Bibliographic Management | Factfile

ISBD (International Standard Bibliographic Descriptions)

The International Standard Bibliographic Descriptions date back to 1969, when the IFLA Committee on Cataloguing (subsequently renamed the Standing Committee of the IFLA Section on Cataloguing, now known as the Standing Committee of the IFLA Cataloguing Section) sponsored an International Meeting of Cataloguing Experts. This meeting produced a resolution that proposed creation of standards to regularize the form and content of bibliographic descriptions. This resulted in the creation of the ISBDs.

The first of the ISBDs was the International Standard Bibliographic Description for Monographic Publications (ISBD(M)), which appeared in 1971. It has been used by a number of cataloguing committees in drafting national rules for description. In 1975, the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules proposed to the IFLA Committee on Cataloguing the development of an ISBD that would cover most common types of library resources, and the ISBD(G) was published in 1977. The ISBD(M) was then revised to bring it into line with the ISBD(G) in 1978. Further ISBDs were then developed for other types of materials.

The ISBD Review Group reviews and revises the ISBDs, which are published by IFLA. In the early 1990s, the IFLA Section on Cataloguing with the cooperation of the Section on Classification and Indexing set up a Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR). Revision work on the ISBDs was suspended until the group reported in 1998. The ISBD Review Group was then reconstituted and asked to initiate a full-scale review of the ISBDs to ensure conformity with the FRBR data requirements.

The draft of a consolidated edition of the ISBD was issued 2010-05-10 and can be viewed at: http://www.ifla.org/files/cataloguing/isbd/isbd_wwr_20100510_clean.pdf

The ISBD family

ISBD(G) General International Standard Bibliographic Description

ISBD(M) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Monographic Publications

ISBD(PM) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Printed Music

ISBD(NBM) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Non-book Materials

ISBD(CM) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Cartographic Materials

ISBD(A) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Older Monographic Publications (Antiquarian)

ISBD(S) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Serials

ISBD(ER) International Standard Bibliographic Description for Electronic Resources

Guidelines for the application of the ISBDs to the description of Component Parts