Bib Socs - Founding Dates

Logos, Links & Images

Tanselle, G. Thomas. 2013. Essays in Bibliographical History. Charlottesville, New Castle, Delaware: The Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia ; Distributed by Oak Knoll Books.

“The study and collecting of books has been fostered in no small part by the world’s bibliographical societies—often known as bib socs to their friends—the full titles being a mouthful.”—David Pearson - 2024.¹

What is bibliography if not a list of books? Bibliography is much more than your “works cited” page. As a field of inquiry, bibliography examines the artifactual value of texts – including books, manuscripts, and digital texts – and how they reflect the people and cultures that created, acquired, and exchanged them. Bibliographers study the technologies used to carry texts to readers, valuing the close physical analysis of material artifacts and the social and economic systems that disperse texts in all their various forms around the globe.²

Major Bibliographical Societies

• Edinburgh Bibliographical Society—world's oldest continuing bibliographical society.- 1891

• Bibliographical Society - 1892

• Bibliographical Society of America- 1899

• Oxford bibliographical society -1922

• The Bibliographical Society of Canada ☙ La Société bibliographique du Canada - 1946

• Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia-1947

• Cambridge Bibliographical Society | Cambridge University Library - 1949

• Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand – BSANZ - 1969

Many Bibliographical Society Lectures are Available Online

Bibliographical Societies give lectures and many are online.³

1. Pearson, David. Review of Essays to Mark the Centenary of the Oxford Bibliographical Society 1922-2022. Edited by David Rundle and H.R. Woudhuysen. (Oxford: The Oxford Bibliographical Society, 2024.) in The Book Collector 73 (Winter 2024): 752-754.

2. “What is Bibliography?” The Bibliographical Society of America |

3. The Bibliographical Society’s New YouTube Channel