Bibliographic Futures

The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress and the Future of Bibliographic Control: Working Group Report by Barbara Quint Posted On December 10, 2007
Last November, the Library of Congress (LC) established a Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control (www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future). It’s staffed by leading research librarians as well as executives from key private sector players, such as OCLC, Google, and Microsoft. The group’s goal was to “to examine the future of bibliographic description in the 21st century in light of advances in search engine technology, the popularity of the Internet, and the influx of electronic information resources.” On Nov. 30, 2007, the Report became available to the public for commentary (www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/news/lcwg-report-draft-11-30-07-final.pdf). Despite the broad vision implied in the goal, the actual recommendations of the report seem predominantly focused on book cataloging and, in that regard, how to curtail LC’s role in the future.

Among priorities the following have been focused on:

1. Present findings on how bibliographic control and other descriptive practices can effectively support management of and access to library materials in the evolving information and technology environment

2. Recommend ways in which the library community can collectively move toward achieving this vision

3. Advise the Library of Congress on its role and priorities


The role of the Internet and it's influence on information storage and retrieval is of the highest priority.

Other priorities include:


1. “Increase the efficiency of bibliographic production for all libraries through increased cooperation and increased sharing of bibliographic records, and by maximizing the use of data produced throughout the entire ‘supply chain’ for information resources.”

2. “Transfer effort into higher-value activity. In particular, expand the possibilities for knowledge creation by ‘exposing’ rare and unique materials held by libraries that are currently hidden from view and, thus, underused.”

3. “Position our technology for the future by recognizing that the World Wide Web is both our technology platform and the appropriate platform for the delivery of our standards. Recognize that people are not the only users of the data we produce in the name of bibliographic control, but so too are machine applications that interact with those data over the network in a variety of ways.”

4. “Position our community for the future by facilitating the incorporation of evaluative and other user-supplied information into our resource descriptions. Work to realize the potential of the FRBR framework for revealing and capitalizing on the various relationships that exist among information resources.”

5. “Strengthen the library profession through education and the development of metrics that will inform decision-making now and in the future."

Behind all of these changes is the effort to close gaps in current methods of bibliographic control and the popularity of the Internet. Changes would be aimed at making librarian jobs easier to do and to meet the needs of their patrons.

For example: some public libraries have already converted to a book store classification system.

Any thoughts?

For a fuller description of this report try the link below:

http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleID=40394