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International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD)

International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD): In 1961, at the International Conference on Cataloguing Principles held in Paris, stress was laid on the need of standardization in bibliographic description. To solve the problem, International Meeting on Cataloguing Expert (ICME) was sponsored by IFLA and held in Copenhagen in 1969. The meeting formed a committee to study the problem of standardization in bibliographic description. The committee submitted its report at a meeting held in Liverpool in 1971 which is known as International Standard Bibliographic Description (Monograph) {ISBD (M)}. In course of its application many ambiguities and lack of details in some areas were discovered. To resolve the problem, IFLA conference was held in Grenoble in 1973. After the conference two documents- ISBD (M) and ISBD (S) were published. In 1975, the General International Standard Bibliographic Description [ISBD (G)] was developed. It serves as a single framework for the description of all types of publications in all types of media. The ISBD (G) was later on incorporated into AACR II as a general framework for bibliographic description.

The ISBD (G) acted just as some guiding principles. It was not intended for use as a working tool for the cataloguer. So, IFLA brought out the following ISBDs on the basis of ISBD (G) as working tool. Their names are:

ISBD (M): Monograph

ISBD (S): Serial

ISBD (CM): Cartographic Material

ISBD (AV): Audio Visual

ISBD (CF): Computer Files, etc.

As ISBD has so many numbers they are called ISBDs.

A) Elements of ISBD (M)

i) Title and Statement of Responsibility

i) Title proper

ii) Parallel title or alternative title

iii) Statement of authorship

b) Edition

i) Edition statement

ii) Statement of authorship related to edition

c) Imprint

i) Place of publication

ii) Name of publisher

iii) Date of publication

iv) Place of printing

v) Name of printer

d) Collation

i) Number of volumes and / or pages

ii) Illustration matter

iii) Size and accompanying material

e) Series

f) Notes

g) International Standard Book Number, binding, price

i) ISBD

ii) Binding

iii) Price

B) Punctuation: ISBD also suggested proper punctuation mark for each and every item for making machine readable format.

[] : If information is not available in the proper place;

() : To denote omission;

/ : Before the statement of author;

: : It proceeds the name of publisher / sub title;

= : Parallel title;

- : Place of publication;

, : Year of publication, etc.

C) Capitalization and Abbreviation: The first letter of the first word in each area is given in capital.

s.l. (Sine Loco), used when place of publication is not known;

s.n.: (Sine Nomina), used when name of publisher is unknown;

ill.: Illustration;

cm.: Centimetre;

D) Information Sources for ISBD: Generally the maximum required information for ISBD is available in the title page of the document itself.

The ISBD defines nine areas of description. Each area, except area 7, is composed of multiple elements with structured classifications. Elements and areas that do not apply to a particular resource are omitted from the description. Standardized punctuation (colons, semicolons, slashes, dashes, commas, and periods) is used to identify and separate the elements and areas. The order of elements and standardized punctuation make it easier to interpret bibliographic records when one does not understand the language of the description.

0: Content form and media type area

1: Title and statement of responsibility area, consisting of

1.1 Title proper

1.2 1.2 Parallel title

1.3 1.3 Other title information

1.4 1.4 Statement of responsibility

2: Edition area

3: Material or type of resource specific area(Scale of Map & Numbering of periodical )

4: Publication, production, distribution, etc., area

5: Material description area (e.g., number of pages in a book or number of CDs issued as a unit)

6: Series area

7: Notes area