Evolving Concepts

The evolving concept of a national bibliography

• In 1950 the emphasis was on a detailed description of what kinds of documents should be registered in the national bibliography, but there was little direction on:
  • Levels of cataloguing
  • Publishing the national bibliography
  • Legal deposit
  • Relationship to holdings of the publications at the relevant national library.

• Since 1977:
  • It has been assumed that the national bibliography is a complete registration of all publications in a country regardless of format and at the same level of cataloguing. This was often interpreted to mean the highest existing level.
  • Agency managers with budgetary responsibilities consequently view cataloguing as very expensive with some managers prematurely concluding there is no need for a national bibliography to cover Web documents at all.

• The 1998 recommendations specified general principles, but:
  • Did not offer guidance on how the "current national output" should be defined.
  • Omitted instructions on the inclusion of electronic information resources in the national bibliography.