International Standard Bibliographic Description

The International Standard Bibliographic Description or ISBD is a set of rules produced by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) to describe 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 It superseded earlier separate ISBDs that were published for monographs, older monographic publications, cartographic materials, serials and other continuing resources,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.

tructure of an ISBD record

The ISBD prescribes eight areas of description. Each area, except area 7, is composed of multiple elements. For example, area 1 includes the title proper, general material designation, other title information, parallel title, and statements of responsibility. Elements and areas that don't 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.
* 1: title and statement of responsibility area
* 2: edition area
* 3: material or type of resource specific area (for example, the scale of a map or the numbering of a periodical)
* 4: publication, production, distribution, etc., area
* 5: physical description area (for example: number of pages in a book or number of CDs issued as a unit)
* 6: series area
* 7: notes area
* 8: resource identifier (e.g. ISBN, ISSN) and terms of availability area

Meaning of common English-language physical description abbreviations

Example

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

References

*Chan, Lois Mai. Cataloging and Classification: An Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities, 1994.
*International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD). Preliminary consolidated ed. München: K.G. Saur, 2007. (IFLA series on bibliographic control, vol. 31)
*Svenonius, Elaine. The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. Boston: The MIT Press, 2000.

External links

* [http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/isbdrg/ ISBD Review Group]