Print Materials:

The author, publisher and bookseller are all partners in turning ideas into a finished product. These groups operate  as a team with division of responsibilities but with proper linkages between themselves. Generally, publishing of  documents  involves the following activities: 

• Flow of manuscripts to publishers office;  
• Publishing preliminaries:  Selection and  evaluation  of manuscripts, in terms of quality and marketability, contract between author and publisher, etc; 
• Production: Editing, printing, binding; 
• Distribution: Dissemination of information about published documents, promotional activities, including advertising, bringing out catalogues, bibliographies, announcement bulletins, leaflets, folders, etc.; 
• Sales and marketing 

While some intimate knowledge of all these activities is desirable for collection development, we-shall concern ourselves only with distribution activities with which libraries are directly related.