{{short description|Book that lists phone numbers of people and businesses}} {{Redirect-multi|3|Telephone book|Phone book|White pages|the film|The Telephone Book|a contact list|Contact list|other uses|White pages (disambiguation)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}} thumb|upright=1.3|A "white pages" telephone directory, note yellow pages section in back
A '''telephone directory''', commonly called a '''telephone book''', '''telephone address book''' or '''phonebook''', is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that publishes the directory. Its purpose is to allow the telephone number of a subscriber identified by name and address to be found. It may include a 'yellow pages' section that list businesses by type, architects, beauticians, carpenters, etc., or the Yellow pages may be provided as a separate volume. The slogan "Let Your Fingers Do the Walking", introduced by the Bell System, refers to use of Yellow Pages phone books.<ref name=PhoneDir.fuel>{{cite news|work=New York Post|date=15 June 1992 |page=9|title=Phone books used as truck fuel in Fla.}}</ref>
The advent of the Internet, search engines, and smartphones in the 21st century greatly reduced the need for a paper phone book.<ref name=PhoneDir.fuel/><ref>By 1992 one phone company, which had collected 58,000 tons of old phone books, recycled them by converting them to fuel for some of their trucks.</ref> Some communities, such as Seattle and San Francisco, sought to ban their unsolicited distribution as wasteful, unwanted and harmful to the environment.<ref name=SF>[http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Yellow-Pages-ruling-endangers-SF-ban-3951477.php Yellow Pages ruling endangers SF ban], Heather Knight, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', 15 October 2012; retrieved 19 March 2013</ref><ref>[http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019441687_yellowpages16m.html Appeals court rules against Seattle's curbs on yellow pages], Emily Heffter, ''Seattle Times'', 15 October 2012; retrieved 19 March 2013</ref>
thumb|"Always Be Sure of the Number" - 1916 advertisement
== Content ==
Subscriber names are generally listed in alphabetical order, together with their postal or street address and telephone number. Typically, every subscriber in the geographical coverage area is listed, unless the subscriber requests the exclusion of their number from the directory, often for a fee. Their number is then said to be "unlisted" (US and Canada), "ex-directory" (British English), or "private" (Australia and New Zealand).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://support.bell.ca/Home_phone/Phone_line/How_to_unlist_my_Bell_Home_phone_number |title=How to get a non-published Bell Home phone number |publisher=Support.bell.ca |date=2013-06-17 |access-date=2014-04-16}}</ref>
A telephone directory may also provide instructions: how to use the telephone service, how to dial a particular number, be it local or international, what numbers to access important and emergency services, utilities, hospitals, doctors, and organizations who can provide support in times of crisis. It may also have civil defense, emergency management, or first aid information. There may be transit maps, postal code/zip code guides, international dialing codes or stadium seating charts, as well as advertising.{{citation needed|date=August 2025}}
In the US, under current rules and practices, mobile phone and voice over IP listings are not included in telephone directories. Efforts to create cellular directories have met stiff opposition from several fronts, including those who seek to avoid telemarketers.{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}}
== Types == thumb|Separate yellow and white pages volumes from Stockholm A telephone directory and its content may be known by the colour of the paper it is printed on. * White pages<!--redirects here--> generally indicates alphabetic listings of individuals and businesses. * Yellow pages, golden pages, A2Z, or classified directory is usually a "business directory", where businesses are listed alphabetically within each of many classifications (e.g., "lawyers"). A basic listing was in small type, but many business would pay for a display ad, available in different sizes, to get the attention of potential customers.
* Grey pages, sometimes called a "reverse telephone directory", allowing subscriber details to be found for a given number. These listings are often published separately, in a city directory, or under another name, for a price, and made available to commercial and government agencies. Not available in all jurisdictions; they may contravene data protection legislation.
Other colors may have other meanings; for example, information on government agencies is often printed on blue pages or green pages.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}} {{Further|topic=the American bilingual business telephone directory|Rafu Telephone Guide}}
==Publication== Telephone directories can be published in hard copy or, more recently, in electronic form. In the latter case, the directory can be on physical media such as CD-ROM,<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=PC Computing |page=76 |title=Directory Assistance on Disc |quote=three main .. American Business Information, PhoneDisc, Select Phone |author=Ron White |date=July 1996}}</ref> or using an online service through proprietary terminals or over the Internet.<ref name=KatzNYT97>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/042997procd.html |title=New Telephone-List CD-ROM Extends Its Reach to the Internet |author=Mart Katz |date=April 29, 1997 |access-date=September 20, 2022}}</ref><ref name=Pdisc94>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/23/science/peripherals-directory-assistance-for-the-us-on-a-disk.html |title=Directory Assistance For the U.S. On a Disk |author=L. R. Shannon |date=August 23, 1994 |access-date=September 20, 2022}}</ref>
In many countries, directories are both published in book form and also available over the Internet. Printed directories were usually supplied free of charge.
===CD ROM=== ''Selectphone'' (ProCD) Inc.)<ref name=OnlyFive/> and ''PhoneDisc'' (Digital Directory Assistance Inc) were among the earliest such products. These were not a matter of a single click: PhoneDisc, depending on the mix of Residential, Business or both, involved up to eight CD-ROMs.<ref name=KatzNYT97/> ''SelectPhone'' is fewer CD-ROMs: five.<ref name=OnlyFive>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/13/science/cd-rom-review-disks-for-mac-voyager-still-leads.html |title=CD-ROM Review; Disks for Mac: Voyager Still Leads |author=Peter H. Lewis |date=December 13, 1994 |access-date=September 20, 2022}}</ref>
Both provide a reverse lookup feature (by phone number or by address), albeit involving up to five CD-ROMs.<ref name=Pdisc94/><ref name=OnlyFive/>
===Internet=== The combination of phone number lookups, along with Internet access, was offered by some service providers; VoIP (Voice over IP) was an additional feature.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/03/technology/circuits/your-options-when-calling-or-receiving-just-got-wider.html |title=Your Options When Calling or Receiving Just Got Wider |author=Thomas J. Fitzgerald |date=March 3, 2005}}</ref>
==History== 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|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 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>
===Web directories and cell phones=== 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, the first US phone directories went online, including Yellowpages.com and Whitepages.com, both of which launched in April of that year.<ref>[http://www.whitepages.fr/telecom-history-ft-late-with-internet.html Telephone Directory History by Whitepages.fr]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Whitepages |title=Whitepages® Data for Good {{!}} Powering Trusted Connections |url=https://www.whitepages.com/search/data-for-good |access-date=2025-10-30 |website=Whitepages |language=en}}</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 more and more web directories of people, and with many people giving up landlines for cell phones whose numbers were generally 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>
==Reverse directories== {{main|Reverse telephone directory}} A reverse telephone directory is sorted by phone number, so the name and address of a subscriber is looked up by phone number.<ref name=OnlyFive/>
== See also == * City directory
== References == {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
== Further reading == * {{cite book|title=The Phone Book: The Curious History of the Book That Everyone Uses But No One Reads|last=Shea|first=Ammon|publisher=Perigee Trade|year=2010|isbn=978-0-399-53593-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/phonebookcurious0000shea}}
== External links == {{Commons category|Phone books}} {{Wikt}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Telephone Directory}} Category:1878 introductions Category:American inventions Category:Directories Category:History of the telephone Category:Telephone numbers