National Library News March/April 2000 Vol. 32, nos. 3-4

The Third Issue of Canadiana CD-ROM Is Now Available!

Liz McKeen,
Director, Bibliographic Access,
Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services

The third edition (December 1999) of Canadiana: The National Bibliography on CD-ROM was released in the winter of 2000. This third release of Canadiana CD-ROM brings the coverage of Canadiana publications to the end of 1999.

It contains more than 1.8 million records, including all the bibliographic records for Canadiana that have appeared in the National Library of Canada’s national bibliographic services since their inception; bibliographic records for maps, atlases and globes from the Carto-Canadiana file of the National Archives of Canada; bibliographic records for early Canadiana created by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions (CIHM); and name authority records created by the National Library and the National Archives.

Note the increased content (figures approximate):

• 80 000 bibliographic records and name authorities from the current national bibliography that were added or changed by the National Library during 1999;
• 7 000 records for Carto-Canadiana added or changed by the National Archives during 1999;
• bibliographic records for Early Canadiana, microform or digital editions of pre-1920 Canadiana filmed and published up to the end of 1999 by CIHM;
• MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data, published jointly by the Library of Congress and the National Library of Canada.

All of the bibliographic and authority records in the third release are in the new, harmonized MARC 21 format. The MARC Help text for bibliographic records is based on the MARC 21 format.

This issue of Canadiana CD-ROM comprises two CD-ROM disks. All authority records and the MARC 21 bibliographic format appear on both disks. The bibliographic records are distributed as follows:

Canadiana CD-ROM (December 1999) offers expanded coverage of published Canadiana, now including all of the bibliographic records created by the National Library for the current and retrospective national bibliographies from their inception up to the end of 1999, and records for other Canadiana catalogued for its collections since the 1950s. Libraries and individual researchers will find in the new Canadiana CD-ROM an enriched bibliographic source for identifying current and retrospective Canadiana, strengthened by the contributions of records from the National Archives and CIHM. The rapid and flexible access made possible by CD-ROM technology supports both traditional searching by known attributes such as author, title and subject, and custom searching by the wide range of other data elements found in the MARC 21 records.

For a demonstration of Canadiana: The National Bibliography on CD-ROM, visit the NLC Web site at <http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/canadiana/> or to receive a demo diskette, contact

Marketing and Publishing
National Library of Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0N4
Telephone: (613) 995-7969
Fax: (613) 991-9871
TTY: (613) 992-6969
E-mail: distribution@nlc-bnc.ca

When ordering Canadiana: The National Bibliography on CD-ROM, please quote the following catalogue number:

SN2-2/1999-2-MRC
Cost: $129.95 ($139.05 with 7% GST)

Order from

Public Works and Government Services Canada
Canadian Government Publishing
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0S9
Telephone: (819) 956-4800
Fax: (819) 994-1498
Web site: <http://publications.pwgsc.gc.ca>