The same cataloguing environment as for books applies when cataloguing other physical formats, therefore the aspects below are still relevant:

What is a catalogue?

A catalogue :

• is an organized set of bibliographic records
• differs from a bibliography or index
• records information on items in one or more institutions
• gives information on where items can be found.

Why do we need catalogues?

• necessary for retrieval and record keeping
• communicates essential information about items in an abbreviated form
• owing to many parallel collections in one library, this is the only place where everything is collated
• also indicates what is the status of an item (e.g. on loan, study collection, reference, etc.)
• users need catalogues …
  to find entities; to identify entities; to select entities; to obtain access to entities.

Functions of the catalogue

• must be able to indicate whether the library has a specific book about which is known:
  • author
  • title
  • subject
  • if none of the above-mentioned is sufficient for identification, any
  • substitute for the title;
• must be able to indicate
  • which works by a specific author
  • which works on a specific subject
  • and which versions of a specific work are in the collection.

To fulfil these functions, adequate bibliographic records of works must be created, and these records must be made accessible by identifying and formulating appropriate access points.

What is a cataloguing code?

A cataloguing code:

• is a list of rules prescribing all aspects of creating bibliographic records
• includes bibliographic description and bibliographic access points
• is not newly designed at specific stage, but rather consolidated and reconciled from existing practices found to be the most useful over a long time
• is used to formulate bibliographic data for input into a format (MARC21), which provides only the framework and coding to make data machine readable.

Why do we need cataloguing codes?

Prescribes how to choose and record each of the components that form part of the cataloguing
record:

• results in consistent cataloguing practice (so that similar or comparable documents are catalogued in a similar way and different cataloguers produce identical catalogue records for the same publications)
• application of codes leads to:
  • effective information retrieval from the catalogue of an individual library; and
  • ffective exchange of records between institutions
• is a prerequisite in cooperative databases
• records in databases can be copied for use in own catalogue.

What is a bibliographic record?

• a description of the item (according to AACR2R)
• choice and formulation of main and added entries (according to AACR2R)
• allocation of subject headings (according to Sears or Library of Congress Subject Headings)
• allocation of classification numbers (according to Dewey Decimal Classification or Library of Congress Classification).

What is a bibliographic format?

• a format provides the mechanism in the form of coding by which computers exchange, use and interpret bibliographic information. Its data elements form the foundation of most library catalogues.
  

Why do we need the bibliographic format?

• it is not possible to enter bibliographic data directly into a computer to produce an online catalogue
• each piece of bibliographic information must be coded to enable the computer to interpret and manipulate the data
• bibliographic records can be shared: predictable and reliable records can be acquired
• many library systems are based on MARC formats.

CONSIDERATIONS

• spelling is important: a misspelled word, especially at the beginning of a critical tag can render the record irretrievable
• punctuation must be correct: some systems will not save a record without the correct punctuation, or will save it incorrectly
• authority control must be done: it is the process of making sure that the same access terminology is used consistently
• rather enter more information than less.

PUNCTUATION

Punctuation within the fields of a MARC record is done according to AACR2R (1.0C), and rules repeated throughout the code at the beginning of each area. AACR2R punctuation is according to ISBD (International Standard Bibliographic Description). AACR2R uses the term “full stop” and punctuation precedes the different areas in a bibliographic record. MARC 21 also uses ISBD punctuation within fields, except for the end of the field, which is indicated by a mark of punctuation which can be:

• . = period;
• ! = exclamation mark;
• ? = question mark;
• - = hyphen.

When either an:

• ) = end bracket;
• ] = end square bracket;
• is present, normally no other punctuation is required.

Please make sure of the punctuation within and at the end of fields, as a great variety exists: a field could end with no period, or no mark of punctuation; it could end with a period, even if another mark of punctuation is present; it could end with a mark of punctuation, other than a period; it could end with a mark of punctuation, or a closing parenthesis, bracket, angle bracket; it could end with no mark of punctuation, unless the ending data is an abbreviation, initial/letter, data that ends with a mark of punctuation; etc.