official Editorial Marina, but no lists orcatalogs have been seen. At Cadiz, the Insti-tuto Hidrografico de la Marina, the NationalHydrographic Office, issues from time to timea catalog of its mariner's charts and relatedpublications which are reproduced in its ownplant.

597 Ministerio de Ob ra s Ptiblicas

For the Ministerio de Ob ra s Publicas, littleinformation as to publications seem s to beavailable, even though the Ministry has super-vision over RENFE, the Spanish State Railways.

598 Ministerio de Trabajo

For the Ministerio de Trabajo, there seemsto be rather meager mention of its official pub-lications in its monthly Revista de t r aba jo ,even though the bibliographical section is pre-pared in the library of the Ministry. In 1948 a12?ge list was issued under the title Publica-ciones de Ia Seccion de Estudios y de la EscuelaSocial. In 1949, the Instituto Nac iona l de Pre-v ia ion, the national social security administra-tion, issued a 255-page Ca ta l ogo de publica-ciones, covering its 41 years of activity with anttmerical as well as a topical arrangement,and replacing various earlier lists.

5991 Ministerio de Vivienda

The Ministerio de Vivienda was estab-lished in 1957, and no mfor-matdon as to publi-cations has been observed.

6 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it is seen that in a periodof about forty years the increasing presence

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K6

of Spanish official publications in the nationallibraries and in those under national super-vision has been such as to bring recognitionof the utility of a form of corporate entry inthe official cataloging code. The pressureapparently accumulated without any overallcontrol of distribution and provision fordeposit in libraries. At the same time, thenational bibliography seems not to have beenable to do too much with collecting and re-cording the increasing number of officialpublications, the prime responsibility beir.gto cover books in the book trade. Theannual Feria del Libro in Madrid seems tohave been one rne aria of focussing Borneattention on the problem, for eliciting someexhibits from various official agencies, andfor stimulating the preparation of some cata-logs of publications. Beyond that, certainother factors have c orrie into play. Therecord has been eked out here and there.An understanding is being aroused in thevary considerable array of data in manyfields, some of it of immediate and press-ing interest, that is being brought forth bymodern government, in this case Spain, inmeeting the needs for national survival in thepresent world. The next step in Spain maywell show some further progress towardsmaking the data in official publicationsavailable by striving toward overall biblio-graphical control. And, further progressmay point the way towards the utility ofma king similar surveys in other countries,elaborating the data accumulated and presented

, by Meyriat. These would help to establishcomprehension and understanding of the in-creasingly complex governments of thepresent-day and their ever more intricatepublications.

Still unpublished. A microfilm madefrom a carbon copy may be purchasedfor $10.00 from the PhotoduplicationService, Library of Congress, Washing-ton 25. D.C.

2 Spain. Junta tecnica de archivosbibliotecas y mu seos , Instrucciones parala r edacc ion del ca ta.Iogo alfabe'tico deautores y obras ariondrna s en las biblio-tecas pliblicas del Estado dirigidas porel Cuerpo facultativo de archiveros,bibliotecarios y a rque dlog os , Madrid

7S

K6 CHILDS

(oirecci6n general de archivos y biblio-tecas J, 1941. xi, 210 p. The first edi-tion was in 1902.

3 Publicaciones de Entidades. Rules 117-131, p. 70-80.

"Ponencia, mim, 64" printed in the Actas yPonencias_ of the I. Congreso lberoameri-cano y Filipino de Archivos, Bibliotecas y

4

Propiedad Intelectual, Madrid, Oct. -Nov.1952, vol. 2, p. 478-538.

5 Previous to 1958: Bibliografia hispanica.

6 Series of such annual reports, which mightinclude regularly a statement of the officialpublications are not too common, and seemnever to be issued by the ministries.

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