Evolving Concepts
The evolving concept of a national bibliography
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In 1950 the emphasis was on a detailed description of what kinds of documents should be registered in the national bibliography, but there was little direction on:
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Levels of cataloguing
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Publishing the national bibliography
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Legal deposit
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Relationship to holdings of the publications at the relevant national library.
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Since 1977:
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It has been assumed that the national bibliography is a complete registration of all publications in a country regardless of format and at the same level of cataloguing. This was often interpreted to mean the highest existing level.
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Agency managers with budgetary responsibilities consequently view cataloguing as very expensive with some managers prematurely concluding there is no need for a national bibliography to cover Web documents at all.
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The 1998 recommendations specified general principles, but:
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Did not offer guidance on how the "current national output" should be defined.
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Omitted instructions on the inclusion of electronic information resources in the national bibliography.