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4th International Bibliographic Congress, Yakutsk, Sakha republic (Takutia), Russia

The Russian Library Association, Russian National Library (St. Petersburg), Russian State Library (Moscow), State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk), Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts (Yakutsk), and National Library of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) (Yakutsk) announce the convocation of the 4th International Bibliographic Congress on September 16-19, 2025 in Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (Russia).

Bibliographers from all over the world are invited (no registration fee). It’s possible to participate remotely (online).

Theme of the Congress: “Bibliography and the preservation of the cultural heritage and linguistic diversity of the peoples of the world.”

The following issues will be discussed:

  • Strategic issues of bibliography development in the context of the digital economy. Artificial intelligence in the library. Advanced experience in the field of IT.
  • National bibliography. National bibliographic services. Practices of creating a national bibliography.
  • International bibliographic cooperation.
  • Bibliography as a means of promoting culture, preserving the cultural heritage of countries and peoples, providing access to heritage.
  • Indigenous knowledge and ethical information management, data and databases. Indigenous languages in the context of repositories, databases or publications.
  • Book heritage. Scientific description of individual book monuments and collections.
  • Access to information. Internet management. The role of libraries.
  • Bibliographic resources: types, genres, topics, directions of development.
  • Development and implementation of standards for bibliographic description of documents. Functional requirements for bibliographic records.
  • Library catalogues: IT paradigm of cataloging.
  • Innovative approaches to cataloging, linked data capabilities, collaborative metadata creation.
  • Presentation formats and authoritative control of bibliographic data.
  • Bibliographic support for science, technology, education and culture.
  • Bibliographic tools for book promotion and reading. Reading and literacy development in libraries, integration of reading research.
  • Bibliography for children and youth.
  • Professional education of bibliographers, cataloguers: trends and approaches.
  • Information and digital literacy. Information culture of the individual. Bibliographic culture as the basis of intellectual activity.
  • Current state of bibliographic science. Bibliographic topics in research activities. Scientific schools in bibliography.
  • Historical and bibliographic research in the context of world domestic cultural heritage. Biography in historical and bibliographical research.
  • Modern scientometric systems. Scientometric and bibliometric research.

The organisers are open to new ideas and suggestions. Please send all suggestions on topics and issues for the Congress to the Organizing Committee at e-mail: [email protected].

Working languages: Russian, English

An information letter and a registration form for the Congress will be posted on the websites of the Russian Library Association https://rba.ru/, Russian State Library https://rsl.ru/, National Library https://nlr.ru/, SPSTL SB RASRAS http://spsl.nsc.ru/ and the National Library of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) https://new.nlrs.ru/.

Contact: e-mail: [email protected]

 

national bibliographic control in the digital era

National Bibliographic Control in the Digital Era

By Eduardo da Silva Alentejo
E-mail: [email protected]

In a growing universe of information alternatives, emerging technologies on the Web have been adapted and applied to the ways in which human beings control what they produce. That is, what is organized, preserved and disseminated to society through successive generations of bibliographic systems. Considering that in libraries and documentary centers, the physical availability of documents results from a logical and unique organization; on the other hand, on the Web, whose logic is the network, thousands of information resources can be accessed and intertwined because of semantic interoperability, a current characteristic of various bibliographic communication formats and protocols. With digital technology constantly evolving, the agility of information communication has become a primary objective for the data producer to remain relevant, the information system effective and the dissemination of knowledge efficient. Since the digital environment has been changing the way humanity interacts, the terrain of Web technologies and information systems architecture has been changing and institutions of all types are increasingly using information systems that, sometimes , do not easily fit into the traditional labels under which information systems architectures have been conceived. If there is an understanding that technologies are powerful for driving digital transformation processes for national bibliographic control activities, bibliographic organization processes also bring notes and challenges to combat information inflation in the Digital Era as well digital exclusion processes. From these perspectives, national bibliographic agencies are dealing with the evanescence and mutability of electronic documents, growing at an exponential rate and speed, apparently without any national affiliation, however, establishing a global network for exchanging bibliographic information. The notion of bibliographic control for instances of culture, especially libraries, has become imperative to combat information overload (bibliographic explosion, according to Paul Otlet), having as reference the printed book and the use of information as a means for development of societies (Parent, 2004). Bibliographic Control presupposes complete control over the materials that record knowledge, aiming to identify, locate and obtain it. And because it is not an end, it is related to the ability to face information inflation under the application of computing and automation in libraries since the 1950s (Davinson, 1975). National bibliographic control aims to produce a current national bibliography, enabling the intellectual progress of a nation to be verified (Bell, 1998). At an international level, Universal Bibliographic Control would be achieved by the exchange of official bibliographic records between national bibliographic agencies, responsible for their constitution and dissemination (Roberts, 1994). These scopes of bibliographic control require an operational system supported by instruments that allow the census, organization and dissemination of what is called national bibliographic heritage, whose operations oversee a bibliographic agency, generally a national library, as is the Brazilian case. In the history of each country, or group of countries, undertakings for bibliographic control occurred in different ways and with different technological resources. Each country has developed its own information policy and control of intellectual production (Parent, 2004). With the systematization of the Universal Bibliographic Control Program (UBC), in the 1970s, developed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), librarians and other information professionals have adapted and applied technologies for the task of organizing and disseminating knowledge, from local to national and from there to global reach, based on cooperation and emphasis on international bibliographic standardization. The first worldwide conception of cooperative and decentralized bibliographic control was expressed with the UBC Program and had social and political purposes: universalization of knowledge, dissemination of bibliographic records and preservation of national and global intellectual memory as a result. This ideal was based on the creation of an internationally integrated, distributed network based on the contribution of each country’s national bibliographic control through the regular sharing of the ‘current national bibliography’ component (Alentejo; Ramanan, 2017). Córdon García (1997) explains that national bibliographic control is guided by three mutually dependent pillars: legal deposit, national bibliographic agency and current national bibliography. The triple combination of bibliographic agency, legal deposit and, current national bibliography demonstrated a strong structure that provides the bibliographic control necessary for current affairs as it has been since the beginning of the 1980s. This was developed in the context of global publishing which was characterized by the diffusion of documents in all their forms (Beaudiquez, 1998). The conception of UBC played an important role in the ideals of universalizing knowledge. It was built based on the principle that each country was responsible for identifying and describing publications in its own territory, following an international standard of bibliographic description. It also played a key role in developing a universal, machine-readable bibliographic description format for exchanging bibliographic information (Parent, 2004). Stemming from the latest recommendations provided by IFLA for the current national bibliography (Takhirov; Aalberg; Žumer, 2008), of which the Web-based current national bibliography would be the primary source for a country’s official bibliographic directory, the sense of bibliographic heritage is supports collecting based on the accumulation of materials, via legal deposit, from national libraries due to their ability to provide bibliographic services for dissemination and access to a country’s bibliographic and documentary heritage. National bibliographies accessible in the Web environment have allowed expanding understanding regarding the development of systems based on user experience, through the possibility of employing technological resources capable of improving their social functions of access to knowledge, such as: Semantic Web, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain. With the availability of new digital sources of information on the Web, there is potential competition between national and international bibliographic agencies with other bibliographic services, mainly with worldwide commercial bibliography, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. National bibliographic agencies, for example, have offered other bibliographic services that other bodies cannot offer, mainly in the possibilities of metadata reuse and cooperative international and local cataloging. Therefore, the successive national bibliographic control architectures sheltered the UBC Program from its social ideals, international cooperation, technical and technological improvements, premises for the exchange of bibliographic data without barriers and were sustained in the light of human rights; even in times of political and economic conflicts with global impact, applying and adapting Web versioning technologies for the purposes of universalizing knowledge. This demonstrates that national bibliographic agencies have become essential to produce current national bibliography and responsible for its dissemination under a generation of bibliographic services and products aimed at: control and preservation of the national bibliographic heritage and its sharing for the objectives of the knowledge universalization program, defended based on open access to information, free from barriers and digital exclusion. Since the 1950s, the IFLA Bibliography Section has consolidated itself as an international group interested in techniques for identifying content, organizing, producing, disseminating and preserving bibliographic information in national bibliographies, namely through national bibliographic services. IFLA’s first guidelines for current national bibliography date back to the 1950s and 1970s. In 2008, IFLA aimed to update the current national bibliography guidelines with new recommendations for publishing national bibliographies in electronic format on the Internet and including resources electronics in a variety of formats – websites (including blogs and other emerging resources), online databases, electronic journals, e-books, software, etc. Given the wide range of information systems available (online search systems, applications, databases, digital libraries, etc.), national bibliographic agencies are facing even more pressure to sustain national bibliographies and ensure that they are socially relevant (International Federation Of Library Associations And Institutions, 2008). However, with the Social Web and Semantic Web versioning, for example, there is an understanding among national bibliographic agencies about the potential of digital technologies applicable to Current National Bibliography, considering that the most varied digital formats can also be included in a common way. Within a rapidly evolving editorial and technological context, one of the objectives of this update was to understand what uses could be expected from the online national bibliography and what its usefulness is today, as its characteristic is to be a fully descriptive bibliographic resource in the form of an online product. Such IFLA guidelines introduced at least six dimensions to increase the social usefulness of national bibliography in the context of the digital environment: 1) Interface, Interoperability and functionality; 2) Information Retrieval; 3) Better cataloging procedures; 4) New scope of data recording; 5) Exchange of best practices and cooperation, 6) Organizational model and measurement of effectiveness (International Federation Of Library Associations And Institutions, 2008). Additionally, there are two paths to national registries. Some countries differentiate their national bibliographies from the national catalogue. Others consider that everything added to their collections by law does not require distribution of the caliber of a separate publication like a national bibliography, so their national catalog is sufficient. In both cases, the national bibliography is essential for the selection and acquisition of materials and, consequently, an important promotion of the publishing industry (Lewis, 1991). But the current web-based national bibliography can be published and accessed on the same online platform, portal, digital library or even in a national collective catalogue, as is the case with the Brazilian national bibliography today. The social relevance of the results of national bibliographic control can be understood by the relevance of current national bibliography, how and with what frequency official bibliographic records are searched by users in a country, which requires permanent application and evaluation of Web technologies, collection techniques and data analysis. Perhaps this is the seed for new generations of national bibliographic control systems towards the universalization of knowledge.

Selected Bibliography

ALENTEJO, Eduardo da Silva; RAMANAN, T. National Bibliography in Brazil, and Sri Lanka in Digital Age: a comparative study. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries Journal, [Limerik], v. 6, n. 2, p. 217-227, June 2017.

BEAUDIQUEZ, Marcelle. National Bibliographic Services at the Dawn of the 21st Century: Evolution and Revolution. Copenhagen: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, 1998. p. 1-13.

BELL, Barbara. L. An Annotated Guide to Current National Bibliographies. 2 nd ed. München: Saur, 1998.

BRANCHEAU, James C.; WETHERBE, James C. Information architectures: Methods and practice. Information Processing & Management, [Doha], v. 22, n. 6, p. 453-463, 1986.

CORDELL, Ryan. Machine Learning + Libraries: A Report on the State of the Field; Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 2020.

CORDON GARCÍA, José Antonio. El registro de la memoria: el Depósito legal y las bibliografias nacionales. Gijón: Treas, 1997.

CORDÓN-GARCÍA, José-Antonio. El depósito legal y los recursos digitales en línea. Salamanca: Documentary Repository of the University of Salamanca, 2006.

COYLE, Karen. Semantic Web and Linked data Research Interests. In: COYLE, Karen. (ed.). Linked Data Tools: Connecting on the Web. Chicago: American Library Association, 2012. p. 10–14.

DAVINSON, DAVINSON, Donald Edward. Bibliographic Control. London: Clive Bingley, 1975.

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS. Guidelines for National Bibliographies in the Electronic Age. Paris, IFLA Working Group on Guidelines for National Bibliographies, 2008.

LEWIS, P. R. The development of national bibliographic services. Issues and opportunities. In: WORKSHOP ON NATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICES IN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Luxembourg, 1990. Report… Luxembourg: Commission of the European Communities, 1991. p. 11-19. Disponível em: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/188233589.pdf. Acesso em: 18 jan. 2024.

PARENT Ingrid. The IFLA UAP and UBC programmes. Alexandria Journal, Cairo, v. 16, n. 2, p. 69-75, 2004.

ROBETS, Winston D. O que é controle bibliográfico universal? Anais da Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, v. 114, p. 149-171, 1994.

TAKHIROV, Naimdjon; AALBERG, Trond; ŽUMER, Maja. An XML-Based Representational Document Format for FRBR. In: BUCHANAN, G., MASOODIAN, M., CUNNINGHAM, S. J. (ed.). ICADL 2008. LNCS. Heidelberg: Springer Verlag, 2008. v. 5362, p. 327–330.

Association of Ibero-American States for the Development of National Libraries of Ibero-America (ABINIA) and national bibliographies

By Sandra Martín

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to determine the coverage, format and degree of visibility of the national bibliographies in progress and on the web of the Latin American countries members of the Association of Ibero-American States for the Development of National Libraries of Ibero-America (ABINIA), -excluding Spain and Portugal-.

The web pages of national libraries are analyzed and four criteria are proposed (online catalog, current and online national bibliography, online statistics and bibliographic identifiers) with 15 variables.

The dissemination of national bibliographies is closely linked to the forms of dissemination of documentary heritage and the legal deposit legislation, which does not always contemplate forms of dissemination. National bibliographies do not necessarily have to be the sole and exclusive product of legal deposit; in many cases, some are the result of a compilation and curation of documents that are not covered by legal deposit.

Of all the countries analyzed, half of them have legal deposit dissemination mechanisms included in their legislation, but only four explicitly refer to bibliographies, mentioning them as bibliographies proper, bibliographic yearbook, bibliographic catalog or bibliographic dictionary. However, beyond the legislation, it is clear that it is a function of national libraries to make national documentary production known.

Keywords: National bibliographies – Latin America – Web visibility – Dissemination

Resumen

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo determinar la cobertura, el formato y el grado de visibilidad de las bibliografías nacionales en curso y en la web de los países latinoamericanos integrantes de la Asociación de Estados Iberoamericanos para el Desarrollo de las Bibliotecas Nacionales de Iberoamérica (ABINIA), – se excluye España y Portugal-. Se analizan las páginas web de las bibliotecas nacionales y se proponen cuatro criterios (catálogo en línea, bibliografía nacional en curso y en línea, estadísticas en línea e identificadores bibliográficos) con 15 variables. La difusión de las bibliografías nacionales está íntimamente ligada a las formas de difusión del patrimonio documental y la legislación del depósito legal que no siempre contempla formas de difusión. Las bibliografías nacionales no necesariamente deben ser producto único y exclusivo del depósito legal, en muchos casos, algunas son el fruto de un trabajo de recopilación y curaduría de documentos que no están alcanzados por el depósito legal. De la totalidad de países analizados, la mitad contiene mecanismos de difusión del depósito legal contemplados en sus legislaciones, pero sólo cuatro hacen referencia explícitamente a las bibliografías mencionándolas como bibliografía propiamente dicha, anuario bibliográfico, catálogo de la bibliografía o diccionario bibliográfico. Sin embargo, más allá de la legislación, queda claro que es una función de las bibliotecas nacionales dar a conocer la producción documental nacional.

Palabras clave: Bibliografías nacionales – Latinoamérica – Visibilidad web – Difusión

Martín, Sandra Gisela. Ponencia. Visibilidad de las bibliografías nacionales latinoamericanas en curso y en línea a partir de las páginas web de las bibliotecas nacionales. IFLA WLIC 2023 Bibliography Section. 21-25 de agosto de 2023.  http://eprints.rclis.org/45304/

Bibliographic Control and Identifiers: how do the national libraries and bibliographic agencies in Latin American countries deal with it?

By Sandra Martín

Abstract

The objective of this work is to know the degree of insertion of bibliographic, institutional and person identifiers in the bibliographic control process in national libraries and/or national bibliographic agencies of the Latin American countries that are members of the Association of Ibero-American States for Development. of the National Libraries of Ibero-America (ABINIA), -Spain and Portugal are excluded-. The study was based on documentary research with a qualitative strategy around the analysis of identifiers. We proceeded to consult, observe, read, analyze and interpret the web pages of national libraries, national bibliographic agencies and the official websites of each of the identifiers. The results and conclusions show that the Latin American national libraries rely solely and exclusively on two bibliographic identifiers for the registration of legal deposit and the preparation of national bibliographies: the ISBN (books) and the ISSN (periodical publications) and on to a lesser extent in the ISMN (music publications, sheet music, etc.). The inexistence of networks of bibliographic agencies and agencies that manage identifiers that work collaboratively with national libraries show the limitations that exist in the dissemination of documentary heritage and, therefore, the limitations to be able to carry out exhaustive universal bibliographic control.

Keywords: bibliographic identifiers, institutional identifiers, person identifiers, national libraries, bibliographic agencies, bibliographic control

Resumen:

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo conocer el grado de inserción de los identificadores bibliográficos, institucionales y de personas en el proceso de control bibliográfico en las bibliotecas nacionales y/o agencias bibliográficas nacionales de los países latinoamericanos integrantes de la Asociación de Estados Iberoamericanos para el Desarrollo de las Bibliotecas Nacionales de Iberoamérica (ABINIA), – se excluye España y Portugal-. El estudio se basó en una investigación en sitios web con una estrategia cualitativa en torno al análisis de los identificadores. Se procedió a la consulta, observación, lectura, análisis e interpretación de las páginas web de las bibliotecas nacionales, de las agencias bibliográficas nacionales y de los sitios web oficiales de cada uno de los identificadores. Los resultados y las conclusiones dan cuenta que las bibliotecas nacionales latinoamericanas se basan para el registro del depósito legal y la elaboración de las bibliografías nacionales, única y exclusivamente en dos identificadores bibliográficos: el ISBN (libros) y el ISSN (publicaciones periódicas) y en menor medida en el ISMN (publicaciones de música, partituras, etc.). La inexistencia de redes de agencias bibliográficas y de agencias administradoras de identificadores que trabajen colaborativamente con las bibliotecas nacionales muestran las limitaciones que existen en la difusión del patrimonio documental y por ende de las limitaciones para poder concretar un exhaustivo control bibliográfico universal.

Palabras clave: Identificadores bibliográficos, Identificadores institucionales, Identificadores de personas, Bibliotecas nacionales, Agencias bibliográficas, Control bibliográfico

Martín, Sandra Gisela. (2023). El papel de los identificadores bibliográficos, institucionales y de personas en el control bibliográfico. Información, Cultura y Sociedad, (49), 71-89. https://doi.org/10.34096/ics.i49.13099 ISSN: 851-1740

Are you curious about legal deposit in Latin America? Let’s dive into it from a legislative point of view

By Sandra Martín

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to understand and interpret through a hermeneutic study the legislation on legal deposit in the Latin American countries members of the Association of Ibero-American States for the Development of National Libraries of Ibero-America (ABINIA) —excluding Spain and Portugal—, in order to establish a critical state of the art on the situation. The study was based on documentary research with a quantitative and qualitative strategy. A comparative content analysis and a hermeneutic reading of the texts were applied as a methodology to identify and interpret the legislation on legal deposit. It is concluded that there is a great dependence on the ISBN in order to comply with legal deposit regulations and it can be stated that legal deposit does not represent the totality of a country’s documentary heritage, but only a part of it, which is subject to the legislation in force and the possibilities of complying with it. There is also a lack of precision in many aspects of legal deposit in the legislations analyzed.

Keywords: Legal deposit; Law; Latin America.

Resumen:

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo conocer el grado de inserción de los identificadores bibliográficos, institucionales y de personas en el proceso de control bibliográfico en las bibliotecas nacionales y/o agencias bibliográficas nacionales de los países latinoamericanos integrantes de la Asociación de Estados Iberoamericanos para el Desarrollo de las Bibliotecas Nacionales de Iberoamérica (ABINIA), – se excluye España y Portugal-. El estudio se basó en una investigación en sitios web con una estrategia cualitativa en torno al análisis de los identificadores. Se procedió a la consulta, observación, lectura, análisis e interpretación de las páginas web de las bibliotecas nacionales, de las agencias bibliográficas nacionales y de los sitios web oficiales de cada uno de los identificadores. Los resultados y las conclusiones dan cuenta que las bibliotecas nacionales latinoamericanas se basan para el registro del depósito legal y la elaboración de las bibliografías nacionales, única y exclusivamente en dos identificadores bibliográficos: el ISBN (libros) y el ISSN (publicaciones periódicas) y en menor medida en el ISMN (publicaciones de música, partituras, etc.). La inexistencia de redes de agencias bibliográficas y de agencias administradoras de identificadores que trabajen colaborativamente con las bibliotecas nacionales muestran las limitaciones que existen en la difusión del patrimonio documental y por ende de las limitaciones para poder concretar un exhaustivo control bibliográfico universal.

Palabras clave: Identificadores bibliográficos, Identificadores institucionales, Identificadores de personas, Bibliotecas nacionales, Agencias bibliográficas, Control bibliográfico

Martín, Sandra Gisela. (2024). Entre palabras y leyes: Un análisis hermenéutico del depósito legal en países latinoamericanos de ABINIA. Informatio29(1). Online version. ISSN: 2301-1378

A conceptual model for UBC

By Sandra Martín

The article Conceptual model for universal bibliographic control is available online.

Abstract

It presents a proposal for a conceptual model of universal bibliographic control based on general systems theory (GST) and considered as a global system with a decentralized, distributed, collaborative, interconnected and linked model structure.   The CBU is reflected on based on the four principles of relevant knowledge proposed by Morin (1999): context, global, multidimensional and complex; and nine dimensions of analysis are proposed: theoretical/conceptual framework, political, legislative, librarian, collaborative, normative, technological, relational, services.

Resumen

Se presenta una propuesta de modelo conceptual de control bibliográfico universal basado en la teoría general de sistemas (TGS) y considerado como un sistema global con una estructura de modelo de descentralizado, distribuido, colaborativo, interconectado y vinculado. Se reflexiona sobre el CBU a partir de los cuatro principios del conocimiento pertinente planteados por Morin (1999): el contexto, lo global, lo multidimensional y lo complejo; y se plantean nueve dimensiones de análisis:  teórica/marco conceptual, política, legislativa, bibliotecológica, colaborativa, normativa, tecnológica, relacional, servicios.

Martín, Sandra Gisela. (2024). Modelo conceptual para el control bibliográfico universal. JLIS.it Italian Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.36253/jlis.it-579 ISSN 2038-1026

The National Bibliographic Agencies in the Information Landscape: How Do We Help

By Rehab Ouf, Bibliography Section Chair

The Bibliography Section maintains two tools:
• The IFLA’s Common Practices for National Bibliographies in the Digital Age (CPs), meant to be a supportive tool for countries and national institutions seeking information for creating and maintaining a national bibliography.

Click here to get the full article – IFLA Metadata Newsletter – Dec. 2023