T3D Where is the Stereo 3D Literature Database?

[abram klooswyk <abram.klooswyk@xxxxxx>]

Harold A. Layer has a website (http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~hl) 
on which an interesting article is republished:
"Stereoscopy: Where Did It Come From? Where Will It Lead?",
originally published in: EXPOSURE: 17:3 Fall 1979, pages 34-48. 
I would recommand to everybody to read it.

The web site also contains a stereo bibliography:
"Books on Stereoscopy 1853 to 1986", originally published in 
STEREO WORLD, Vol 14(1): 44-5, March/April 1987.
The introduction of it says (also today):
"This kind of bibliography has never been published before, 
and I would appreciate any corrections or additions".

The bibliography is restricted to English language books, so making
additions would be easy if other languages were permitted. 
But such bibliographies had already been published by Walter Selle, a 
German professional stereographer and collector of stereopublications. 
He wrote several times on stereophotography and 3-D cinematography, 
and two memorable 3-D bibliographies:

-Selle, Walter: "Zur Bibliographie der Stereoskopie", 
 Zeitschrift f¸r Wissenschaftliche Photographie, Bd 44, Heft 10-12, 
 1949, pages 212-222.     (first list covers period 1842-1948)
-Selle, Walter: " '3D' im B¸cherspiegel", published by the Deutsche 
 Gesellschaft f¸r Stereoskopie in 1971, supplements appeared up to 1974,
 giving a total number of 114 pages. (2d list covers period 1939-1974)

The meaning of "This kind of bibliography" of course can be explained 
in different ways, to be compared with the meaning of the number "6". 
We all have learned now that "six" is not the same as "legally six". 
Selle's lists contained, apart from books in several languages, also 
(nearly) all books on Layer's list, so I would say that "This kind of 
bibliography" *had* ever been published before.
I wrote a letter to "Stereo World" (jan/feb 1989 vol 15 No 6 pp 4-5)
saying so (in a few more words). 
In that letter I added (among other things):

>> ... it should be realized that the number of all stereo books ever 
published is four to six times larger than Layer's list.  
  Before the publication of the first book on that list (Ingleby 1853) 
the French abbÈ Moigno wrote the little gem "StÈrÈoscope, ses effets 
merveilleux, pseudoscope, ses effets Ètrangers" (Paris, 1852, 16 pp).  
  In 1853 Antoine Claudet, the French photographer who lived in London, 
wrote a 55 page treatise on stereophotography, in French. Claudet is the 
inventor of the stereo window. Another French publication by Claudet 
appeared in 1858.  
 This indicates only the beginning of a long list of French books on 3-D
with important items as the 1923 textbook by Colardeau (the inventor of
the interleaved film progression used in stereocamera's of the Stereo
Realist type) and the 1964 one by general Hurault.  
  In German even more elaborate textbooks were written, like the 
authoritative text written by the Dutchman van Albada, a 102 page 
contribution on stereophotography to a volume of a scientific handbook
on photography (1931). More recently, the German textbooks by Pietsch 
(1959,1962) and Vierling (1965) were written. << 
>>In the first century of stereoscopy (1838-1938) Layer lists 22 books
in English, in the same period Selle has 119 items in all languages. 
It will be clear that Selle's lists are better for research and 
judging periods of activity. The scope of Selle's second list is 
broader, and includes Harold Layers own thesis (1970) and some of 
his articles. <<

In a later issue of "Stereo World" (Vol 16(2), May/June 1989) Harold
Layer replied to my surprise: "Klooswijk was not aware, obviously, that
Selle and I corresponded heavily in the early 1970s (...) I contributed
several citations that Selle used in his 1974 supplement. (...)
Selle's 114-page German-language bibliography of 1853-1974 books, 
pamphlets, and articles is the best and most complete in the world 
(...). I do hope that someone attempts in the 1990s to duplicate his 
great feat (...)."

I was surprised because I believed that someone who is interested in
making a bibliography, essentially a source of references, would make 
reference to prior bibliographies (he knew of) in the first place. 
And I also was surprised in not having understood the legally meaning of 
"This kind of bibliography", but then - I'm not a la(w)yer :-). But I 
can reassure people who are afraid of a "German-language bibliography",
the titles in Selle's lists are all in their *original* language :-). 

Harold Layer did also draw attention to the fact that in Selle's list
small errors were made. What I personally disliked a little in Selle's 
chronological list was that a book with - for example - 3 editions 
was listed under the year of the *last* edition, which in my opinion
confused the overview of the chronology.
Of course, this would easily been resolved when Selle's bibliography
was set in a database on which some query language could be used to
produce output of selections and any specified order. 

About Harold Layer's hope on duplicating Selle's efforts in the 1990s,
there is not much time left in this decade. I know that Dan Shelley
(http://www.dddesign.com/3dbydan/3dbooks) has done a lot, and I like
that. However, I do dislike about his list that the books are in 
alphabetical order by *title*. No serious bibliography would do that. 
It's by author, chronologically or by subject. Yes, you can search
on words, but not easily change the order, and all overview is lost.
Again, any order would be fine in a digital database.

I do hope I have overlooked the definitive bibliographical 3D 
database, please tell me.

Abram Klooswyk


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