The International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) is a set of rules produced by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) to describe[1] a wide range of library materials within the context of a catalog. The consolidated edition of the ISBD was published in 2007. It superseded earlier separate ISBDs that were published for monographs, older monographic publications, cartographic materials, serials and other continuing resources, electronic resources, non-book materials, and printed music. IFLA's ISBD Review Group is responsible for maintaining the ISBD.
One of the original purposes of the ISBD was to provide a standard form of bibliographic description that could be used to exchange records internationally. This would support IFLA's program of universal bibliographic control.
Contents |
The ISBD prescribes eight areas of description.[2][3] Each area, except area 7, is composed of multiple elements with structured classifications. Elements and areas that do not apply to a particular resource are omitted from the description. Standardized punctuation (colons, semicolons, slashes, dashes, commas, and periods) is used to identify and separate the elements and areas. The order of elements and standardized punctuation make it easier to interpret bibliographic records when one does not understand the language of the description.
ISBD(A) is governing the antiquarian bibliographic publications, which could apply to the ones in archeology, museum, antique auction or canonical texts etc.[5]
Abbreviation | Meaning | Explanation |
---|---|---|
v. | volume(s) | Some works comprise several bound books, e.g., volume 1, volume 2, etc. |
lowercase roman numerals (preceding "p.") | number of pages of front matter | Front matter is usually not paginated within the Arabic-numeral pagination of the main body of the book. |
p. | page(s) | Number of Arabic-numeral-numbered pages that make up the main body of the book |
lowercase roman numerals (following "p.") | number of pages of back matter | Optional; back matter such as appendices and index are often paginated within the Arabic-numeral pagination of the main body of the book. |
ℓ | leaf/leaves | Each sheet of paper is one leaf, which contains two pages, recto and verso. Sometimes miscellaneous nonpaginated leaves are counted using "ℓ". The script small L (ℓ) is now deprecated in favor of spelling out "leaf"/"leaves". Script small L has usually been encoded as Unicode U+2113. |
ill. or illus. | illustration(s) | |
ports. | portrait(s) | The number of illustrations that are portraits is sometimes given. |
cm | height of book in centimeters | Height is measured in centimeters from bottom of book cover to top, i.e., how tall the book is when shelved on the library shelf. |
s.l. | sine loco (Latin for "without a place") | Used in bibliographies to indicate that the place of publication of a document is unknown. |
s.n. | sine nomine (Latin for "without a name") | Used in bibliographies to indicate that the publisher of a document is unknown. |
A typical ISBD record looks like this:
A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations : Chicago style for students and researchers / Kate L. Turabian ; revised by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, and University of Chicago Press editorial staff. — 7th ed. — Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2007. — xviii, 466 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. — (Chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing). — Includes bibliographical references (p. 409-435) and index. — ISBN 978-0-226-82336-2 (cloth : alk. paper) : USD35.00. — ISBN 978-0-226-82337-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) : USD17.00