Old books firm cuts into small pieces (7)
I believe the answer is:
codices
'old books' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to communication as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'firm cuts into small pieces' is the wordplay.
'firm' becomes 'co' (a firm is a company).
'cuts into small pieces' becomes 'dices' (I've seen this in another clue).
'co'+'dices'='CODICES'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for codices that I've seen before include "Volumes" , "Ancient manuscripts" , "Ancient manuscript books" , "ancient documents" , "Old manuscript books" .)