Title The Belgian Bibliography
La Bibliographie de Belgique (French)
De Belgische Bibliografie (Dutch)
Web site address eng: https://www.kbr.be/en/collections/belgian-bibliography/
fre: https://www.kbr.be/fr/collections/bibliographie-de-belgique/
dut: https://www.kbr.be/nl/collecties/belgische-bibliografie/
Start date The first issue was published in February 1875 and was a private company subsidized by the Belgian State and under the control of the Royal Library of Belgium.
The Belgian Bibliography became more complete and representative in 1966 through the application of the law on legal deposit.
Period covered 1875 to date
Current size From 1966 onwards (application of the law on legal deposit) : 666.062 records.
We have calculated the total number of Belgian publications (published from 1875 to the present) in our database : we obtain an estimate of 915.500 publications.
Please note that not all KBR collections are yet described in our ILS, and that this calculation does not accurately reflect the content of the paper and electronic lists of the Belgian Bibliography. This number is given as an indication.
Media covered -printed books and serials
-offline electronic documents
-maps and printed music : published irregularly in the Bibliography of Belgium via cumulative supplements
-will include digital publications with the future extension of legal deposit to the obligation to submit digital publications. We already include voluntarily deposited digital publications in the Bibliography of Belgium
General selection criteria The Belgian Bibliography provides a full list of the publications that we receive through legal deposit.
Accordingly, it includes the following publications:
-publications published in Belgium,
-and publications by Belgians authors published abroad.
Publications about Belgium published abroad have been referenced in the Belgian Bibliography for about a century but this is no longer the case.
Selection criteria for digital resources Formats : PDF and EPUB
Digital resources are not yet subject to legal deposit but we accept the same types of publications as for print publications : Belgian publications (monographs, periodicals, etc.) published by commercial publishers, associations, public services, universities, individuals.
Exclusions policies applied -publications that are entirely and mainly advertising or of ephemeral interest, such as commercial catalogs and leaflets, telephone directories, timetables, price lists, calendars and diaries, are excluded
-audio-visual material
-computer games and softwares
-websites
Primary organisation responsible for national bibliographic control KBR, more specifically the Bibliographic Information Agency, is responsible for the coordination of the national bibliography production
Web site address of national bibliographic agency
Co-operative structures or  relationships supporting the production of the national bibliography The Belgian National ISSN Centre within KBR has managed the numbering of Belgian serial publications since 1976.
https://www.kbr.be/en/issn/
Single integrated or multiple categorised bibliographies Single integrated.
Yearly supplements may be issued for certain types of documents (music, maps and plans, periodicals).
Sources of bibliographic metadata used to produce national bibliography Most data is created in-house, although we retrieve data via the online form of legal deposit declaration, Boekenbank (platform for book trade in Flanders) and Electre (French bibliographic database).
The retrieved data is not directly integrated into the catalog: it is completed and standardized.
Relationship to national legal deposit legislation or voluntary deposit arrangements All material included in the Belgian Bibliography is received by KBR under national legal deposit arrangement.
One exception: the digital publications we currently receive on a voluntary basis (the law on legal deposit is being extended, see above) are already included in the Belgian Bibliography.
Relationship to national Cataloguing in Publication (CIP) programme Not yet, but we are following the developments with attention and we are studying if such a program could be interesting for the Belgian Bibliography.
Form of publication used for the national bibliography -printed catalogue (1875-1997)
-electronic archive dates as far back as 1998 (PDF online)
-specific search module in the online catalogue
-we are investigating if we can publish the data in a more reusable method, like a data-dump in xml or csv, or even as linked open data.
Access options to national bibliographic metadata Web catalogue
Online access options Z39.50 is available. Other data-services are under investigation.
Formats & media available for delivery of record sets from the national bibliography -monthly lists in pdf
-possibility to export in CSV
-we are investigating if we can publish the data in a more reusable method, like a data-dump in XML or CSV, or even as linked open data.
Metadata enhancements offered via online services
Web 2.0 services offered None
Frequency of service updates The online catalogue is updated on a daily basis and a list (PDF) is published every month.
Target audiences for services Librarian professionals, general public, researchers, book trade and union catalogue (Unicat).
Uses made of  services offered Possibly acquisition/selection, interlibrary loans, research about national output and bibliographic data quality control.
Pricing policy for national bibliographic services Access to the online national bibliography is free.
Under what conditions may the metadata be re-used for other products? There are no restrictions to copy metadata from web database, but the metadata are not distributed as such.
The publication of a licence of all our data (and images) of the whole catalogue is under construction. Probably it will be CC-BY.
Metadata formats MARC21
Cataloguing code ISBD
We will start implementing the RDA standard in the course of 2022.
Levels of description offered Full level cataloguing (although limited number of subject headings).
Subject standards D
Classification Internal thesaurus for the categories of the Bibliography of Belgium (inspired by Dewey).
Subject heading scheme or thesaurus National thesaurus highly inspired by RAMEAU.
Name authority standards or Name authority file We follow the national standards of the author’s country and use the MARC21 format.
Is NBA affiliated to IFLA SC? Yes
Date information submitted 09/02/2022
Information supplied by Maud Henry, Bibliographic Information Agency, KBR (Royal Library of Belgium), email maud.henry@kbr.be