Structures for the Control of Recorded Information

National BibliographiesNational Collections

BibliographiesLibrary Catalogs

Indexes & Abstracts

Bibliographic control

why?

bibliographic identification verification location

• acquisition of collections (wholesalers and dealers in the book trade supply materials on an ongoing basis -- brokers, publishers contract; building a collection in an area)

• reordering

• interlibrary loan

• answer to a patron’s inquiry

Bibliographic control

why?

• need to identify the title of an item (print or non-print)

• making or tracing the inventory record is bibliographical control

• sources needed for identification and verification (of accuracy of a citation) or determining location of an item

• levels from local to international and results in the concept and apparatus of “national bibliography”

Bibliographic control

definitions • concept: a system for the management of all intellectual

and creative activity

• process: mastery over written and published records which is provided for and by the purposes of bibliography

• operationalization: synonymous with effective access through bibliographies to all forms (of resources in which knowledge is retrieved and contained) and formats (print, non-print, near-print)

Bibliographic control

apparatus

• bibliographic apparatus is the means to achieve control

• in practice, it is a series of publications (i.e. an apparatus or pieces in the system) by which the world’s literature is organized for the purposes of access, management and communication through bibliographies, catalogs and other listings

• scope: bibliographic control for any nation, subject domain, type of material, linguistic record

Bibliographic control

structuring for access

• means by which information is helped or impeded in its flow (by information policies, laws, networks, and institutions, cataloging and classification schemes, mechanical and electronic means)

• habitual use of particular resources (ways to organize and interrogate these sources to retrieve information)

Bibliographic control

origins • legacy of early printers’ advertisements and official

control of printing in the 15th and 16th centuries -- Stationers’ Company register (trade bibliographies & universal bibliography)

• universal bibliography bibliographers from the late 19th through the mid-20th century still believed in universal bibliographies

• union catalogs: major libraries making copies of their catalogs available and all bibliographies contributing to a knowledge of book and other stocks

Bibliographic control

history (1960s)• Henriette Avram engineered the creation of the MARC

format (in the LC), enabling the machine readability of bibliographic records

• Fred Kilgour began OCLC as its first director (first name: Ohio College Library Center) -- cataloging information via cable and terminal to all its member libraries, who in turn were able to put their original cataloging online for the use of all other members.

• another major network came into being in 1977 to serve research libraries -- the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN)

Universal Bibliographic Control (UBC-IFLA)

1974

• catalog the item only once

• catalog the item closest to the source of publication

• make the basic data on publications available universally, promptly, and in a form that is internationally acceptable

(national) Bibliographic control

• record of any nation’s intellectual and creative output is organized for the purpose of access and management

• composed of the bibliographical apparatus or organization which aims at assembling the “record of a nation”

(national) Bibliographic control• catalogs

• national union catalogs

• national bibliographies • current, retrospective, for various formats of publication

• other tools• books in print and for sale

• the bibliographies of serials (directories)

• bibliographies of periodical articles (i.e. indexes and abstracts)

• subject specific bibliographies

National Collections• reflect a record of the nation

• collections are built through legal deposit or copyright acts (in English-speaking countries)

• copyright requires record of publication to be deposited in the form of a record with a national institution (Library of Congress, from 1871)

• publication of the national collections’ holdings in various formats

National Collections

pamphlets >49 pages

government documents (federal, state, municipal level of government)

serials

theses (master’s, doctoral)

music scores and sheet music

electronic, sound, and video recordings

microforms

electronic serials?

National Bibliographies and National Library Catalogs

• to verify holdings

• locate items

• catalog and classify

• provide a record of publishing activity in a country

• collect information on what is published about that country

National Bibliographies and National Library Catalogs

• compiled by a national library, or groups of libraries (Library of Congress in the United States accomplishes some of these functions)

• LC bibliographies can be used for acquisition,developing collections, compiling bibliographies (retrospective) and verification

• bibliographic utilities (OCLC, RLIN) largely represent a record of the nation

National Bibliography - United StatesLibrary of Congress Catalog(s)

• The Main Catalog of the Library of Congress 1898-1980. New York: Saur, 1980-1987 (1984-89) microfiche edition

• various print editions, tape, CD-ROM and fiche editions give varying access (author, title, subject) to the cataloged holdings of the Library of Congress

• holdings of the Library of Congress also in the National Union Catalogs of North American libraries produced by LC.

National Bibliography - United StatesNational Union Catalog(s)

• National Union Catalog Books, 1983- Washington: Library of Congress. NUC in multi-volume print sets from the 1950s-1983. Coverage is for contributing North American libraries.

• National Union Catalog, Pre-1956 Imprints. Prepared at the Library of Congress. London: Mansell, 1968-1982. 754 volumes. (lists of the Library of Congress and other contributing North American libraries.)

National Bibliography - United States

• 1493-1892 Sabin. Dictionary of Books Relating to America• 1639-1800 Evans. American Bibliography• 1800-1819 Shaw & Shoemaker. American Bibliography• 1820-1875 A Checklist of American Imprints• 1872- Publisher's Weekly• 1873- Publishers' Trade List Annual• 1876-1910 American Catalogue of Books• 1899-1980 Books in Series• 1899-1980 Books in Series• 1899-1928 United States Catalog• 1898- Cumulative Book Index• 1948- Books in Print• 1957- Subject Guide to Books in Print• 1960- American Book Publishing Record• 1966- Forthcoming Books• 1967- Subject Guide to FB

• 1974- Weekly Record

Catalogs

• library holdings, special and other collections

• union catalogs and union lists of serials record the holdings of several collections

Book and Serial Trade Publications• trade bibliographies present a collective record of

commercial sources for the many forms and formats produced for sale in a country

• for books, these publications are referred to as "in print" or "out of print."

• Books in Print (Bowker) and Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory include periodicals and magazines, some newspapers and serials published in the form of books

Book and Serial Trade Publications

• Books in Print, 1948-. New York: R.R. Bowker. (annual; author, title, subject access in several volumes, index)

• Publishers' Weekly, 1872- New York: Bowker (weekly; international, US publishing news)

• The Serials Directory, 1986- Birmingham, AL: EBSCO (annual)

• Whitaker's Books in Print, 1965- London: J. Whitaker & Sons. (annual)

• Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory, 1932- New York: R.R. Bowker

(annual; in print international source for magazines, journals, irregular serials)

Bibliography

• original meaning (Gk: biblio-graphia): the writing of books long obsolete

• discipline (the practice of studying and creating bibliographic works, treatment of books in all aspects, whether as physical objects or as carriers of ideas)

• product of the discipline: bibliographies or ordered lists of references / citations

• science or product of the art of recording published material

Bibliography

method of compilation, typology

• de visu (“upon sight”) method of compilation

• retrospective bibliography / current bibliography

• systematic / enumerative

• descriptive / analytical (or critical)

• general / subject

Bibliography types

• retrospective bibliography

record of past publication

as separately published monograph, it may be compiled at a later date from existing records

library catalogs of major libraries are important sources of retrospective bibliographic control

Bibliography types

• current bibliography

recording of publications at or close to their date of publication

record usually cumulates in a publication that is itself current (serialized), e.g. trade news publications

trade bibliographies or directories, along with national bibliographies and library catalogs are important for the acquisition and identification of available and “in print” materials

Bibliography types

• systematic / enumerative

listing according to some system or reference scheme of books that have a formal relationship

Bibliography types

• analytical (or critical)

• recording of the material aspects of the book

• concentrates on the physical appearance of books

• recording and interpreting evidence about production processes as preserved in the physical features of books of various periods

Bibliography types

• analytical (or critical)• historical bibliography (tracing provenance / history of ownership, or

view of the physical process of book manufacture in any century or culture)

• textual bibliography (textual work studies of the writing of particular authors or particular texts in comparison, integrity and authority of works, transmission of editions and variant versions over time as authors, editors, compositors alter text deliberately or inadvertently)

• descriptive bibliography (accurate description of a copy recording all relevant details, for rare, unique or historically interesting items from the printing trade)

Indexes and Abstracts

• book indexes• periodical and newspaper indexes• concordances

• abstracts