Paper No: 04 Information Sources, Systems and Services

Module : 09 Bibliographical Sources: Use and Evaluation

Development Team
Principal Investigator
Dr. Jagdish Arora, Director
&
INFLIBNET Centre, Gandhinagar
Subject Coordinator

Mrs Renu Arora

Paper Coordinator Former Head, Education and Training, NISCAIR

Prof Vara Lakshmi Rudrabhatla

Content Writer Retd Professor, Dept of Library and Information
Science Andhra University

Mrs C M Anand
Content Reviewer Retd Scientist F, NISCAIR
 Module 9: Bibliographic Sources: use and evaluation

I. Objectives

The objectives of the module are

• To introduce the concept of bibliographies

• Describe the branches and types of bibliographies and their characteristics
• Explain the National bibliographies and their importance with examples
• Examine the trends in Web environment and the emergence of Webliographies

II. Learning Outcome

After reading this module the student

• Understands the evolution and meaning of bibliographies
• Categorizes the branches and types of bibliographies
• Explains the vital role of National bibliographies and bibliographic control apparatus
• Able to compile a bibliography / Webliography

III. Module Structure

1. Introduction
2. Evolution of the Concept
3. Definition
3.1. Distinction between Bibliographies, Catalogues and Indexes
3.2 Use of Bibliographies
3.3. Scope
3.4. Aims and Functions of Bibliographies
3.5 Arrangement
4. Branches of Bibliography
4.1 Systematic / Enumerative
4.2 Analytical or Critical
4.2.1 Descriptive
4.2.2 Historical
4.2.3 Textual
5. Types of Bibliographies
5.1 Incunabula or Book rarities
5.2. Trade Bibliographies
5.3 Selected or Eclectic Bibliographies
5.4 Subject Bibliographies
5.5 Author Bibliography or Bio Bibliography
 5.6 Bibliography of Bibliographies
5.7 Bibliophilic Bibliographies
5.8 Universal or General Bibliography
5.9 National Bibliographies
5.9.1 Indian National Bibliography
5.9.2 National Union Catalo, USA
6. Compilation of Bibliographies
7. Webliography
8. Evaluation of Bibliographies
9. Summary
10. References

1. Introduction

Bibliography means, most commonly, a list of books, films, videos, etc. but in a technical sense
it can be the science of the transmission of literary documents. Bibliographies are systematically
prepared guides or keys or pathfinders to the literature. Scholars and scientists depend on
bibliographic sources to draw an overview of a subject and to find a document; otherwise they
are bound to miss some part of literature. Compilation of a bibliography is a process or technique
that belongs to the whole of scholarship and the world of learning.

With the invention of printing press and particularly after the internationalization of printing
industries, there has been a tremendous growth of literature in all branches of learning by what is
known as ‘information explosion’. This increased growth caused problems to scientists to keep
themselves abreast of current developments, without a proper key or aid to access the mass of
literature. This has lead to the emergence of bibliographical tools as means of controlling the
literature of the world. Significant contributors to the field include W. W. Greg, Fredson Bowers,
Philip Gaskell, and G. Thomas Tanselle.

2. Evolution of the Concept

The origin of bibliographies can be traced back to ancient Assyrian and Greek civilizations of 7th
century B.C., when lists of clay tablets were prepared. Alexandrian library maintained subject
lists of books. Before invention of printing, the word was used in the sense of copying. After
1763, the meaning was changed from the ‘writing of books’ to ‘writing about books’. Between
17th and 18th centuries the principles, concepts, practices and varieties of bibliography were laid
down (P.Padhi, 1994). By 20th century beginning the bibliographies were clearly defined and the
methods described.

Some earlier attempts in the evolution of the concept of bibliographies are:

1545 - First attempt for a bibliography was made by Konrad Gesner, a Zurich Physician. He
prepared a list of scholarly publications in the world and named it as ‘Bibliotheca Universalis’.
Though claimed as universal bibliography, it included books in three languages viz. Latin, Greek

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and Hebrew. During the same period, Fair Catalogues or Mass Catalogues of books exhibited at
famous book fairs at Frankfurt (1564-74) and at Leipzig (1595-1860) were developed.

1719 - Lists of private collections were also called as bibliography, for example, Michael
Maittaire’s ‘Annals Typographia’, arranged chronologically listed information about printers and
their publications.

1763 - The ‘Bibliographic Instructive: rare books’ by G.E. Bure, was not just a list but gave
essential bibliographic examination. Henry Bradshaw of Cambridge University established this
method of investigation into the physical nature of the book, its manufacturing and history. This
was popularized as analytical method. Similar techniques were established to incunabula, 18th
century plate books, etc.

1908 – British Museum had published first descriptive bibliography ‘Catalogue of books in the
15th century’. It recorded in predetermined order all relevant bibliographic elements of each
document.

1909 – A. W. Pollard published textual bibliography on ‘Shakespeare Folios and Quartos: a

Study of bibliographies of Shakespeare Plays.’ He made detailed examination of related works
for their textual authenticity.

Thus by the start of 20th century four types of bibliographies, viz. Systematic/Enumerative,
Historical/Analytical, Descriptive and Textual bibliographies were in use.

We can summarize the historical development of bibliographies as follows:

• Early bibliographies were trade lists or trade catalogues;

• Later attempts were made to compile universal bibliography; and subject wise lists of
books with descriptive notes;
• During 18th century, subject wise listing and critical bibliography;
• 19th and 20th centuries developed subject wise listing of books, periodicals and periodical
articles called as documentation lists.

The library profession is mainly concerned with systematic bibliographies and the compilers are
either bibliographers or librarians.

3. Definition

The term bibliography was derived from two Greek words – ‘Biblion’ and ‘Graphein’, i.e.,
writing of books/copying of books/mechanical reproducing. However, it now means a ‘list of
books’.

Oxford English Dictionary defines “Bibliography as a list of books of a particular author, printer
or country, or of those dealing with any particular theme; the literature of subject.”

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Louise Shore defines it as, “Bibliography is a list of written, printed or otherwise produced
records of civilization which may include books, serials, pictures, maps, films, recordings,
museum objects, manuscripts and any other media of communication. The list of such records is
bibliographies and the art of preparing them is bibliography.”

A.L.A. Glossary of Library and Information Science defines bibliography as “A list of works,
documents or bibliographic items, usually with some relationship between them, e.g., by a given
author, on a given subject, or published in a given place, and differing from catalogue in that its
contents are not restricted to the holding of a single collection, library or group of libraries.”

According to V.W.Clapp, it is “The systematic listing of records of human communication”.

S.R.Ranganathan viewed it as “a list of documents listed together for some purpose. The purpose
is to bring to the attention of the reader an exhaustive and selective list of documents relevant to
his pursuit of study or enquiry”.

Therefore, a bibliography is a systematic listing, either indicative or comprehensive, of works:

• by a particular author
• on a particular subject
• published in a particular country
• published in a specified period
• mentioned in, or relevant to, a particular work (a bibliography of this type, sometimes
called a reference list should normally appear at the end of any paper in scientific
literature)

3.1 Distinction between Bibliography, Catalogue and Index

• Bibliographies differ from library catalogs by including all relevant publications rather
than items actually found in a particular library. However, some national libraries'
catalogues also serve as national bibliographies, as they contain (almost) all their
countries' publications.

• Catalogue is a list of books and other items arranged in a definite order. It records,
describes and indexes the resources of a collection, a library or group of libraries, where
as bibliography provides single access point to information, generally the first author.

• An index provides multiple access points to the document through several concepts
treated in the document. Generally bibliographies focus on macro thought, i.e., books etc.
while indexes aims to cover micro thought, i.e., primary literature. Further, an index
achieves exhaustiveness but bibliography does not.

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 CATALOGUE BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Key to a given collection 1. Key to literary sources on a subject

2. Can serve as a bibliography 2. Can’t serve as a catalogue
3. Provides physical access to documents 3. Helps to know existence of documents
4. Tools for libraries 4. Tools for scholars / scientists
5. Must be comprehensive 5. May be comprehensive or selective
6. Distribution difficult (if in card form) 6. It can be distributed

3.2 Use of bibliographies

The bibliographies have made a significant contribution in the communication and utility of
scientific information. In the earlier times, the scholars used to browse, scan the published
literature in their field and keep abreast of the current developments. With the proliferation of
literature it became difficult for them to do so. Hence bibliographies have a vital role to retrieve
relevant information and thus save the time of the user. They bridge the gap between the original
document and the user acting as a key to the treasure of primary knowledge. The uses can be
summarized as:

• Helps to locate information on the subject in question

• Provide a means for verifying such items as authors’ name, complete title, place of
publication, edition, etc.
• If annotated, indicate the scope of the work and its usefulness.
• Gives more information than available in catalogue.
• Groups work according to form, location and period.
• Helps to find out basic and best books on a subject.

3.3 Scope

The use of bibliographies depends on their scope. The scope varies depending on the type – it can be
universal, national, complete partial, comprehensive or a reading list.

3.4 Aims and Functions of Bibliographies

The UNESCO and the Library of Congress, in their survey report, 1950 stated the following
aims and functions of bibliography:

“1. Its aim is to make it possible for intellectual workers, to learn of publications of recording the
developments in their fields of interest not only in their own countries but also throughout the
world.
2. Promote the effectiveness of a particular project in research.
3. Contribute to the cultural development and enjoyment, which are derived from records of
learning and culture.
4. Assist in promoting useful applications of existing knowledge and making the applications
which have been developed in one country, widely known to all countries.”

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Quick and easy access to information is vital to the development of various fields of knowledge.
In this respect, bibliography plays an important role.

• A scholar can very well know about the existence of a document(s) in a particular field of
knowledge.
• He can also identify a document by knowing its bibliographical details.
• It can serve as book selection tool for the librarians.
• In well-established libraries, the bibliographies are frequently consulted for verification
of bibliographical details and the location of material.
• It is useful for general reader as well as for research scholar.

The primary function of bibliography is a reference tool. It helps;

• to locate a book of known or not much known author

• to locate books in any literary form like poems, plays, short stories, etc.
• to study and compile bibliographies on a topic by researcher
• to provide readers with a list of current books on a specific topic
• to select basic books for children or youth in a library
• to provide bibliographical information of a particular book.

3.5 Arrangement

A bibliography may be arranged by author, date, topic or some other scheme. Annotated
bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a
paper or argument. Creating these blurbs, usually a few sentences long, establishes a summary
for and expresses the relevance of each source prior to writing.

4. Branches of Bibliographies

The major branches of bibliographies are:

4.1 Systematic/Enumerative

It is a systematic listing and description of books according to some system or reference plan, for
example, by author, by subject, or by date. The implication is that the listings will be short,
usually providing only the author's name, the book's title, and date and place of publication.
Bowers (1949) refers to enumerative bibliography as a procedure that identifies books in
“specific collections or libraries”, in a specific discipline, by an author, printer, or period of
production. He refers to descriptive bibliography as the systematic description of a book as a
material or physical artifact (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliography). Enumerative
bibliography (systematic bibliography) attempts to record and list, rather than to describe
minutely. Little or no information is likely to be provided about physical aspects of the book
such as paper, type, illustrations, or binding.

• A library's card catalog is an example of an enumerative bibliography, and so is the list at

the back of a book of works consulted,

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 • Its main function is recording, i.e., listing of works with bibliographical details.
• The purpose is to disseminate information and guide the user in selecting and accessing
information.
• Arrangement of entries is alphabetical.
• Most used reference tool and can also be called as reference bibliography.

E.g. Books in Print; Subject Guide to Books in Print.

4.2 Analytical or Critical

First started by Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886), it involves the study of books as physical objects;
the details of their production, the effects of the method of manufacture on the text. These are
concerned with the whole study of the physical book- its history, appearance, and the influence
of the manner of production on its text. Analytical bibliography, the cornerstone of descriptive
bibliography, investigates the printing and all physical features of a book that yield evidence
establishing a book's history and transmission. Analytical bibliography may deal with the
history of printers and booksellers, with the description of paper or bindings, or with textual
matters arising during the progression from writer's manuscript to published book.

• Examines books as tangible objects. Life study of an extant book as physical object.
• Studies the book from half title page to printer’s colophon.
• More applicable in manuscripts and incunabula as it deals with standard and correctness
of book.

E.g. Hain Luding F.T. Reportica bibliographian as annual. 2v. 1826 – 1838.

Early Indian Prints: an evaluation from William Carey. Historical Library of Serampore College,
1962.

Analytical bibliography (sometimes called critical bibliography) may be divided into several
types, as follows:

Bibliography
________________|________________
| |
Enumerative Bibliography Analytical (Critical) Bibliography

| | |
Descriptive Historical Textual
Bibliography Bibliography Bibliography

So, by-products of analytical bibliography are descriptive, historical and textual.

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4.2.1 Descriptive

Descriptive bibliography starts where analytical ends. It is concerned with the application of
analytical bibliography to the external form of the book. It is concerned with the physical
description of books. How is the book put together? What sort of typeset is used and what kind
of paper? How are the illustrations incorporated into the book? How is it bound? Like the textual
bibliographer, the descriptive bibliographer must have a good working knowledge of the state of
the technology of the period in order to describe a book's physical appearance both accurately
and economically.

• Descriptive bibliographies are books that give full physical descriptions of the books they
list, enabling to distinguish one edition from another and to identify significant variations
within a single edition.
• Describes each rare item in hand and state to what extent it differs from the ideal copy,
i.e., the perfect state of the book, aesthetic features, etc.
• Good descriptive bibliographies are therefore indispensable to book collectors, whatever
their fields of interest and whatever the time period their collections cover.
• Descriptive bibliographies as a scholarly product usually include information on the
following aspect of a given book as a material object:
• “Format and Collation/Pagination Statement – a conventional, symbolic formula that
describes the book block in terms of sheets, folds, quires, signatures, and pages
• The collation, which follows the format, is the statement of the order and size of the
gatherings.
• Binding – a description of the binding techniques (generally for books printed after
1800)
• Title Page Transcription – a transcription of the title page, including rule lines and
ornaments
• Contents – a listing of the contents (by section) in the book
• Paper – a description of the physical properties of the paper, including production
process, an account of chain-line measurements, and a description of watermarks (if
present)
• Illustrations – a description of the illustrations found in the book, including printing
process (e.g. woodblock, intaglio, etc.), measurements, and locations in the text
• Presswork – miscellaneous details gleaned from the text about its production
• Copies Examined – an enumeration of the copies examined, including those copies'
location (i.e. belonging to which library or collector)”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliography)

E.g. A Bibliography of English printed Drama to the Restoration up to1660.

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4.2.2 Historical

Historical bibliography may range from technological history to the history of art of making
books. It is concerned with the evidence the books provide about culture and society. It is the
study f books as objects, i.e., concerned with history of making books, for example, history of
writing, printing of materials, binding, etc.

• History of making books – writing, printing, illustrations, binding, etc.

• Shows the social and cultural developments.
• Evolution of writing, printing, binding etc.

E.g. Longstreth, Richard, Compiler. Historical Bibliography of architecture, landscape

architecture and urbanism in United States since World War II. Updated in 2010
(http://www.docstoc.com/docs/78051390/A-HISTORICAL-BIBLIOGRAPHY-OF)

4.2.3 Textual

This is applied to study the inner/literary content of documents. Handwriting is often difficult to
decipher; compositors make occasional mistakes, and proofreaders sometimes fail to catch them;
but (especially in the period before about 1800) we often have only the printed book to tell us
what the author intended. Therefore, textual bibliography indicates the relationship between the
printed text as we have it before us, and that text as conceived by its author.

• Textual bibliography (sometimes called textual criticism) tries to provide with the most
accurate text of a writer's work.
• The equipment of the textual bibliographer is both a profound knowledge of the work of
the writer being edited (and of his or her period) and an equally profound knowledge of
contemporary printing and publishing practices.
• The purpose is to determine the effect of writing or printing process, its completeness,
variations among editions, etc.
• It requires a literary critic.

E.g. Henrey, Blanche. Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800: Comprising a history
and bibliography of Botanical and Horticultural books printed in England, Scotland and Ireland
from the earliest times to 1800. London, Oxford University Press, 1975.

“In addition to viewing bibliographic study as being composed of four interdependent

approaches: enumerative, descriptive, analytical, and textual, Bowers notes two further sub-
categories of research, namely, historical bibliography and aesthetic bibliography. Both historical
bibliography, which involves the investigation of printing practices, tools, and related
documents, and aesthetic bibliography, which examines the art of designing type and books, are
often employed by analytical bibliographers.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliography)

5. Types of Bibliographies

Bibliographies can be categorized in different ways.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHIES

GENERAL SPECIAL

Universal National Region Trade Language Author Personal Subj Selective Incunabula
Biblio B/B

They can also be categorized, according to Pithambar Padhi, on the basis of the following
characteristics:

Characteristics Examples
1. Form Physical Indian National Bibliography

Intellectual Guide to Reference Books

2. Agency or Purpose Bibliographer Chaucer: A bibliographic Manual
Printer Printer’s List
Binder Binder’s List
Publisher Indian Book Industry
Bibliophile American first editions
Copyright Catalogue of copyright entries
Author/Reader
Library – Library catalogue, LC Catalogue
Book Selection List, Reading Books in Print
list
3. Language Telugu (media and subject) Grandha Suchika
4. Mode of Primary National and Trade
Compilation Bibliographies
Secondary Comprehensive Bibliography
5. Subject Science Index to Literature on Science
6. Space Area of Coverage British National Bibliography
(Universal/National)
7. Time Current Indian Book Industry, Monthly
Retrospective Indian Reference Catalogue of
Indian Books

Besides the above, bibliographies are of the following types:

a) An Annotated bibliography is usually a note added to an entry in author bibliography to

elucidate, evaluate or describe the subject and contents of a document. It has entries which

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include " ... note[s] ... intended to describe, explain, or evaluate the publication referred to"
(ALA Glossary, p. 8). It requires skills for concise exposition and succinct analysis. It contains
two distinct parts, namely, the bibliographical citation and a brief descriptive paragraph
including the salient features of the article or subject of the text. This indicates to the reader the
relevance and accuracy of the document as per the reader’s information needs.

E.g. Waite, L. J., Goldschneider, F. K., & Witsberger, C. (1986). Non-family living and the
erosion of traditional family orientations among young adults. American Sociological
Review, 51 (4), 541-554.

The authors, researchers at the Rand Corporation and Brown University, use data from the
National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women and Young Men to test their hypothesis that
non-family living by young adults alters their attitudes, values, plans, and expectations, moving
them away from their belief in traditional sex roles. They find their hypothesis strongly
supported in young females, while the effects were fewer in studies of young males. Increasing
the time away from parents before marrying increased individualism, self-sufficiency, and
changes in attitudes about families. In contrast, an earlier study by Williams cited below shows
no significant gender differences in sex role attitudes as a result of nonfamily living. (Example
uses APA Citation style)

b) A Current bibliography records currently or recently published material, with the intent of
reporting the recent literature as it appears. It is an index to new publications in print for a
defined period. The lists may be compiled for a subject or for a form like books, periodicals,
music, etc.

E.g. The Orion Center's On-Line Dead Sea Scrolls Bibliography posts books, articles and
reviews related to the Dead Sea Scrolls from 1995 to the present. The bibliography was initiated
and maintained by Dr. Avital Pinnick from 1995–2000. David Emanuel compiled the
Bibliography from 2000–2002; it is currently overseen by Dr. Ruth Clements, with the help of
research assistants Shelly Zilberfarb Eshkoli (2003–2004), Nadav Sharon (2004–2009) and
Hannah Wortzman (2009–present).

c) A National Bibliography is "A bibliography of documents published in a particular country

and ... documents ... written in the language of the country" ( ALA Glossary , p.151). It tries to
list as comprehensively as possible the county’s publication output. It is a window to the
literature of and on a country. The national bibliographies have a long history and are more
popular since 19th century. The national bibliographies underwent tremendous changes with the
advent of electronic databases. Now national bibliography of a country is accessible online and is
published on DVDs.

E.g. British National Bibliography: The national bibliography records the publishing activity
of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland and as such is a measure of their intellectual
output. This has traditionally included printed publications and more recently has been extended
to electronic publications following the extension of legal deposit to this class of material in
2003.

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d) A Retrospective bibliography "... lists documents or parts of documents, such as articles,
published in previous years, as distinct from a current bibliography .... Retrospective
bibliographies are frequently divided into two types ... [one of which is] research-oriented, [and]
are intended as jumping-off points for those doing research in the topic covered ..." (ALA
Glossary, p.194). Therefore, a retrospective bibliography lists works that have a common
element like subject, and published during a particular period in the past. The retrospective
bibliographies have two themes, firstly, research oriented, where retrospective lists are prepared
to open any missing publications. And secondly, Didactic, which aims to teach the reader what is
already know (by others) in a specific subject area.

E.g. Charles Evans. American Bibliography. A Chronological Dictionary of All Books,

Pamphlets and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America from the Genesis
of Printing in 1639 Down to and Including the Year [1800] (Chicago: The Blakely Press for the
Author, 1943-1955). 13 vols.

e) A Serial bibliography appears at fixed intervals of time, e.g., weekly, monthly, quarterly,
annually, and has as its mission the reporting of titles, often both book titles and article titles (as
well as dissertations, book reviews, pamphlets, and other types of material) as they appear.

There are many types of bibliographies and the leading bibliographies differ slightly in the
names assigned to its various branches. These types of bibliographies are concerned with listing
of books and other reading material in some systematic order. The various types are as follows:

5.1 Incunabula or Book rarities

This type of bibliography lists the early printed works up to 15th century. It was considered as a
cradle period of printing and the systematic order in arranging various parts of a book was not
followed.

E.g. Proctor, Robert. An index to the early printed books in the British Museum from the
invention of printing to the year 1500, with notes of these in the Bodlein Library. 2 vols. London,
Kegan Paul, 1898-99; reprinted with four supplements and Konrad Burger’s index, London,
1960.

5.2 Trade Bibliography

Large publishing houses engaged in book trade bring out such type of bibliographies. The list
includes commercial publications available for sale. It helps in the selection and acquisition of
recently published documents. Otherwise called as trade catalogues or publishers catalogues,
these bibliographies are brought out by the publishers to market their products. These are also
utilized as book selection tools for librarians. Besides they reveal the current publications along
with the availability details that help the librarians and users to select and acquire documents.
These are available in print as well as electronic databases.

E.g. Books In Print, R.R. Bowker, U.S.A.; Indian Books In Print, etc.

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5.3 Selected or Eclectic Bibliography

This kind of bibliography is concerned with the listing of only selected and the best books. The
bibliography is prepared taking into criteria like the age of the readers or subject choice etc.

E.g. Dickinson. World’s Best Books: Homer to Hemingway. New York, Wilson, 1953.
Sonnenschein, W.S. The best books: A readers’ guide, 3rd ed. London, Routledge, 1910 –
35, 6 Vol.

5.4. Subject Bibliography

Subject bibliographies are the listings of publications on a subject or discipline. The list contains
information about everything published on a subject. It is a comprehensive list of all books,
periodical articles, pamphlets and other reading material in a particular subject. The books listed
are supposed to be the best books available on the subject and thus help the researcher as a tool
to get awareness and study all relevant documents on a subject. Subject bibliographies get
outdated soon and the books listed have little value after some time due to rapid changes in the
subject and emergence of new books embodying new subject components.

E.g. Bateson, F.W. Ed. The Cambridge bibliography of English literature. 4 vols. Supplement
(v.5) edited by G.Watson. Cambridge University Press, 1940.
Kistler, J. (2000) Animal rights: A subject guide, bibliography, and internet companion.
Westport, CT: Greenwood
Elizabeth S. Aversa. The Humanities: Selective Guide to Information Sources, 5th Ed. Libraries
Unlimited, 2000

5.5 Author Bibliography or Bio-bibliography

The bibliography prepared combining an account of a person's life with a discussion of works
written by or about that person is called author or bio-bibliography. It records books, articles, etc.
written by an author or attributed to him and the material written about the author by others.

E.g. Sharma, Jagdish. Mahatma Gandhi: a descriptive bibliography. 2nd ed. Delhi, S. Chand,
1968.
Fisher, James. Spencer Tracy: A Bio-Bibliography (Bio-Bibliographies in the Performing Arts).
Greenwood, 1994

5.6 Bibliography of Bibliographies

It is a list of bibliographies listed in a systematic and logical order. It includes all types of
bibliographies published in different fields.

E.g. Besterman, Theodore. A world bibliography of bibliographies and of bibliographical

catalogues, calendar, abstracts, digests, indexes and the like 4th ed. Geneva, Societas
Bibliographica, 1965-67. 5 vols.

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5.7 Bibliophilic Bibliographies

It is a list of books collected by book lovers for their rarity or first editions or special physical
features or first editions of a celebrated author.

E.g. Johnson, Merie de Vore, “American first edition”, 4th ed. revised N. Y. R R Bowker, 1942.

5.8 Universal or General Bibliography

A Universal bibliography is the survey of all records of civilization in all fields of knowledge
and is not restricted to one place, time, language, subject or author. It lists documents belonging
to all kinds of material, produced in all countries, in every language, at any time and on all
themes. In fact there is no universal bibliography as such but compilation of published
catalogues of great national libraries may be the nearest approach to the concept.

According to S. R. Ranganathan, a bibliography to be universal should include all published

material, whether books or parts of them or periodicals or articles in them, or combination of
them on all subjects in all languages in all counties, at all times.

Constraints in compiling a universal bibliography:

• Growth of knowledge
• Growth of literature
• Unpublished literature
• Out of print or rare books
• Languages
• Format – arrangement suitable to all minute subjects
• Lack of adequate resources and manpower

Attempts made for universal bibliography:

a) Konrad Gesner – Developed in 1543 Bibliotheca Universalis. T consists of 12000 books

in learned languages, i.e., Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, etc. The arrangement was
alphabetical by name of the author. In 1548, the bibliography was rearranged subject-
wise and published as ‘Pendectarum Sie Partitionum Universalium’. In 1555, an
appendix to Bibliotheca was published adding 3000 books. It did not include books in
vernacular language, therefore, although there were about 50000 books at that time, it
included only 15000 books.

b) Messkatalog – of Frankfurt and Leipzing book fairs were published in 1564 – 1749 and
1595 – 1860. It included books published in all European cities and European languages
and few books from outside Europe.

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 c) 17th Century – French man Abbe Drouyn, Religious advisor to Paris Parliament, prepared
Universal Bibliography based on available catalogues and compiled 321 manuscript
volumes.

d) 18th century – Two Italian scholars, Abbot Marucelli and Father Savanarola, attempted to
use Gesner’s plan. Their attempt came out as parts in printed form.

e) 19th Century – attempts made by Barnvell, Bannanges, Cole, Crestadaro, Panjoru, Dilke,
Ermun et al. Middle of 19th century few attempts were made for universal bibliography
but more attention was paid on developing catalogue of British Museum and plan for
stereotyping library catalogue by Charles C. Jewett in U.S.A.

f) End of 19th century was a landmark in the development of universal bibliographies. In

1895, Paul Otlet and Henry La Fontaine submitted their proposal for universal
bibliography at the International Conference on Bibliography and got it approved. A card
catalogue was set up at Brussel’s Institute of Bibliography (later FID). Repertoire
Bibliographique Universal was to record every document published anywhere in the
world. By 1914, 13,000,000 catalogue cards were developed. Entries were made under
classified order using Universal Decimal Classification. After that, the bibliography was
discontinued because of large filing areas.

After the 1st World war, the emphasis on universal bibliography declined. After World War II,
UNESCO initiated Universal Bibliographical Control and insisted on National bibliographies. It
has also developed Universal Availability of Publications (UAP).

Problems: There are several problems in the compilation of a universal bibliography, which
include:

• Completeness not possible because – information on many books not available, or only
title is known;
• At times, only information is available but not the books;
• Huge number of books;
• Too many languages;
• Requires too much space in print or card;
• Arrangement of entries is a problem because of different pronunciations of names in
different languages;
• Lots of manpower is required for the compilation of bibliography.

Alternatives: As an alternate, other methods were adopted such as:

• A selective universal catalogue,

• National bibliographies of all nations can be maintained, and
• Collection of published catalogue of national libraries is a good alternative.

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Finally it was felt that universal bibliography is not necessary because it is unusable due to bulk
and large amount of information may not be necessary.

E.g. Library of Congress. A catalogue of books represented by Library of Congress printed

cards. Issued up to July 31, 1942. 167 volumes.

Catalog Cards printed by the Library of Congress from August 1, 1942 to December 31, 1947.
Supplement 42 volumes.

5.9 National Bibliographies

Although the national bibliographies have 400 years of history, the term ‘national bibliography’
was adopted only about of 100 years ago. A national bibliography should record all documents
published or unpublished, irrespective of the agency issuing them, covering trade as well as non
trade items, irrespective of the form of material, language, subject or time of publication.

Dr S.R. Ranganathan recognizes the following categories of national bibliography:

“1. List of all books published in a country.

2. List of all books on a country.
3. Lit of all books published by all the citizens of the country.
4. Lit of all books published on all the citizens of the country, and
5. Any one combination of the above.”

Though it emphasizes on the total output of a nation taken together, in practice, it is restricted to
material, time, space and origin. Hence, national bibliography can be defined as a source that
attempts to list, as comprehensively as possible, the publications of a particular country during a
specific period. "Publications" here, can refer to most any kind of intellectual output, regardless
of its format. A national bibliography is considered as national heritage. It has more systematic
approach to organization of material.

E.g. Indian National Bibliography. Calcutta, Central Reference library, 1957- Monthly.

British National bibliography. London, British Library, 1950- Weekly.

The national bibliographies are compiled on the basis of material received by the national library
under the copyright acts as promulgated in various countries. A depository law is legislation
requiring publishers to provide a copy of each piece of published material for a designated
repository. Such legislation varies from country to country from a voluntary deposit by publisher
to a mandatory deposit often associated with countries with extreme censorship.

With the advent of electronic databases, national bibliography has been undergoing a tremendous
amount of change. Difficulties related to access have been all but eliminated in many cases. In
this regard, a variety of formats are appearing. In some countries, such as the Czech Republic,
the national bibliography no longer is issued in paper form at all, but is published as a DVD.
Others still have only their paper edition. Online catalogues of national libraries now serve the
function of a national bibliography. Many countries have online versions of their national

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bibliographies. All of these new formats are giving a new significance to the national
bibliography as a resource for scholars.

5.9.1 Indian National Bibliography. Quarterly, October 1957 – 1963; Monthly, January 1964 -.
Calcutta, Central Reference Library, 1959 - . With annual cumulations.

Indian National Bibliography Committee appointed by Government of India, decided to have an

authoritative bibliographical record of current Indian publications in all major Indian languages.
It records material received in the National Library, Calcutta, under the Delivery of Books and
Newspapers (Public Libraries) Act, 1956 to include newspapers. As per the Act, every publisher
has to deliver a copy of their publications to National Library, Calcutta and three other
repository libraries within 30 days from the date of publication. It is mainly responsible for the
implementation of two schemes, viz.

• Compilation and Publication of the Indian National Bibliography (both Roman Script and
in the respective language scripts). This is a monthly record of current Indian
publications in 14 languages including English based on receipts in the National Library,
Kolkata: and
• Compilation and Publication of Index Indiana (in Roman Script), an Index to select
articles appearing in current Indian periodicals presently in six languages.

On the basis of the recommendations of an Expert Group in the Ministry, the publication of the
Indian National Bibliography and Index Indiana has been fully computerized. The monthly
volumes of INB, since June 2000 appear regularly.

The INB records, since its inception in 1958 have been retro converted in to electronic data. The
whole data along with recent records will be made available online very soon.

Periodicity: It started publication from October – December 1957 and was published as
quarterly up to 1963; afterwards, it is published monthly.

Scope: It includes all publications produced in the following major Indian languages, viz.
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit,
Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English. The following categories of publications are excluded:

a. Musical scores
b. Maps
c. Periodicals and Newspapers (except the first issue of new periodical or periodical
published under new title)
d. Keys and guides to textbooks
e. Ephemeral items

Initially it was divided into two parts – Part I covering general publications and Part II covering
Government publications and each part had two sections – alphabetical and classified. Since
1973, the two parts were combined into one with two sections – alphabetical and classified.

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Arrangement: The arrangement in the classified section is in classified order according to
D.D.C. but Colon Class numbers are also given at the bottom corner of each entry.

Entry: Each entry consists of class number, author’s name, full title, place of publication,
publisher’s name, year of publication, pages, nature of illustrations, size, nature of binding, price,
series, and annotations where ever necessary. The second section is alphabetical index, giving
author, title, subject in one alphabetical order. For subject headings, chain procedure has been
followed.

Due to variety of scripts prevalent in India, it was decided to use Roman script (English) for the
bibliography. Names of authors of books and titles of books in Indian languages are
transliterated into Roman script with diacritical marks and then arranged in one alphabetical
order under each class. The language of the book is denoted by symbols given at the left hand
bottom corner of each entry.

Criticism:
• There is a great time lag in the publication of INB. There was no publication of the
bibliography from 1968-70, and these were later published as annuals. Even now the
publication is too much delayed.
• It is costly for any library to purchase. Hence INB is not serving its purpose.
• INB records all publications in regional languages in Roman script. Many Indian readers
do not recognize Roman script and cannot get benefit from it.
• To overcome this problem, separate annual bibliographies for each of the Indian
languages in their respective scripts are prepared and edited by Central Reference Library
and published by respective State governments. However, these are not being published
regularly.

5.9.2 National Union Catalog, USA

Although there is no official American national bibliography, the Library of Congress has been
authorized to use the National Union Catalog (NUC) for that role. It began in 1876 and is very
comprehensive, with listings from more than one thousand North American libraries. This
catalogue contains many items not published in the United States, including foreign language
titles. The NUC is very useful for finding the location of materials available in American
libraries and what can be borrowed through interlibrary loans. UNESCO website provides
information on National Library Catalogs.

6. Compilation of Bibliographies

Compilation of bibliographies may be done in anticipation or on demand. In any case, the

primary requirement for compilation is subject knowledge. Earlier times witnessed the subject
experts as bibliographers as in the case of indexes, reviews, etc. However, presently trained LIS
professionals are ready to accept the task and compile a bibliography with efficiency. Generally,
the reference section of a library is bestowed with the preparation of bibliography service. Here

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the basic steps of compilation of bibliography are presented briefly and the details have been
covered in the Module on Information Services.

Krishan Kumar identified the following steps for the preparation of bibliographies:

1. Planning – involves definition of the subject and its scope; items of information to be
included; kinds of entries and their arrangement.
2. Search for documents – from catalogues, books, periodicals and other micro
documents.
3. Selection – of items to be included in the bibliography if it is selective/ elective and
not comprehensive.
4. Preparation of entries with bibliographical information in accordance to the standard
catalogue code.
5. Arranging the entries in classified or alphabetical or both as per the requirement.
6. Preparation of bibliography in typed, mimeographed or print form.

7. Webliographies

Librarians are familiar with the compilation of bibliographies for the bibliographical control of
print documents. Now similar control mechanism is required for electronic documents named as
webliography, a term coined by Dr. James Frankel in 2000. The webliography presents a wide
range of electronic resources related to a specific subject that are freely available on the Internet.
Webliography denotes an enumerative list of hypertext links surrounding a common subject or
theme following standard citation guidelines.

According to dictionary.com, a webliography is defined as “a list of electronic documents,

websites, or other resources available on the World Wide Web, especially those relating to a
particular subject. For example, A student's annotated webliography on Shakespeare”. Therefore,
it is different from a bibliography in the sense that a bibliography lists books and other printed
works and a webliography represents a list of websites used.

Webliography is needed to facilitate:

• limited user time to access the internet

• lack of search skills
• difficult to find pertinent information from the huge reservior of knowledge, just like
finding a needle from hay stack
• need for bibliographical control
• to identify and locate information
• to save time
• to have optimum access and use of information

Dariush Alimohammadi suggested following phases in compilation of webbliographies:

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 • Selecting the topic
• Search the web; navigation of web with one of the popular search tools like google,
google scholar, subject gateways like Intute, etc.
• Browsing and selecting the best among the retrieved hits following the criteria for web
site evaluation
• Creating a web page; some software like Microsoft FrontPage, Netscape Composer and
Dream weaver can be manipulated.
• Writing an introduction; preparing a table of content to help user to navigate the subject
gateway easier.

8. Evaluation of Bibliographies

Evaluation of bibliographies is essential to understand their worth in retrieval of information and

to acquire a thourough understanding of these sources. Hence librarians are practicing evaluation
of bibliographies with well laid down criteria used for the evaluation of reference sources. The
checklist for the evaluation of a bibliography includes the following criteria:

• Authority - The work should be authoritative, accurate and dependable. It can be judged
on the basis of reputation of author, publisher, sponsoring body or compiler. For e.g.
authoritativeness of Cumulative Book Index, a trade bibliography can be determined by
the publisher, H.W.Wilson.

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 • Scope – It is to be assessed whether the bibliography is comprehensive or selective,
curent or retrospective. The coverage, limitations, purpose, kind of material, language,
place, period, etc. should be examined.
• Arrangement – Arrangement of bibliography is important otherwise it has no utility
value. Bibliographies can be arranged in various order, like classifeid, chronological,
alphabetical or alphabetico- classed. However, a good bibliography has to be arranged by
subject with alphabetical indexes to encourage its use.
• Entries and items of information: A good bibliography ought to provide author and
collaborator, subject, series, and title entries as well as cross references. Complete
bibliographical details have to be provided in the main entry like author (s), collaborators,
title, edition, imprint, series, number of volumes, illustrations, binding, price,
bibliographic references etc. and each entry has to be enriched with annotation or
abstract.
• Revision – To keep the work updated periodical revision of biblographies is essntial.
Hence whether the publication follows a revision policy or not has to be checked.
• Special features – Distinctive fetures of the bibliography in comparison to other
bibliographies in the subject have to be studied. Generally such special features will be
stated in preface and introduction.
• Drawbacks: There may be limitations in coverage, cumulations, time lag in publication,
too expensive, etc. that have to be analyzed.
• Format: The physical get up of the bibliography, the quality of printing, type faces,
paper, binding and the presentation needs to be considered.

9. Summary

Bibliographies play a pivotal role in scientific communication, more specifically the subject
bibliographies. The changing trends in electronic publishing has brought in changes in traditional
compilation of bibliographies. Inspite of the changes in form and format, the basic principle of
serving the user with list of publications in a subject or selected fields remains the same. Hence
LIS professionals have to learn the techniques of bibliographic compilation and apply them in
print or electronic world.

10. References

1. Bowers, Fredson (1994) Principles of bibliographical description. Oak Knoll Press / St

Paul,s Bibliographies

2. Frieds, Thelma. Retrospecive bibliographies. In Literature and Bibliography of Social

Sciences. Los Angeles, Melville Publishing Co., 1973.
http://www.ou.edu/ap/lis5703/freides/retrospectivebib.pdf

3. Katz, William (1982) Introduction to reference work. V.1, 4th ed. New York, McGraw
Hill, 1982.

4. Krishan Kumar (1978) Reference Service 2nd rev.ed. New Delhi, Vikas Pub.

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5. Padhi, Pitambar (1994) Reference sources in modern Indian Languages. Bhubaneswar,
Gayatrivedi Pub.

6. Ranganathan, S.R. (1963) Documentation and its facets. Bombay, Asia Pub. House.

7. Sharma, J.S. and Grover, D.R. (1987) Reference Service and sources of information.
NewDelhi, Ess Ess Pub.

8. Shores, Louis (1954). Basic reference sources. Chicago, ALA.

9. UNESCO/Library of Congress (1950) Bibliographical urvey. Paris, UNESCO

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