Click here to skip to content

British National Bibliography enhancements

The British National Bibliography (BNB) is being continually enhanced in response to bibliographic developments:

Bibliographic records for e-publications
More timely CIP records
The 917 field in BNB records

Bibliographic records for e-publications

Records for UK online electronic resources are now appearing in the printed British National Bibliography, on the BNB on CD-ROM, and on BNB weekly exchange data files.

The British Library's Legal Deposit Office is receiving a growing supply of UK non-print publications, both monographs and serials. The catalogue records created for this material conform to AACR2 standard, complete with Library of Congress Subject Headings and DDC22 classmarks.

All records are created in MARC21 format and are characterised by the following:

  • 006 Additional material characteristics fixed field containing 006/00 m = Computer file/Electronic resource and 006/09 d = Document
  • 007 Physical description fixed field containing 007/00 c = Electronic resource and 007/01 r = Remote specific material designation
  • The presence of general material designation [electronic resource] in tag 245 $h
  • The absence of tag 300 (physical description) in accordance with AACR2 rule 9.5A1(b) “Do not give a physical description for an electronic resource that is available only by remote access.”
  • The presence of tag 500 Source of title proper, combined with Item described note. AACR2 rule 9.7B22 states that the date on which the item was viewed for description should always be provided for remote access material
  • The presence of tag 516 (type of computer file)
  • The presence of tag 530 (additional physical form available note) where appropriate
  • The presence of tag 538 (mode of access note)
  • The presence of tag 538 (system requirements note) where appropriate
  • The presence of tag 856 (electronic location and access). This will point either to the original host server carrying the item or to an email address.

More timely CIP records

Cataloguing-in-Publication (CIP) records of forthcoming UK and Irish books now appear in the British National Bibliography up to 16 weeks in advance of publication, following the award of the contract to Bibliographic Data Services Limited. The earlier release of CIP records into the BNB will enhance the depth of coverage offered by the BNB as a source of definitive catalogue data. Librarians will receive a more advanced notification of forthcoming titles, enabling them to make more effective acquisition decisions.

The 917 field in BNB records

The British Library has defined local field 917 in records created for the British National Bibliography (BNB) to identify material (e.g. fiction) streamed for priority processing. Such records are based on upgraded Cataloguing-in-Publication (CIP) data following a comparison with the book in hand. Their content is consistent with current bibliographic standards used in BNB. This measure is being undertaken to further improve the currency of records in the BNB.

The 917 field will contain the phrase Priority processing in subfield $a:

     917 _ _ $aPriority processing

First and second indicator positions are undefined and will contain a blank. Subfield $a will be the only subfield for use in 917.

Priority processing records have full level encoding (shown by a blank at leader position 17), together with 'p' status (at leader position 5) indicating an upgraded CIP record. They will therefore overwrite or replace CIP records for items held in customer databases where these records have been loaded.

Priority processing records started to appear in the BNB MARC weekly file from 20th January 2006 (Issue number 2877).

For further information please contact:

The British Library
Bibliographic Development
Boston Spa, Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BQ
United Kingdom

Tel: + 44 (0) 1937 546548
Fax: + 44 (0) 1937 546586
Email: bd-info@bl.uk