5/21/23, 9:19 AM Bibliographic record - Wikipedia
Bibliographic record
A bibliographic record is an entry in a bibliographic index (or a library catalog) which represents
and describes a specific resource. A bibliographic record contains the data elements necessary to help
users identify and retrieve that resource, as well as additional supporting information, presented in a
formalized bibliographic format. Additional information may support particular database functions
such as search, or browse (e.g., by keywords), or may provide fuller presentation of the content item
(e.g., the article's abstract).
Bibliographic records are usually retrievable from bibliographic indexes (e.g., contemporary
bibliographic databases) by author, title, index term, or keyword.[1] Bibliographic records can also be
referred to as surrogate records or metadata.[2] Bibliographic records can represent a wide variety of
published contents, including traditional paper, digitized, or born-digital publications. The process of
creation, exchange, and preservation of bibliographic records are parts of a larger process, called
bibliographic control.
History
The earliest known bibliographic records come from the catalogues (written in cuneiform script on
clay tablets) of religious texts from 2000 B.C., that were identified by what appear to be key words in
Sumerian.[3] In ancient Greece, Callimachus of Cyrene[4] recorded bibliographic records on 120
scrolls using a system called pinakes.[4]
Early American library catalogs in the colonial period were typically made available in book form,
either manuscript or printed.[5] In modern America, the title and author of a work were enough to
distinguish it among others and order its record within a collection. However, as more and different
kinds of resources arose, it became necessary to collect more information to distinguish them from
one another. This conceptual framework of the bibliographic record as a collection of data elements
served American librarianship well in its first one-hundred years. Challenges to the current method
have arisen in the form of new and different distribution methods, especially of the digital variety, and
raise questions about whether the traditional conceptual model is still relevant and applicable.[5]
Formats
Today's bibliographic record formats originate from the times of the traditional paper-based isolated
libraries, their self-contained collections and their corresponding library cataloguing systems.[6] The
modern formats, while reflecting this heritage in their structure, are machine-readable and most
commonly conform to the MARC standards.[7] The subject bibliography databases (such as Chemical
Abstracts, Medline, PsycInfo, or Web of Science) do not use the same kinds of bibliographical
standards as does the library community. In this context, the Common Communication Format is the
best known standard.
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The Library of Congress is currently developing BIBFRAME, a new RDF schema for expressing
bibliographic data.[8] BIBFRAME is still in draft form, but several libraries are already testing
cataloging under the new format.[9] BIBFRAME is particularly noteworthy because it describes
resources using a number of different entities and relationships, unlike standard library records,
which aggregate many types of information into a single independently understandable record.[8]
The digital catalog of the National Library of France has the peculiarity to report notes about access
and restrictions as well as the physical collocation of any single paper copy of each title, that exists in
one of the libraries associated to their keeping system.[10] This set of metadata allows to enforce the
long-term digital preservation and content availability.[11]
References
1. Reitz, Joan M. (2004). "bibliographic database". Dictionary for Library and Information Science.
Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited. p. 70. ISBN 1-59158-075-7.
2. Joudrey, Daniel N., and Arlene G. Taylor (2018). The Organization of Information. Santa Barbara,
CT: Libraries Unlimited. p. 7. ISBN 9781598848588.
3. Carpenter, Michael (1994). "Catalogs and Cataloging". In Wiegand, Wayne A.; Davis, Donald G.
Jr. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Library History. New York: Garland. pp. 107–108. ISBN 0-8240-5787-2.
4. Cowell, Stephanie (May 1998). "The legendary library at Alexandria". Biblio. 16.
5. Rachel Ivy Clarke (2014) Breaking Records: The History of Bibliographic Records and Their
Influence in Conceptualizing Bibliographic Data, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 53:3-4,
286-302, DOI: 10.1080/01639374.2014.960988
6. Hagler, Ronald (1997). The Bibliographic Record and Information Technology (https://archive.org/
details/bibliographicrec00hagl_0/page/17) (Third ed.). American Library Association. p. 17 (https://
archive.org/details/bibliographicrec00hagl_0/page/17). ISBN 0-8389-0707-5.
7. Reitz, Joan M. (2004). "bibliographic record". Dictionary for Library and Information Science.
Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited. p. 71. ISBN 1-59158-075-7.
8. Miller, Eric; Uche Ogbuji; Victoria Mueller; Kathy MacDougall (21 November 2012). Bibliographic
Framework as a Web of Data: Linked Data Model and Supporting Services (https://www.loc.gov/bi
bframe/pdf/marcld-report-11-21-2012.pdf) (PDF) (Report). Library of Congress. Retrieved 28 May
2014.
9. "BIBFRAME Implementation Register" (https://www.loc.gov/bibframe/implementation/register.htm
l). Library of Congress. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
10. "Example of bibliographic record of the National Library of France" (http://www.sudoc.abes.fr/xslt/
CMD?DB=2.1&ACT=SRCHA&PRS=HOL&HLIB=543952102&IKT=8910&TRM=492153664&COO
KIE=U10178,Klecteurweb,I250,B341720009+,SY,NLECTEUR+WEBOPC,D2.1,E6db3d40f-0,A,H,
R94.38.238.36,FY).
11. Nancy Mackay (June 16, 2016). Curating Oral Histories: From Interview to Archive (https://books.
google.com/books?id=-89mDAAAQBAJ&q=physical+location&pg=PT42). Practicing Oral History.
Routledge. p. 42. ISBN 9781315430799. OCLC 994229515 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/99422
9515). Archived (https://archive.today/20190824160831/https://books.google.it/books?id=-89mDA
AAQBAJ&pg=PT42&lpg=PT42&dq=%22physical+location+of+copies%22&source=bl&ots=vxdDi4
uYhv&sig=ACfU3U0ghA3-QkaD_BksBBaYUtV-GNkzOQ&hl=it&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjy94m375vk
AhXLyKQKHZIdC34Q6AEwA3oECAkQAQ%23v=onepage&q=physical%20location&f=false#v=on
epage&q=physical%20location&f=false) from the original on August 24, 2019. Retrieved
August 24, 2019.
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