BHO is the online version of ABHB, the current international bibliography in the field of book and library history. It records all publications of scholarly value, written from an historical point of view. This may include monographs, articles and reviews, dealing with the history of the printed book, its arts, crafts, techniques and equipment, its economic, social and cultural environment involved in its production, distribution, preservation and description. More specifically, BHO contains information on the history of printing and publishing, papermaking, bookbinding, book illustration, typedesign and typefounding, bibliophily and book collecting, libraries and scholars.

A new volume of ABHB has been issued each year from 1970 on. It contains a main section in which the titles are arranged by subject, an author index and an index of geographical and personal names. At this moment each volume of ABHB contains about 5000 records. In 1987 a cumulative index of geographical and personal names on volumes 1-17 (1970-1986) appeared. .

Volumes 20 (1989) to 29 (1998) of ABHB/BHO are online.
BHO contains some 27,000 records. The files can be searched by "any word", for example: names of authors, editors, title words of books and periodicals, classification, geographical keywords, names of persons (printers, publishers etc.), firms and institutions, subjects and annotation.

In order to be able to gather the information for ABHB from all over the world, National Committees have been set up in the countries that collaborate on ABHB and BHO. The National Committees are responsible for recording relevant material, published in that country each year, by checking a number of periodicals which may contain material to be included in ABHB/BHO and recording the monographs that have appeared in the field of book and library history. The items gathered are described bibliographically and classified according to a uniform set of Standards for bibliographical description which were originally formulated in 1970 and have been revised in 1991. The National Committees constitute the editorial board of ABHB/BHO. All National Committees receive a free copy of ABHB on publication.
Each year the National Committees send their contributions for ABHB/BHO to the General Editor at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the national library of The Netherlands at The Hague. The General Editor is responsible for further editing and for the processing of the entries received from the National Committees, and the coordination of ABHB/BHO procedures in general. The book issue, ABHB, is published by Kluwer Academic Publishers at Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
At this moment about 30 countries cooperate on ABHB/BHO. To broaden the scope of ABHB/BHO, the General Editor would very much welcome bibliographers or book historians from other countries to participate in this endeavour and become members of the editorial board.

For further information you may contact the general secretariat for ABHB:
c/o A Leerintveld
Dept of Special Collections
Koninklijke Bibliotheek
PO Box 90407
NL-2509 LK Den Haag
The Netherlands