The R.R. Bowker Company (1868 - present) is an American company currently based in New Providence, New Jersey that provides bibliographic information on published works to the books trade, including publishers, libraries, booksellers, and individuals. Bowker is also the exclusive U.S. agent for issuing International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs). The company was founded in 1868 in New York City by Frederick Leypoldt, a bookseller, to provide and compile bibliographic information with the goal of making the book business more efficient. He established the Literary Bulletin, his first periodical, that year and in 1870 issued the first edition of his Annual American Catalogue, the forerunner of Books in Print. The first issue of Publisher's Weekly was published in 1872, with the first issue of Publishers' Uniform Trade-List Annual appearing in 1873, and followed by the first issue of Library Journal in 1876. The company was acquired by Richard Rogers Bowker in 1878. The pair then founded two influential book-industry references: Literary Marketplace and Ulrich's Periodicals Directory. The R.R. Bowker company was acquired by the Xerox Corporation in 1967, which then sold it to Reed International in 1985. Also in 1985, Publisher's Weekly was transferred to the Cahners Publishing Company after 113 years as part of the R.R. Bowker Company. The Cambridge Information Group bought Bowker in 2001, and sold Literary Marketplace in 2007. After the Cambridge Information Group acquired ProQuest Information and Learning, R.R. Bowker was position as an affiliate of ProQuest.



Out of Stock Maps