The Bibliographic Control of Official Publications discusses the various approaches used by libraries to organize official documents. This book aims to stimulate progress towards the establishment of a comprehensive system for the bibliographic control of official publications, and identify the principles upon which a new and definitive coding scheme could be based. The book contains 11 chapters that cover the following topics: notation for the arrangement of official publications in the library of La Trobe University, Australia; the handling of official publications at the State Reference Library of Western Australia; organization and bibliographic control of a large official publications collection in the Library of Parliament, Ottawa, Canada; and application of the CODOC (Co-operative Documents) system in Canada. Also included are chapters on the evolution of cataloging and shelf arrangement of official publications in Trinity College Library, Dublin; the University of Colorado's classification system for documents of international organizations; and the University of Virginia Library's document classification system.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1968.

The quest to evolve bibliographic control to an equal or greater standing within the current information environment is on-going. As information organizers we are working in a time where information and communication technology (ICT) has pushed our status quo to its limits and where innovation often needs the pressure of do or die in order to get started. The year 2010 was designated as the Year of Cataloging Research and we made progress on studying the challenges facing metadata and information organization practices. However, one year of research is merely a drop in the bucket, especially given the results of the Resource and Description and Access (RDA) National Test and the Library of Congress’ decision to investigate the possibility of transitioning the MARC21 format. This book addresses how information professionals can create a functional environment in which we move beyond just representing information resources and into an environment that both represents and connects at a deeper level. Most importantly, it offers insight on transitioning into new communities of practice and awareness by reassessing our purpose, re-charting our efforts, reasserting our expertise in the areas that information organizer have traditionally claimed but are losing due to stagnation and lack of vision. This book was published as a double special issue of the Journal of Library Metadata.