Book Description Question

I'm trying to put a technical book into my data base, and I'm wondering what
the convention is for listing a "place" in this particular case.

Normally, I just pick up the first city shown on the title page. This title
page shows:
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York.

Springer-Verlag seems to be the publisher, so normally I would put "Berlin,"
even though the book is written in English. The reverse title says it was
printed in Germany. However the reverse of the title page shows two ISBN's:
The 1st is for Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York
The 2nd is for Springer-Verlag New York Heidelberg Berlin
Both ISBN's are stamped on the back cover and there is no jacket that might
help me determine which is specifically attributed to this text.

The specific question is: Is there a convention for this situation? Am I
right in just listing the first city on the title page, or should I actually
put some "thinking" into this?

A more general question is: What is the meaning, exactly, of the multiple
cities listed for a publisher? Their order obviously has some kind of
meaning, because Springer-Verlag lists the same cities for each ISBN but
just sorts them differently. Are these typically cities where the publisher
has offices, plants, distribution centers? And why are so many of them in
New York, or is that a different thread?

Alice

"my-wings" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to put a technical book into my data base, and I'm wondering
what
the convention is for listing a "place" in this particular case.

Normally, I just pick up the first city shown on the title page. This
title
page shows:
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York.

Springer-Verlag seems to be the publisher, so normally I would put
"Berlin,"
even though the book is written in English. The reverse title says it was
printed in Germany. However the reverse of the title page shows two
ISBN's:
The 1st is for Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York
The 2nd is for Springer-Verlag New York Heidelberg Berlin
Both ISBN's are stamped on the back cover and there is no jacket that
might
help me determine which is specifically attributed to this text.

The specific question is: Is there a convention for this situation? Am I
right in just listing the first city on the title page, or should I
actually
put some "thinking" into this?

A more general question is: What is the meaning, exactly, of the multiple
cities listed for a publisher? Their order obviously has some kind of
meaning, because Springer-Verlag lists the same cities for each ISBN but
just sorts them differently. Are these typically cities where the
publisher
has offices, plants, distribution centers? And why are so many of them in
New York, or is that a different thread?

Alice


Hi!! I know more about archival cataloguing than library, but I would use
Berlin for the Publication Place, and the ISBN which lists Berlin first.

Huronia (It's so easy when everything is done in New York, isn't it?)

"Huronia" wrote in message
...

"my-wings" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to put a technical book into my data base, and I'm wondering
what
the convention is for listing a "place" in this particular case.
snip extra stuff
... the reverse of the title page shows two ISBN's:
The 1st is for Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York
The 2nd is for Springer-Verlag New York Heidelberg Berlin


Hi!! I know more about archival cataloguing than library, but I would use
Berlin for the Publication Place, and the ISBN which lists Berlin first.

Huronia (It's so easy when everything is done in New York, isn't it?)


Thanks. That's what I eventually decided to do. I guess it just got me to
wondering about what that list of cities following most publishers' names
really means, and what significance might be of the order in which the
cities were listed.

Alice