Editing Telephone directory (section)

==History==
[[File:New haven directory 1878.jpg|thumb|upright|The first telephone directory, printed in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, in November 1878]]

Telephone directories are a type of [[city directory]]. Books listing the inhabitants of an entire city were widely published starting in the 18th century, before the invention of the telephone.

The first telephone directory, consisting of a single piece of cardboard, was issued on 21 February 1878; it listed 50 individuals, businesses, and other offices in [[New Haven, Connecticut]], that had telephones.<ref>{{cite web
|title=The Phone Book |url=http://failuremag.com/feature/article/the_phone_book
|author=Jason Zasky |work=Failure Magazine |access-date=2013-12-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203131727/http://failuremag.com/feature/article/the_phone_book/ |archive-date=2013-12-03 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The directory was not alphabetized and no numbers were included with the people listed in it.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Gleick|first=James|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/745979816|title=The information : a history, a theory, a flood|date=2012|publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=978-1-4000-9623-7|edition=1st Vintage books ed., 2012|location=New York|oclc=745979816}}</ref> In 1879, Dr. [[Moses Greeley Parker]] suggested the format of the telephone directory be changed so that subscribers appeared in alphabetical order and each telephone be identified with a number. Parker came to this idea out of fear that [[Lowell, Massachusetts]]'s four operators would contract [[measles]] and be unable to connect telephone subscribers to one another.<ref name=":0" />

The first British telephone directory was published on 15 January 1880 by The Telephone Company. It contained 248 names and addresses of individuals and businesses in London; telephone numbers were not used at the time as subscribers were asked for by name at the exchange.<ref>Records of the Telephone Company Limited (Bell's Patents), BT Archives reference TPA</ref> The directory is preserved as part of the British phone book collection by [[BT Archives]].

The [[R. H. Donnelley|Reuben H. Donnelly]] company asserts<ref>{{cite web
   |url=https://www.yellowpagesunited.co/yellow-pages-industry-the-untold-story
   |title=Yellow Pages Industry – The Untold Story
   |date=13 July 2012
   |access-date=4 September 2020
   |archive-date=8 September 2015
   |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908042830/https://www.yellowpagesunited.co/yellow-pages-industry-the-untold-story
   |url-status=dead
   }}</ref> that it published the first classified directory, or yellow pages, for Chicago, Illinois, in 1886.

In 1938, [[AT&T]] commissioned the creation of a new [[typeface]], known as [[Bell Gothic]], the purpose of which was to be readable at very small font sizes when printed on newsprint where small imperfections were common.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

In 1981, France became the first country to have an electronic directory on a system called [[Minitel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://whitepages.fr/minitel/ |title=Telephone History in France by |publisher=Whitepages.fr |access-date=2014-04-16}}</ref> The directory is called "11" after its telephone access number.

In 1991, the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled (in ''[[Feist v. Rural]]'') that telephone companies do not have a [[copyright]] on telephone listings, because copyright protects creativity and not the mere labor of collecting existing information.<ref name=PhoneDirCopyright.AdAge91>{{cite news |newspaper=[[Advertising Age]]
|title=Data-base ruling: No copyright for white-pages lists
|author=Steven W. Colford |date=1 April 1991 |page=36}}</ref>

[[File:Unused Phonebooks.JPG|thumb|A bundle of phone books in the trash, unopened]]
In late July 1995 Kapitol launched the [[Infobel.be]] website. <ref name=lesoir1>{{cite news |title=ENTREPRISES Infobel jongle avec les banques de données du web En cinq ans, elle est devenue un leader européen des annuaires électroniques Du contenu sur mesure pour Yahoo! et consorts |author=Alain Jennotte and Roger Milutin |publisher=Le Sior |date=29 September 2000 |language=French |url=https://www.lesoir.be/art/entreprises-infobel-jongle-avec-les-banques-de-donnees-_t-20000929-Z0JQYQ.html|accessdate=5 December 2014}}</ref><ref name=lalibre>{{cite news |title=Ils sont dans l'annuaire |author=Mathieu van Overstraeten |work=La Libre |date=3 May 2002 |language=French |url=http://www.lalibre.be/economie/libre-entreprise/ils-sont-dans-l-annuaire-51b87840e4b0de6db9a6fd2b |accessdate=5 December 2014}}</ref> Infobel was then the first telephone directory website launched on the then-nascent Internet. In 1996, in the US the first telephone directories went online. [[Yellowpages.com]] and [[Whitepages.com]] both saw their start in April.<ref>[http://www.whitepages.fr/telecom-history-ft-late-with-internet.html Telephone Directory History by Whitepages.fr]</ref> In 1999, the first online telephone directories and people-finding sites such as LookupUK.com went online in the UK. In 2003, more advanced UK searching including Electoral Roll became available on LocateFirst.com.

With online directories, and with many people giving up [[landline]]s for [[cell phone]]s whose numbers are not listed in telephone directories, printed directories are no longer as necessary as they once were. Regulators no longer required that residential listings be printed, starting with New York in 2010.  [[Yellow pages]] continued to be printed because some advertisers still reached consumers that way.<ref>{{cite news|last= Mansfield |first= Karen |url=https://www.observer-reporter.com/news/2023/jan/07/the-end-of-an-era-whatever-happened-to-the-phone-book/ |title=The end of an era: Whatever happened to the phone book? |work=[[Observer–Reporter]] |date=2023-01-07 |access-date=2024-08-11}}</ref>

In the 21st century, printed telephone directories are increasingly criticized as waste. In 2012, after some North American cities passed laws banning the distribution of telephone books, an industry group sued and obtained a court ruling permitting the distribution to continue.<ref name=SF/> In 2010, manufacture and distribution of telephone directories produced over 1,400,000 metric tons of [[greenhouse gases]] and consumed over 600,000 tons of paper annually.<ref>{{cite web|last= Paster |first= Pablo |url=http://www.treehugger.com/culture/ask-pablo-what-is-the-impact-of-all-those-unwanted-phone-books.html |title=Ask Pablo: What Is The Impact of All Those Unwanted Phone Books? |publisher=TreeHugger |date=2010-01-11 |access-date=2014-04-16}}</ref>