Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records

Afkomstig uit hfd 2.2 Scope

For the purposes of this study a bibliographic record is defined as the aggregate of data that are associated with entities described in library catalogues and national bibliographies. Included in that aggregate of data are descriptive data elements such as those defined in the International Standard Bibliographic Descriptions (ISBDs); data elements used in headings for persons, corporate bodies, titles, and subjects that function as filing devices or index entries; other data elements used to organize a file of records, such as classification numbers; annotations such as abstracts or summaries; and data specific to the copies in library collections, such as accession numbers and call numbers.

Data associated with persons, corporate bodies, titles, and subjects are analysed only to the extent that they function as headings or index entries for the records describing bibliographic entities. The present study does not analyse those additional data associated with persons, corporate bodies, works, and subjects that are typically recorded only in authority records.

The study endeavours to be comprehensive in terms of the variety of materials that are covered. The data included in the study pertain to textual, music, cartographic, audio-visual, graphic and three-dimensional materials; they cover the full range of physical media described in bibliographic records (paper, film, magnetic tape, optical storage media, etc.); they cover all formats (books, sheets, discs, cassettes, cartridges, etc.); and they reflect all modes of recording information (analogue, acoustic, electric, digital, optical, etc.).

The study assumes that the data included in bibliographic records produced for national bibliographies and library catalogues are used by a wide range of users: readers, students, researchers, library staff, publishers, distribution agents, retailers, information brokers, administrators of intellectual property rights, etc. The study takes into account the wide variety of applications, both within and outside a library setting, in which the data in bibliographic records are used: collections development, acquisitions, cataloguing, the production of finding aids and bibliographies, inventory management, preservation, circulation, interlibrary loan, reference, and information retrieval.

Within the context of such applications users may make use of bibliographic records for a variety of purposes, for example: to determine what information resources exist, perhaps on a particular subject or by a particular person, within a given "universe" (e.g., within the totality of available information resources, within the published output of a particular country, within the holdings of a particular library or group of libraries, etc.); to verify the existence and/or availability of a particular document for purposes of acquiring, borrowing or lending; to identify a source or sources from which a document can be obtained and the terms under which it is available; to determine whether a record already exists for an item being added to a collection or whether a new record needs to be created; to track an item as it moves through a process such as binding or conservation treatment; to determine whether an item can be circulated or sent out on interlibrary loan; to select a document or group of documents that will serve the information needs of the user; or to determine the physical requirements for use of an item as they relate either to the abilities of the user or to special requirements for playback equipment, computing capabilities, etc.

For the purposes of this study the functional requirements for bibliographic records are defined in relation to the following generic tasks that are performed by users when searching and making use of national bibliographies and library catalogues:

• using the data to find materials that correspond to the user's stated search criteria (e.g., in the context of a search for all documents on a given subject, or a search for a recording issued under a particular title);
• using the data retrieved to identify an entity (e.g., to confirm that the document described in a record corresponds to the document sought by the user, or to distinguish between two texts or recordings that have the same title);
• using the data to select an entity that is appropriate to the user's needs (e.g., to select a text in a language the user understands, or to choose a version of a computer program that is compatible with the hardware and operating system available to the user);
• using the data in order to acquire or obtain access to the entity described (e.g., to place a purchase order for a publication, to submit a request for the loan of a copy of a book in a library's collection, or to access online an electronic document stored on a remote computer).