Page 268 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Unit 14: Canons and Principles for Library Catalogue

The International Standard Bibliographic Descriptions date back to 1969, when the IFLA Notes
Committee on Cataloguing (subsequently renamed the Standing Committee of the IFLA Section
on Cataloguing, now known as the Standing Committee of the IFLA Cataloguing Section)
sponsored an International Meeting of Cataloguing Experts. This meeting produced a resolution
that proposed creation of standards to regularize the form and content of bibliographic
descriptions. This resulted in the creation of the ISBDs.
The first of the ISBDs was the International Standard Bibliographic Description for Monographic
Publications (ISBD(M)), which appeared in 1971. It has been used by a number of cataloguing
committees in drafting national rules for description. In 1975, the Joint Steering Committee for
Revision of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules proposed to the IFLA Committee on
Cataloguing the development of an ISBD that would cover most common types of library
resources, and the ISBD(G) was published in 1977. The ISBD(M) was then revised to bring it into
line with the ISBD(G) in 1978. Further ISBDs were then developed for other types of materials.
The ISBD Review Group reviews and revises the ISBDs, which are published by IFLA. In the
early 1990s, the IFLA Section on Cataloguing with the cooperation of the Section on Classification
and Indexing set up a Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records
(FRBR). Revision work on the ISBDs was suspended until the group reported in 1998. The ISBD
Review Group was then reconstituted and asked to initiate a full-scale review of the ISBDs to
ensure conformity with the FRBR data requirements.
The ISBD Family are as follows:
ISBD(G) General International Standard Bibliographic Description
ISBD(M) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Monographic Publications

ISBD(PM) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Printed Music
ISBD(NBM) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Non-book Materials
ISBD(CM) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Cartographic Materials

ISBD(A) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Older Monographic
Publications (Antiquarian)
ISBD(S) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Serials
ISBD(ER) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Electronic Resources

Guidelines for the application of the ISBDs to the description of Component Parts
The ISBD prescribes eight areas of description. Each area, except area 7, is composed of multiple
elements with structured classifications. Elements and areas that do not apply to a particular
resource are omitted from the description. Standardized punctuation (colons, semicolons, slashes,
dashes, commas, and periods) is used to identify and separate the elements and areas. The order
of elements and standardized punctuation make it easier to interpret bibliographic records
when one does not understand the language of the description.
1. Title and statement of responsibility area, with the contents of

Title proper
General material designation. GMDs are generic terms describing the medium of
the item.

Parallel title
Other title information
Statements of responsibility (authorship, editorship, etc.)

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