外文书籍版权页底部的那行数字代表什么
2008-07-20 11:27阅读：
外文书籍版权页底部的那行数字代表什么
人类真是一个极富创造性的群体！许多看起来怪异的东西实际上包含着深刻的含义和人类的创造性举措。比如计算机时代常用的符号“@”，其来源就与梵文中大量出现'at'的一种简化处理方式。版权符号“
©”也有类似的解释。除了简化之外，另一类看似“怪异”的东西也有其重要作用，比如文献电子搜索好'doi',经济学文献分类号JEL，中国图书分类号等等，这些奇怪的创造(creation)都是为了使人类更方便地做成某事。笔者近日在寻找有关发明问题解决理论的过程中又发现一个新的怪异的东西——外文书籍版权页底部的那行数字！！“Printed
in the united states of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
2 1','Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
0',为什么要加上这一行顺序排列的数字呢？难道是某种版权页校对数字，笔者在google上搜索真正的版权页校对数字是10到2顺序排列与ISBN号相乘能被11整除，但是并没有说必须列出这行数字，况且顺序也不对，因此笔者百思不得其解。
这个问题使笔者这两天以来几乎好奇到了“寝食难安”的地步！今日，终于在google搜索引擎上以'numbers in
copyright
page'为搜索项得到相关信息，发现原来也有极少数人同笔者怀着一样的好奇心，而且问题得到了部分解决，以下是引用的两个网页的相关信息：
（1）
What do the numbers at the bottom of a copyright page indic
ate?
In: Biography
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_do_the_numbers_at_the_bottom_of_a_copyright_page_indicate
You're probably looking at the 'print line.' It may have different
formats, but it will generally be something like this:
1 2 3 4 5 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008
The '1 2 3 4 5' lets you know whether this is a first printing,
second printing, etc. The lowest number is the one of the printing.
Each time the book is reprinted, the number of the previous
printing is just masked in making/revising the printing
plates.
Similarly, the lowest year listed is the year your particular copy
of the book was printed. Thus, the following print line
3 4 5 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995
would indicate that your copy of the book came from the third
printing, which was made in 1995.
读了上述解释之后发现，原来这行简单得非常奇怪的阿拉伯数字中最小的数字代表书籍的印刷次数，最小的年份代表该书的印刷年份。但是为什么要用上述方法解决呢？为此，我们得借助另外一个相关网页对其进行解释：
（2)
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2007/04/10/2065727.aspx
What's the row of numbers on the copyright page of books?
On the copyright page of a book (typically the back of the title
page), you'll find a row of numbers. Something like this:
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4
3 2 1
As
Dave Taylor explains, the smallest number tells you which
printing of the book you have. For example, if you see '10 9 8 7 6
5 4' then you have a fourth printing. Dave doesn't explain why
printers use this convention, however.
I forget where I learned this; I think I read it in one of Don
Knuth's books. It has to do with how books are historically made.
Each page of a book is converted to a metal plate which is used to
make impressions. If another printing run is necessary, you load
the plates back onto the printing machine and off you go. But how
do you indicate that this is a second printing? It would be
expensive to burn a brand new plate just to change the word 'first'
to 'second' on the copyright page. Instead, you pre-load all the
printing numbers onto your master, and each time you start a new
printing run, you scratch off the lowest number.
Even though a lot of book printing nowadays is done with computers
rather than metal plates, the old method of indicating a printing
is retained out of tradition.
Published Tuesday, April 10, 2007 7:00 AM by
oldnewthing
Filed under:
Non-Computer
观其大意，原来是旧时印刷书籍采用的是金属印刷模版，在重新印刷时为修改一个数字而对全书进行较大的操作显然不合算，于是就采用预先在模版上刻上所有可能印刷次数的数字，在重新印刷时只需将原有数字遮盖即可（TRIZ理论中“过度或不足作用”发明原理的经典应用！）！在计算机出现以后，虽然上述“过度作用”的需求基本消失，但它作为一种传统却被保留了下来，因此版权页底部的阿拉伯数字便成了我们所看到的模样！（该贴的回复中提出了更多的关于版权页底部阿拉伯数字的问题）
原来人类在每创造一个流行的“怪异”标记时就“标记”了当时的历史，而该标记作为传统流传至时过境迁的现代便形成了各种各样的“怪异”！
