This eighth volume of ABHB (Annual bibliography of the history of the printed book and libraries) has been delayed considerably, firstly by economic problems, arising from its low circulation figures, secondly by its automation. None of both problems were easy to tackle. But it is hoped that by now at least the major difficulties have been solved. Certainly, some less elegant alternatives were allowed into this volume, which more or less is to be considered as a trial. We will endeavour to eliminate these peculiarities in the next volumes. Nevertheless, the impatient reader is asked to bear in mind the scale of effort which was accomplished and which includes aspects of automatic indexing, automatic filing, automatic transliteration, automatic layout, and the use of a computerized multi script typography. It is expected that this effort will lead to a more accurate and a more rapid publication of the future volumes. It will allow the members of the National Committees and the Editor to concentrate their attention more on matters of contents. This volume contains about 3200 records, selected from some 1700 periodicals, the list of which follows this introduction.