publishing: OOP as opposed to OP edit

An entry needs to be added here for OOP as an initialism meaning Out of print, but with the caveat that its use is normally restricted to electronic media.

The following Discussion post is an exact copy, except for its blockquote formatting here, as that posted at the talkpage for OP:

With regard to English Initialism entry #5 (publishing) Out of print:

For historical reasons, publishers and dealers of books and similar print materials have consistently used the form OP as given here to mean "Out of print". (It was I a few years ago who had first submitted this usage to Wiktionary.)

However, again for historical reasons, publishers and dealers of musical recordings and of films - probably also of computer games, etc -in electronic format have consistently used the form OOP to mean "Out of print". Today, presumably many more users will have encountered the OOP form in looking for electronic media than for print publications.

I'm not very familiar with Wiktionary's policies and procedures, but it seems that some sort of disambiguation or other form of explanation of these two forms may be helpful to your readers. I am copying this note to the talkpage for the entry on OOP. I hope this helps. Milkunderwood 17:38, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

Return to "OOP" page.