Canada

The Canadian national bibliography, Canadiana, includes publications from Canadian publishers, by Canadian authors, and on Canadian topics. It was published as a monthly printed bibliography from 1953, then on Computer Output Microfiche; both the microfiche and the printed versions ceased in the 1990s. A MARC Records Distribution Service to distribute Canadiana MARC records to libraries and other subscribers began in the 1970s, and the Canadiana records were made available online in the 1980s.

Library and Archives Canada is the national bibliographic agency for Canada. As it is a department of the federal government, any revenues generates are added to the General Revenue Fund on behalf of the people of Canada, and are not directly added to the library's budget. The business model for Canadiana can be summarized as follows:

  • Canadiana records online in the database AMICUS are provided free of charge. These records are also available via Z39.50.
  • A moderate price is charged for subscriptions to weekly or monthly updates of Canadiana MARC records; however, charging for this service has been suspended since 1997. Subscribers to this service include large libraries and bibliographic service providers in Canada and elsewhere.

France

The Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) is the national bibliographic agency for France. La Bibliographie nationale française has been published since 1811. Since 1999, the bibliography has appeared as a distinct publication on the BnF website, divided into five parts, each with different frequencies: These are freely available and downloadable. The records are also accessible via Z39.50 search.

The BnF also provides a MARC records distribution service, offering records in both UNIMARC and INTERMARC formats on a subscription basis. This service is offered for a fee; however, French public libraries are not required to pay the fee. Retrospective files or customized files are also possible, for variable prices.

Irrespective of the protocol used to access records BnF has stated a principle of offering records from its catalogue as well as from the national bibliography free of charge when individual users download them.The BnF has publicized its legal framework for bibliographic records usage on its web site. The main points are:

  • Any person extracting bibliographic records from the BnF database, can freely use, adapt, modify and distribute them as far as they are included in a value added derived product or service
  • In return of this free usage, the customer commits to permanently store, in an appropriate field of the computer record, the reference of the source.
  • The transfer of bibliographic records taken from the BnF to a third party is not allowed unless changes have been made by the user to produce a value added product or service.

Lithuania

The Lithuanian national bibliography includes publications from Lithuanian publishers, by Lithuanian authors and on Lithuanian topics. The current national bibliography was published as a monthly printed bibliography from 1928 to 1943 and from 1947 to the present.

UNIMARC-based records of the national bibliography began in 1998 and at present bibliographic records of Lithuanian documents and documents related to Lithuania are available online for free without limitations (http://www.libis.lt).

The National Library of Lithuania has been performing the role of the national bibliographic agency for Lithuania since 1992. The business models for the Lithuanian national bibliography are the following:

  • UNIMARC records, online in the National Bibliographic Data Bank as well as in catalogue of the national library, are free of charge. Those records are also available via Z39.50
  • A moderate price is charged for a subscription to published national current and retrospective bibliography. Subscribers to this service include academic, public libraries, and other institutions of Lithuania and worldwide.

Sweden

The Swedish national bibliography Svensk bokförteckning, was published in printed form until 2003. The compilation of the national bibliography was carried out by Kungl. Biblioteket (National Library of Sweden), but the product was sold through the publisher Tidningsaktiebolaget Svensk bokhandel and distributed through Seelig.

From 2004 the national bibliography has been accessible as part of Libris, the national union catalogue of research libraries. Access to Libris together with downloading of records has always been cost free. Because the national bibliographic agency is funded by the government to create national records, charging for records has therefore never been seriously considered. In addition, the records created by the National Library of Sweden are in some instances based on other libraries' cataloguing, which would make charging complex.

Switzerland

The Swiss Book is the national bibliography of Switzerland published by the Swiss National Library (NL). This bibliography lists all Swiss publications in all media: books, maps, printed music, electronic media and multimedia, periodicals, newspapers, annual publications and series. A publication is considered Swiss if any of the following applies:

  • At least one third of the authors are Swiss
  • The publishing house is Swiss
  • At least one third of the content concerns Switzerland

A publication is included in The Swiss Book if any of the following applies:

  • Its content is public
  • It has at least 6 pages
  • It is less than 10 years old

Publications, whose content is the work of Swiss translators, compilers (editors) or contributors or by authors residing in Switzerland, are collected by the Swiss National Library but are not included in The Swiss Book.

The Swiss Book is accessible online in different versions. Access is cost-free since issue 2001. The search interface is part of Helveticat, the online catalogue of the SNL: search functionalities are therefore identical to those of online catalogues: e.g. by author, title, keyword; documents may be ordered and borrowed online and bibliographies can also be prepared.

The printed subscription-based edition of the bibliography was discontinued in 2007 when it was replaced by a downloadable PDF version which largely reflects the traditional printed version. The Swiss Book in PDF form is a bi-monthly publication, available at: http://www.nb.admin.ch/sb-pdf

United Kingdom

New books and serials have been recorded in the British National Bibliography since 1950. The scope has been extended to electronic publications following the extension of legal deposit to this class of material in 2003. The British National Bibliography also includes details of forthcoming books. Under the UK Cataloguing-in-Publication Programme (CIP) information on new titles appears up to 16 weeks ahead of the announced publication date.

The British National Bibliography is published by the British Library. From 2009 it has been freely available on line through the British Library Integrated Catalogue (http://www. bl.uk/bibliographic/natbib.html ) The British Library offers a range of free and priced options to users (see: /node/2217 ).