Page 242 - DLIS003_LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

Unit 13: Records and Reports

5. Self-explanatory Document: Report is a comprehensive document and covers all aspects Notes
of the subject matter of study. It is a self-explanatory and complete document by itself.
6. Acts as a Tool of Internal Communication: Report is an effective tool of communication
between top executives and subordinate staff working in an organization. It provides
feedback to employees and to executives for decision making. Similarly, reports are also
sent by company executives to the lower levels of management. This is treated as downward
communication. In addition, reports are also sent to shareholders and others connected
with the company. It may be pointed out that report writing/preparation acts as a backbone
of any system of communication.

7. Acts as Permanent Record: A report serves as a permanent record relating to certain
business matter. It is useful for future reference and guidance.
8. Time Consuming and Costly Activity: Report writing is a time consuming, lengthy and
costly activity as it involves collection of facts, drawing conclusion and making
recommendations.

Did u know? Reports are generally submitted to higher authorities. It is an example of
upward communication.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
5. Reports are often used to display the result of an experiment, ………………., or inquiry.
6. IMRAD stands for ………………………

7. …………….. is an effective tool of communication between top executives and subordinate
staff working in an organization.

13.3 Bibliographic Production and Maintenance

Bibliographic description is the process of recording details for describing and identifying
bibliographic items. The process of bibliographic description requires standardisation, for making
bibliographic file to be consistent. The development of national, international and regional
systems for the exchange of machine readable bibliographic information will not be possible
unless a high level of standardisation is attained. A standard related to bibliographic description
is a set of general rules agreed to internationally or nationally. The practice of standard
bibliographic description in the development of library catalogues and bibliographic databases
requires a series of operations. The identification of these unit operations leads to the formulation
of principles of bibliographic description and general rules of procedures. The principles and
general rules of bibliographic description provide a scientific basis to the field of cataloguing
and to the creation of bibliographic records. The application of ICT to the cataloguing process
has brought with it demands for precision and logic in the recording of bibliographic data. For
bibliographic control, the first principle is standardisation, compatibility and integration. Within
the same principle standards may vary. Easy interchange of bibliographic records requires
agreement on standards governing the medium of exchange.
Bibliographic data are generated by bibliographers, cataloguers, abstractors & indexers,
publishers & booksellers and appear in a range of products, including but not limited to library
catalogues, online databases, publishers & booksellers lists, abstracting & indexing services and
bibliographies. The nature of bibliographic and cataloguing data appears to be identical, but

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