National Library News March/April 1999 Vol. 31, no. 3-4

International Conference on National Bibliographic Services: A Truly International Experience

From November 25 to 27, 1998, representatives from over 70 countries met in Copenhagen, Denmark, to discuss and debate issues related to the content and distribution of national bibliographies. All continents, including 17 countries from Africa and 12 from Asia, were represented. The points of view expressed by the participants were diverse, interesting and enriching, and led to some stimulating discussions.

The objective of the International Conference on National Bibliographic Services (ICNBS) was to review and, if necessary, update the recommendations of the International Congress on National Bibliographies held in Paris in 1977. While the recommendations of this first conference have greatly influenced the development of national bibliographies over the past 20 years, the bibliographic landscape is evolving rapidly due to the appearance of electronic publications and the ease of distribution of information through new communication technologies. These developments have raised serious questions about the content and distribution of national bibliographies, to the point of questioning the need for their continued existence.

The International Conference was held under the auspices of IFLA’s Core Programme for Universal Bibliographic Control and International MARC (UBCIM), IFLA’s Division of Bibliographic Control and IFLA’s Section of National Libraries in cooperation with the Conference of Directors of National Libraries. The conference planning committee was chaired by Ross Bourne of the British Library and included members from Canada, Denmark, France, the U.S. and UBCIM. The hosts for the conference were the Royal Library, the Royal School of Library Science and the Danish Library Centre. The local organizing committee, chaired by Erland Kolding Nielson, did an outstanding job in seeing to the professional, social and housekeeping needs of conference participants.

To ensure broad geographic representation while keeping the numbers small enough to have meaningful discussion and interaction, only one official invitation was sent to each country, to the attention of the member of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries. In addition, several international organizations and programs, such as IFLA, Unesco, Council of Europe, and the international ISSN and ISBN centres, were invited.

Organizers recognized that several countries would have difficulty in obtaining the necessary funds to send a representative to the conference. Therefore, the planning committee made a major effort to obtain funding for those most in need. The generous financial support provided by the Banque internationale d’information sur les États francophones (BIEF), le Comité français IFLA, the Danish IFLA ’97 Association, the Danish International Development Agency, the Danish National Library Authority, NCLIS, the Nordic Council for Scientific Information, OCLC and the Soros Foundation was very much appreciated and contributed to the international character of the conference. Some 40 of the 120 participants were funded in part or in whole.

David Balatti, Director of Bibliographic Services at the National Library, was the official representative for Canada. Also in attendance were National Librarian Marianne Scott, who participated in a panel discussion with other national librarians, and Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services Director General Ingrid Parent, who was a member of the conference planning committee.

After a keynote paper from Marcelle Beaudiquez of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, several thematic papers and a panel discussion, conference participants broke into smaller groups focusing on specific issues raised during the conference. A small group then drafted recommendations based on these results. These recommendations formed the core of an animated discussion in a plenary session on the last afternoon of the conference. While participants expressed varied opinions on some key issues, they reached consensus on all the recommendations.

The recommendations developed to guide national libraries and national bibliographic agencies in the production of national bibliographies cover several major aspects of bibliographic activities. Some key points are:

• The conference participants endorsed the concept of Universal Bibliographic Control (UBC) as a long-term program for the development of a worldwide system for the organization and exchange of bibliographic information.
• It is the role and responsibility of a national library or national bibliographic agency to produce the national bibliography, either on its own or in partnership with other organizations. However, if production of the national bibliography is a shared responsibility, the national bibliographic agency must set the policies and the standards for creating its content and production schedule.
• The importance of legal deposit as a means of ensuring that the cultural and intellectual heritage and linguistic diversity of the state is preserved and made accessible for current and future users was reaffirmed.
• While comprehensive coverage for a national bibliography may be the ideal, conditions may exist in certain countries where such coverage is not feasible. Therefore, selection criteria must be developed and promoted.
• National bibliographies may be produced in one or several formats. However, at least one of the formats used to distribute the national bibliography should meet archiving and preservation needs and should be permanently accessible.
• National bibliographic agencies should be proactive in standards development, especially with regard to new standards for the creation and identification of digital documents.
• National bibliographic agencies should adopt the components of the Basic Level Record recommended in the final report of the IFLA Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records.
• Additional standards recommendations were made with respect to authority control, convertibility of MARC formats, and harmonization of international standards for various types of material, especially serial publications.
• The role of users of national bibliographies, including those with special needs, was strongly emphasized. For example, matters like format and frequency should be determined according to the reality of the local situation.
• Conference participants recognized multi-cultural diversity, including the importance of both maintaining original scripts in national bibliographies and facilitating script conversion.

Work to refine the wording of the recommendations continued after the conference. The final recommendations of the International Conference will be added to the ICNBS Web site on IFLANET, together with the papers presented at the conference and the pre-conference booklet. These can be found at <www.ifla.org/VI/3/icnbs/icnbs.htm>.

The recommendations will be presented to the IFLA Professional Board and to UNESCO for endorsement and further action. With the support of these major international organizations, and the commitment of over 70 countries, it is hoped that these recommendations will effectively guide the development of national bibliographies for at least another 20 years.

For further information about the International Conference, please consult the IFLANET Web site or contact:

Ingrid Parent
Director General, Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services
National Library of Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N4
Telephone: (819) 994-6887
Fax: (819) 953-0291
E-mail: ingrid.parent@nlc-bnc.ca