Volume (bibliography)

A volume is a physical book. It may be printed or handwritten. The term is commonly used to identify a single book that is part of a larger collection. Volumes are typically identified sequentially with Roman or Arabic numerals, e.g. "volume III" or "volume 3", commonly abbreviated to "Vol.".^[1]

Volumes may be published directly, or they may be created out of multiple bound issues. For instance, a library that subscribes to a periodical and wishes to preserve it typically takes a set of the issues and has them bound into a volume.^[2][3] A publisher may also separately publish a volume out of previously published issues; this is common with graphic novels. A volume may also be composed of entries, as in an encyclopedia, or chapters, as in a monograph.

The term is also used as an identifier for a sequence of periodicals. This is generally based on a single calendar year, but not always. For instance, a school magazine might start each new volume at the beginning of the academic year or at the beginning of each term/semester. Likewise, a journal may start new volumes for each anniversary after its original inception. Thus, all issues published in the Nth term or year will be classified under the Nth volume.^[1] The original function of labelling issues with a volume at publication time was to provide a standard way for libraries to later bind the issues into a physical volume.^[2][3]