PUBLICATION DATES
Analysis of publication dates revealed that all materials in the collection were published between the 15th century and the 21st century, with the majority of items published in the 17th and 18th centuries. We also discovered 45 incunabula (books printed prior to 1501) in this collection. Some records which lacked known publication dates are represented by "unknown date” in the visualizations. Due to the large number of items in the collection with varying publication dates, the team thought it would be best to group the dates by century for meaningful interactive display of when the items in the collection were published.
Chart 2.1 - Publication Date (by % of total collection)
This chart displays the percentage of total Woodstock rare items published by century. The largest portion of the collection was published in the 17th century. This was closely followed by the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 16th centuries respectively. 45 incunabula, or items printed prior to 1501, also exist in the collection. 1.87% of the collection or 251 items have no publication dates because these are unique items with brief records and need further research as the publication date was not readily ascertainable during the preliminary cataloging process due to lack of access to materials. Only 124 items or 0.92% of the collection was published in the 21st century.
Chart 2.2 - Century of Publication by Region
This chart shows, by century, how many rare items in the collection were published in different regions of the world. The chart demonstrates that a majority of the rare books held in the Woodstock Library were published in the 17th century, specifically in Europe. Most of the 16th century and 18th century books in the collection were also published in Europe. The 19th and 20th centuries showed a gradual shift in the place of publication from Europe to North America.