Westcountry Studies. Issue 31. May 2023

 

Westcountry Studies a bibliographical newsletter on Devon and its region Issue 31 May 2023

Artificial intelligence to the rescue?

Artificial intelligence and particularly the arrival of chat bots with the threat (or promise) that it might take over the work of mere humans came as something of a relief to this old bibliofool, who was worried about who might take over the compilation of the Devon bibliography when he is no longer able (or inclined) to do so. So, more in hope than expectation, he decided to undertake a comparative test. 

Despite multiple attempts I was unable to set up an account for Chat GPT, reputedly the best of the bunch, so I test-drove Bing AI and Google Bard. I asked them both the same question:

Please could I have a list of books about Devon published in 2022 giving title, author, publisher, ISBN?

Bing AI responded:

Searching for: books about Devon published in 2022 title author publisher ISBN.

Generating answers for you…

I’m sorry but I couldn’t find any books about Devon published in 2022. However, I can suggest some books about Devon that were published recently:

“The Devon Coast to Coast Cycle Route” by Nick Cotton, published on 28th February 2022 by Cicerone Press Limited. ISBN-10: 1786313614.

“Devon: A Portrait in Colour” by James Ravilious, published on 7th October 2021 by Little Toller Books. ISBN-10: 1908213895.

“The Devon Cook Book: A Celebration of the Amazing Food and Drink on Our Doorstep” by Kate Reeves-Brown, published on 1st November 2021 by Meze Publishing. ISBN-10: 1910863696.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Google Bard reported:

Here is a list of books about Devon published in 2022, giving title, author, publisher, and ISBN:

 

[The following list was supplied as a table, which I started to mark up for possible inclusion in the Devon bibliography.]

Title / Author. Publisher. ISBN.

A Devonshire Summer / Victoria Hislop. Headline Publishing Group. 9781472272717. 

    [Not in JISC. Could be a Headline ISBN but this number not used]

Devon / John Lewis-Stempel. William Collins. 9780008446707. 

    [Not in JISC]

Devon: A Landscape History / Peter Marran. Yale University Press. 9780300253188. 

    [Not listed as author in JISC or WorldCat]

Devon: A Literary Journey / John Fowles. Vintage Books. 9781784735941. 

    [Not in JISC]

Devon: A Walking Guide / Paddy Dillon. Cicerone. 9781852846822. 

    [Not in JISC]

Devon: A Year in the Country / John Lewis-Stempel. William Collins. 9780008446714. 

    [Garbled from other titles?]

Devon: A Year of Walks / Paddy Dillon. Cicerone. 9781852846839. 

    [Not in JISC. Garbled from other titles?]

Devon: A Year of Wildlife / John Lewis-Stempel. William Collins. 9780008446721. 

    [Garbled from other titles?]

The wild life : a year of living on wild food / John Lewis-Stempel. Doubleday. 

    [Herefordshire, not Devon and title not traced anyway.]

Devon: The Beautiful Coast / David Thomas. Amberley Publishing. 9781445684657. 

    [Not in JISC. Could be an Amberley ISBN]

Devon: The Hidden History / Peter Marran. Yale University Press. 9780300253195. 

    [Not listed as author in JISC or WorldCat]

I hope this helps!

Well, no it doesn't! I had heard that AI can invent non-existent facts, and Google had excelled itself here. Not one of the works listed appears to exist.

So I turned to a few traditional sources and conducted a trial run asking for Devon as subject and 2022 as date of publication.  There was a total haul from all four sources of 287 records but, after allowing for variant forms of publication (hardback, paperback, large print, e-book, audiobook etc) this boiled down to 161 different titles. 

WorldCat is the most prolific, listing 202 Devon subject works published in 2022 but of these 137 are relevant, the remainder relating to American or other non-Devon subjects. It helpfully gives some summaries, particularly of works of fiction, and also includes foreign imprints and translations. Of the 96 titles it lists, 48 titles are not picked up by other sources. 

JISC Library Hub Discover did promise 1033 records but most were not published in 2022, although it included some periodicals current in that year. Only 46 were actually published in 2022, most of them relevant as Devon items. Of the 44 titles it lists, 6 titles are not picked up by other sources. 

British National Bibliography, searched early in May, listed 48 titles with Devon as subject. It does not give the ISBN on the results page, but links to related sources such as e-books, hardbacks and paperbacks which have different ISBNs. The titles look relevant, although checks were not made to confirm that fiction was set in Devon. A major drawback with BNB is its slowness in listing many titles. (My Story of the book in Exeter and Devon has yet to be listed, although the other copyright libraries, to which I also passed copies in September 2021, have records on JISC. Also it does not cover maps, some of which are listed by the other sources. Of the 47 titles it lists, 5 titles are not picked up by other sources.  

Amazon responded "Devon No results for [subject] in Books". It listed several titles published in other years but also included four 2022 titles. If the search was extended to Devon as keyword rather than subject, 248 titles were listed, but only about 56 were relevant. Irrelevant results include Devon as the author's name, Devon rex cats, and many calendars, travel note books, colouring books and similar merchandise. Of the 34 titles it lists, 28 titles are not picked up by other sources, a much higher proportion than the other three websites.  

So, what is the best way for the Devon bibliography to be continued by those who have less time to dedicate to it than I have had over the past eight years? I would suggest that the union catalogues provide a better source than the BNB, especially WorldCat which could be checked once a year toward the middle of the following year. Such a search should pick up the majority of conventionally published items, supplemented by a search of Amazon. JISC is limited to British copyright, academic and research libraries while WorldCat includes more public libraries and has world-wide coverage. A search for Devon should pick up most items, but a keyword check for larger individual communities and regions might fill some gaps and add locally published titles. BUT this does not cover the bulk of the so-called grey literature: works by local authorities, research organisations, the health and welfare sector, charities, local and family history groups, museums, tourist boards, literary organisations, many local publishers and business organisations. Nor does it cover works by Devon authors who are not recognised as such in national catalogue records, for example writers such as Michael Morpurgo, not all of whose writings are locally set (a quick WorldCat search lists 66 items published in 2022). It also does not include PDF documents which are poorly archived, for example the many neighbourhood plans mentioned in earlier issues of this newsletter. However that requires the commitment of locally based librarians who can have their ear to the ground, scanning newspapers, periodicals, websites and making contact with local organisations of all kinds. 

In despair, I commissioned Bing AI to write a sonnet on the problems of compiling the Devon bibliography. It was more helpful than it was when compiling the bibliography itself. It responded:

Sure, I’ll try to write a sonnet on that topic. Here is what I came up with:

# A Sonnet on the Problems of Compiling the Devon Bibliography

To gather all the books of Devon's lore,

And sort them by their date and place and theme,

Is not an easy task, but rather more

A labour of devotion and esteem.

But oh, the challenges that one must face!

The scarce and rare editions hard to find,

The errors and the gaps that one must trace,

The countless hours spent in libraries' bind.

And yet, the joy of finding some new gem,

A hidden history or tale untold,

Or seeing how the authors' thoughts do stem

From Devon's landscapes, culture, and its mould.

So persevere, O bibliophile brave,

For Devon's books are worthy to be saved.

Well, at least somebody, or rather something, appreciates my efforts. 

Devon neighbourhood plans

I also checked the UK Web archive to see whether I was wasting my time in attempting to maintain the Devon bibliography. I ascertained that no websites relevant to Devon neighbourhood plans had been gathered since 2014 and many of those were only accessible in the legal deposit reading rooms of the copyright libraries. So I have revisited the listing I compiled more than a year ago, Devon neighbourhood plans available February 2022, to see whether the links still work and actually download the PDF files onto a USB stick. It is work in progress as I have to see how the links might work - the titles of the downloaded PDF files differ from the URLs, so they may be recorded as if they were library copies together with the date of the download. The USB stick can then be copied onto the resource files of any library that shows the remotest interest in digital archiving of local documentation.  

Grievous Bodley harm? The strange affair of Exeter's medieval manuscripts

This is the title of a talk to be given on Thursday, 8 June 2023 at 7pm at Leonardo Hotel Exeter, Western Way EX1 2DB. It will discuss the role of Sir Thomas Bodley in the history of the Exeter Cathedral Library, show images of thirty of the manuscripts involved, talk about the rebuilding of the library in the north cloisters in 1412, and end with the long view on the rise, fall, and resurrection of Exeter's libraries over the centuries. It is linked to the exhibition Gatekeepers to heaven: religion, knowledge and power in medieval Exeter, which can be seen in RAMM from 3 June to 3 September and brings back to Exeter for the first time in four centuries six of the manuscripts that were removed from Exeter in 1602. The talk forms part of the series organised for its members by the Exeter Local History Society. Tickets are available via the following links: for  members of Exeter Local History Society (free) and for non-members (£3.00). 

So, not much in this issue, but rushed out as discussion of AI has gone viral in recent days.