Monday, March 18, 2013

3/18/2012 Naval and Merchant Marine Interest

INTRODUCING JANE'S INFORMATION GROUP

JANE'S IS CONSIDERED THE DE FACTO  PUBLIC INFORMATION  SOURCE ON  DEFENSE , SECURITY, TRANSPORT, AND LAW ENFORCEMENT. Only a relatively few of their publications are available through non Jane's organization sources like the historic volume pictured above from Amazon. We are providing you with information on Jane's organization and the authoritative nature of their publications here and vital hyper links here and permanently posted in our NAVAL INTEREST, MERCHANT MARINE, and AUTHORITATIVE LITERATURE "Special Interest Pages.
  WHAT IS "JANE'S?     
 Jane's was founded in 1898 by Fred T. Jane. The organization is based in London and is presently owned by IHS, Inc. During the World Wars Jane's published aircraft and ship recognition manuals for the British Admiralty. Before WWI Fred T. Jane was publishing guides to the war ships of the various major power navies. Over the years the line of reference works has expanded to include all manner of defense, transport, security and law enforcement subjects and timely specialty area news and analysis services. Jane's is considered an "Open intelligence source" by most of the World's intelligence services but most especially naval intelligence services. The link below will take you to a Wikipedia article providing a more complete history of Jane's Information Group with links to articles on Fred T. Jane and other aspects of the Jane's story.
                                      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane's_Information_Group    

JANE'S IS HIGH QUALITY AND HIGH PRICE

 Jane's keeps such tight control of their intellectual property that it is extremely difficult to find even an image of their founder Fred T.Jane that is in the public domain. When the U.S.Naval Intelligence Professionals Organization carried an article about Fred T.Jane some years ago, Jane's would not release a free image of Fred T.Jane for use in their publication THE QUARTERLY.  Jane's would not provide a free founder's photo even though the article amounted to free advertising to an audience Jane's would very much like to market to. If there is any good news for the researcher who is short on research funds it was that at least the organization apparently sold such photographs with the price adjusted based on the circulation of the purchasing publication.  In the end the the intelligence association publication used a composite sketch similar to a police artist drawing done by a talented volunteer in lieu of an actual photo. Jane's does have some competition such as Defense News, Flight International, and Aviation Week and Space Technology . However as the titles indicate their competition isn't as comprehensive across the full spectrum of defense, security, transport, and law enforcement.

 No one matches Jane's reputation for accuracy. Indeed founder Fred T.Jane was quite willing to go broke before compromising on quality and nearly did so on at least two occasions. In the areas that Jane's covers it is almost impossible to ignore Jane's, but utilizing Jane's publications at Jane's prices is not always possible for the unfunded academic  and most any research project of limited means.  However there are some Jane's publications of historical interest that can be purchased from Non Jane sources at reasonable prices such as the WWII reference work pictured at the top of the article available through Amazon. So at least historical researchers may be able to obtain personal copies of relevant Jane's references at ordinary book store prices. Here is some of what Amazon has available.
            
We don't usually show prices since they are so subject to change and a click on the icon link will usually bring you the latest prices  but we let the price show through on Jane's Armour and Artillery year books. The "best price" shown is for used books, new condition non current year Jane's references typically run in excess of $120. Amazon is actually vending the current year on Armour and Artillery, current year prices run  in excess of $2,000. This is why current year books are rarely found outside of intelligence organization reference libraries, and perhaps the Library of Congress and comparable national libraries. As you can see however, once a reference is no longer current the price falls dramatically so historical researchers can usually find what they need at more reasonable prices and some of the out dated volumes sometimes find their way into public libraries. 

                                        
Click on any of the JANE'S FIGHTING SHIPS icons above and you will be able to find your way to all of the extensive offerings of Amazon for the JANE'S FIGHTING SHIPS Series. It appears you can even order a current volume here if you have about $3,000 but the non current year works and the historical summaries such as  Jane's War At SEA 1897- 1997 are very reasonable, especially as used volumes through Amazon.

                          
   ANNUAL REFERENCES AND PERIODICALS OFFERED BY JANE'S INFORMATION GROUP:

Books

(annual) If you click on most of the title below you will link to a Wikipedia description of the publication 

[edit]Periodicals

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TO MAKE DIRECT CONTACT WITH THE JANE'S ORGANIZATION:                                                             
                                                                  

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