DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUING STANDARD

Descriptive cataloguing is defined as the aspects of cataloguing concerned with the

bibliographic description of a bibliographic item and the determination of headings,
other than subject and form headings under which it will be represented in the
catalogue. It involves the following:-

1. Description of information material according to standard requirements e.g.

AACR II
2. Also involves the determination of access points according to which a library
user can trace library items (main entry, added entry).
The objectives of descriptive cataloguing may be summarized as:
a) To indicate the significant features of an information material or item with
a view to distinguishing the same from other items and describing its
scope, contents and bibliographic relation to other items
b) To give the bibliographic data in an entry which is then integrated with
other entries to form the catalogue
A cataloguer is guided by descriptive cataloguing standards to achieve the above objectives. These
standards are: International Standard Bibliographic Description ( ISBD) and the Anglo American
Cataloguing Rules 2 (AACR2).

ISBD or International standards Bibliographic Description

This standard was set up by IFLA in early 1970s to serve the following purposes:
1. To standardize the format of the descriptive proportion of bibliographic records of all
types of records computer files, serials, monographs etc
2. Standardize elements used in bibliographic description (author , title , edition etc)
3. To make it easier to recognize data elements regardless of the language of their content.
Language could be natural or artificial language.
4. To assign an order of elements in the entry.
5. To facilitate the automated or computerized handling of bibliographic data.

International Standards Bibliographic Description is structured into 8 (eight) main

areas:
Area one: Title and statement of responsibility

This is further subdivided into five parts

1.
Title Proper: 1st element of bibliographic description that may help in
indicating; the subject content, uniquely identifying object (each item has its own
unique title), level of approach, language,
2.

General material designation

3.

Parallel titles

4.

Other title information

5.
Statements of responsibilities; gives credit to the authors, indicate style and
quality of work especially for authoritative authors
Area two: Edition area (identifies current nature of the work i.e if revised or
enlarged
Edition statement
Parallel edition statement(s)
Statement(s) of responsibility relating to the additional responsibility statement(s)
AREA 3: Material (or type of publication) specific data area.
This refers to music and serials
AREA 4 Publication, Distribution etc area

1. Place(s) of publication, distribution etc ( useful in acquisition and explains bias in

terminology
2. Name(s) of publisher, distributor etc ( gives credit to those who availed the item
3.
4.
5.
6.

and may indicate the reliability of the item)

Date of publication ( indicates currency)
Place of publication
Name of manufacturer
Date of manufacture

AREA 5 Physical description area

1.
2.
3.
4.

Specific material designation (what is it) and extent of the item

Other physical details of the item
Dimension (size)
Identification of accompanying materials (maps, discs etc)

AREA 6 Series area

1. Title proper of the series
2. Parallel title of the series
3. Other title information of the series
4. Statement(s) of responsibility relating to the series.
5. ISSNs of the series
6. Numbering within the series
7. Enumeration of sub-series
AREA 7 Note(s) area
Each note appears on a separate line.
AREA 8 Standard number areas (ISBN or ISSN)
1. The standard number (ISSN or ISBN)
2. Key title associated only with ISSN
3. Terms of availability and the price
4. Qualifications
ANGLO-AMERICAN CATALOGING RULES 2 (AACR2)
Refer to topic to on its historic development
The rules are divided into two parts, namely:Part 1: Description
Part 2: Headings uniform title and references
Description
This part is based on ISBD (G) format

Chapter 1 covers general works

while 2 to 13 are specific to different types of

materials each
Punctuation
According to the ISBD, each element in the description is preceded by a prescribed
punctuation mark. The punctuation marks were chosen as a signal for the individual
areas of a bibliographic description.
Prescribed punctuation includes:
Brackets
Colon: precedes each unit of other title information; the name of publisher,
distributer, printer, manufacturer etc; other physical description and terms of
responsibility.
Comma: separates units within a statement e.g names of authors; precedes each
subsequent edition statement; precedes date of publication, distribution; precedes
issn of a series or subseries in the series
Dash: a full stop, space, dash, space (.s - ) precedes each area in the description,
unless the area begins in a new paragraph.
Diagonal slash: precedes the 1st statement of responsibility.
Equal sign: precedes; a parallel title, alternative numbering, key title in the standard
number and terms of availability
Full stop: precedes each area as full stop space dash space (. - ) except where area
starts with paragraph; ends last paragraph, used as abbreviation eg 2 nd ed. 10 cm.
when abb mark occurs at the end of an area the full stop which is part of the
prescribed punctuation is omitted.; full stop precedes title of a supplement and title
of a subseries.
Hyphen: follows numeric or alphabetic designation or both.

Mark of omission (); indicates an abridged title, indicate an omission

from

statement of responsibility, replace date or numbering that varies from issue to

issue in the title proper of a serial publication
Semicolon: precedes: each statement of responsibility, second or subsequent
named place of publication
Space
Part 2: Headings, uniform titles and references
Gives rules on choice and use of access points. These headings provide access
points to bibliographic descriptors from the name of

person or corporate body in

the book, item and from the standard title of the work. It also provides some
references from preferred to un-preferred names or from names which are both
preferred.