Newsletter of the Section on Bibliography

March 1998

Review of the Copenhagen conference

In general the committee found the conference very busy, the exhibition of high quality, but Denmark an expensive country.

The bibliography session was very well visited. There had been a lot of comments that it was very interesting. For those of you who couldn't attend, abstracts of Barbara Bell's and Kirsten Waneck's papers are reproduced here; the full papers are obtainable from IFLA clearinghouse or from your officers.

Two new officers were elected for the two years period 1997 - 1999.
Werner Stephan as chair and Francoise Bourdon as secretary. Kirsten Waneck serves as Information Coordinator.

The Medium Term Programme (MTP) for 1998 - 2001 has been circulated several times and commented upon by the members. Meanwhile the compilation of all MTP's for the Sections was reviewed and approved by the Professional Board. The MTP's will be published. Abstract

Bell, Barbara:
An Annotated Guide to Current National Bibliographies, second edition, (AGCNB).

New national bibliography titles in the last ten years which were not in the first edition will be included - a few of these are China, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Zäire, and Greece (although some had substitutes described in the first edition). In the last ten years since the publication of the first edition there have been many factors affecting national bibliographies. Two factors discussed are the geo-political changes in the world an automation advances. Over 20 new titles are included in the AGCNB, second edition, because of the breakup of the former USSR; the former Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Ethiopia. Germany and Yemen have reunited. Namibia has become independent and has just published its first national bibliography in April 1997. Title changes have occured because of political changes in Romania, Lithuania, and Bulgaria, for example. Automation has brought new format possibilities for national bibliographies. In particular, CD-ROM has developed in the last decade since the first edition of AGCNB. Improvements within the last ten years which stem from the International Congress on National Bibliographies recommendations can be seen in national bibliographies form countries such as Venezuela, Albania, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, and Syria. The problems of frequency of publication, effective legal deposit legislation, and timely distribution continue to plaque some national bibliographies. Area specialists are forced to look for other more timely sources if a national bibliography is repeatedly delayed. Because of political and economic instability some exemplary national bibliographies are in hiatus. It is suggested that for some countries, the loaning of a statt member from a twinning library, or a fellowship from a national or international organization may be an impetus for getting a national bibliography back on track. National bibliographies help with a county's internal bibliographic control as well as help to create a network of universal bibliographic control.

Kirsten Waneck:
Public/private sector relationship in the production of national bibliographies. The Danish model

Abstract

Elaboration in this private company, which also elaborates the central cataloguing and in consequence of this connection between national bibliography and central cataloguing, causes a high degree of rationality in the bibliographic work.

Amsterdam conference

IFLA members should have received copies of the Final Announcement. The official dates are 16. - 21. August 1998. As in previous years, early registration will save money.

Section members planning to attend the first Standing Committee meeting should try to arrive in Amsterdam on the previous Friday, 14 August, as the meeting has been scheduled for Saturday.

The Section's programme has yet to be finalized, but planned are the following topics

Bibliographic Control and a Voluntary Deposit System - the Durch experience.
Statistics and national bibliographies.
A (short) paper about the bibliography of bibliographies on library and information science.
Remote access electronic serials and the National Library of Norway.

It was also planned to have a half day workshop about "Electronic publications in national bibliographies". Unfortunately we run in problems because two of the speakers planned, are not able to prepare their papers and hold them in Amsterdam. After some discussion we decided to cancel the workshop this year, but plan to have a follow up workshop of the this year workshop on "legal deposit of electronic materials" next year in Bangkok.

More information will be given in the Newsletter which will be issued in the summer.

News items

You all know that the time at the conference sessions is always very limited. So it is not possible to follow all proposals for papers. But I'm willing to open the Newsletter as a plattform, where people can publish papers with a relationship to our field of work. In the next issue I start with a facet of a project report from a young German librarian about library trends in the former USSR:

Müller, Ursula Maria: Von der UdSSR zur GUS - Bibliotheken auf dem Weg in eine neue Zukunft.

The cutout which will be published, deals with the national bibliographies of Russia and the Ukraine. Because the text is in German it needs some translation work, that's the reason why you will find it in the next issue.

International Conference on National Bibliographic Services Copenhagen, 25-27 November 1998

Background

In 1977 Unesco sponsored the International Congress on National Bibliographies. From this conference arose recommendations that have influenced the development of national bibliographies over the last 20 years and which are responsible for a significant improvement in the quality of bibliographic exchange among libraries throughout the world. However, the bibliographic landscape has undergone dramatic changes, not only with the format of published bibliographies, which are increasingly available online rather than in print, but also with the format of the publications which national bibliographies are recording for posterity, especially through the Internet. It is therefore timely to re-examine the 1977 guidelines.

Aim

The aim of the International Conference will be to review and update the recommendations of the 1977 International Congress on National Bibliographies in the light of new developments.

Format

The Conference, which will be held at the Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, on 25-27 November 1998 under the auspices of IFLA, the Danish Royal Library, the Royal School of Library and Information Science and the Danish Library Centre, will comprise five papers on the following topics: a keynote paper recalling the 1977 Congress (Marcelle Beaudiquez, Bibliotheque nationale de France); the coverage of national bibliographies (Grethe Jacobsen, The Royal Library, Denmark); their metadata requirements (Olivia Madison, Iowa State University, USA); distribution and exchange (Robert Smith, The British Library), and partnerships, especially with the publishing sector (Giuseppe Vitiello, Council of Europe).

Following the papers and a panel discussion, participants will break into discussion groups, which will report back to a plenary session; recommendations will be discussed and agreed upon.

Participation

Participation will be by invitation only. For those participants from the more developed countries costs will be recovered by a registration fee (DKR.2000) and a limited number of grants are available for participants from less developed countries.

Outcomes

The major outcome of the conference is expected to be a revision of the original Unesco recommendations (Guidelines for the national bibliographic agency and the national bibliography / prepared by the IFLA International Office for UBC. Paris : Unesco, 1979). Less tangibly, it is hoped that the conference will reaffirm the role of the national bibliography in recording national published output and will therefore be influential in persuading governments to make adequate resources available to their national bibliographic agencies.

Further information is available from:

Ross Bourne

c/o National Bibliographic Service
The British Library
Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire LS23 713Q
United Kingdom

(e-mail.. ross.bourne@bi.uk)

or from:

The Royal Library

Public Relations Department
att. Lone Oman, Principal
The ICNBS Secretariat
PO Box 2149
1016 Copenhagen K
Denmark
(Tel.: + 45 33 47 43 62; fax: + 45 33 93 98 38)

1997199 Standing Committee

The Standing Committee for the next two year period will comprise the following members:

Ms B Bell (The College of Wooster, Ohio, USA)
Ms F Bourdon (Biblioth6que nationale de France, Paris, Secretary)
Mr J Byrum (The Library of Congress, Washington, USA)
Mr J Concalves (Bibliotecaay Nacional de Lisboa, Portugal)
Mr M Hocevar (National and University Library, Slovenia)
Ms A Langballe (University of Oslo Library, Norway)
Ms G Larsson (Royal Library, Stockholm, Sweden)
Ms E Murtomaa (Helsinki University Library, Finland)
Mr M Rajabi (National Library of Iran)
Mr W Stephan (Universitätsbibliothek Stuttgart, Germany, Chair)
Ms B Stoklasova (National Library of the Czech Republic)
Ms V Vasilieva (Russian State Library)
Ms K Waneck (Dansk BiblioteksCenter, Ballerup, Denmark)

Honorary adviser:

Ms M Beaudiquez (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

Observers:

Ms Elmare Broodryk (The State Library, South Africa)
Ms Araaceli G. Carranza-Bassetti (Biblioteca Nacional José Marti, Cuba)
Ms Pilar Dominguey Sanchez (Biblioteca Nacional, Spain)
Cheng Huanwen, Zhonghan (University, Guangzhoz, Guang Dong, China)
Ms C. Mills (University of South Pacific, Suva, Fiji)

Enquiries about this newsletter should be addressed to the Chairman at the Universitätsbibliothek Stuttgart, Postfach 10 49 41, 70043 Stuttgart, BRD

Web information about the Section appears at http://www.ifla,org/VII/s12/sb.htm

Latest Revision: June 22, 1999