[ The Scholastic Trading Co., Limited. ] Eight numbers of Cedric Chivers' short-lived periodical 'New Book List For Bookbuyers, Librarians and Booksellers', described as 'a Booksellers' CODE BOOK', and a forerunner of the ISBN system.

A short-lived periodical, of interest as a forerunner of the ISBN system: the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature states that it ran from September 1895 to August 1898, and gives Armistead Cay as joint-editor. The eight numbers are as follows: Vol. 1 No. 2 (March 1896); Vol. 1 No. 7 (August 1896); Vol. 1 No. 8 (September 1896); Vol. 1 No. 9 (October 1896); Vol. 1 No. 11 (December 1896); Vol.1 No. 12 (January 1897); Vol. 2 No. 4 (May 1897); Vol. 2 No. 9 (October 1897). The eight 8vo pamphlets are stapled into printed wraps, and are uniform in design. The staples have rusted, causing damage and discoloration, otherwise internally in fair condition, on aged paper, in worn and aged wraps. Each contains a section of the list, with a separate section of editorial matter and advertising (much of it illustrated). The first issue contains a fifty-six page list, paginated 30-86, with an eight-page stapled insert, paginated i-viii. The last pamphlet has a list paginated 206-249, with 28pp. of supplementary material. The other issues are similarly arranged. The first issue present is in fact the second number in the series, and the title page states 'This List should be used as a Booksellers' CODE BOOK', as well as 'All information given in this List is supplied directly by the publishers themselves.' At the centre of the title-page: 'PLAN FOR CONSULTATION. | ON PAGES to the left hand full particulars are given of the Books Published during February, arranged alphabetically under authors, and in numerical sequence. | ON COLOURED PAGES in CENTRE of the book [i.e. the eight-page insert] appear Subject and Title Index and Publishers' Index.' Vol. 1 No. 12 contains a full-page 'Editorial', boasting of the periodical that 'within four months of its birth it sprang into a bona fide circulation of 10,000 copies per month, which has been steadily maintained and occasionally increased during 1896 to considerably more'. The editorial also boasts that 'our plan of indexing allows of the identification of any book under either its author, title, or subject, and the system of numbering each book (and in future a prefix letter to denote the year of issue) will enable us to compile cumulative indexes in a manner which will greatly serve the convenience of all book-buyers'. Vol. 2 No. 11 describes the 'Special Features of this Publication' on the cover, under the following headings: 'A complete catalogue of current British Literature', 'An indexed list', 'Books are fully described', 'Also contains lists of books upon topics of the day', 'A code book for purposes of ordering' ('Each book having a number, and the numbers running consecutively throughout the year, books can be ordered by number only without risk of error.'). Scarce: the only copies traced on COPAC at the British Library.