Standards for cataloguing to the ANBD

Descriptive cataloguing standard

The preferred standard for descriptive cataloguing in the Australian National Bibliographic Database (ANBD) is Resource Description and Access (RDA).

Subject heading classification standard

The preferred standard for subject heading classification in the ANBD is the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). The following subject cataloguing manual should be used:

  • Subject cataloguing manual: subject headings / prepared by the Cataloguing Policy and Support Office, Library of Congress. 5th ed. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1996.
  • Australian subject headings (authorised in LCSH) are listed in the Australian extension to Library of Congress Subject Headings. 

Name heading classification standard

The preferred standard for name heading classification in the ANBD is the Library of Congress Name Authorities (LCNA).

LCNA will take precedence over name, title and series headings which have already been verified as authorities in the ANBD, and these headings may be retrospectively changed to conform with LCNA. The exception is for Australian name, title and series headings, because authority records for Australian names, titles and series will usually be established earlier and more accurately by Australian libraries. Therefore, authorities for Australian names, titles and series which conform to RDA and the Library of Congress rule interpretations should not be changed retrospectively simply to conform with LCNA.

Standards for non-Roman scripts

Romanisation should follow the Library of Congress standards.

Note that the Library of Congress will continue to follow the McCune-Reischauer system to Romanise Korean with the exceptions noted in Korean: Romanization and word division.

For the McCune-Reischauer system, see Romanization of the Korean language: based upon its phonetic structure by G.M. McCune and E.O. Reischauer ([S.l.: s.n., 1939?), reprinted from Transactions of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (made available with the kind permission of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society).

You can also refer to the following sections of the Libraries Australia Cataloguing Client manual:

  • 4.3.3.7: Non-Roman scripts (how to create records in non-Roman scripts in the ANBD)
  • Appendix 8 for Unicode fonts, keyboard layouts and Input Method Editors for a range of Windows operating systems.

Additional standards and guidelines

For additional standards and guidelines, see:

Members assigning classification numbers from Dewey Decimal classification or Library of Congress classification must use the latest editions of the appropriate schedules:

  • Dewey decimal classification and relative index / devised by Melvil Dewey. Ed. 21 / edited by Joan S. Mitchell, Julianne Beall, Winton E. Matthews, Jr., Gregory R. New. Albany, N.Y.: Forest Press, a division of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, 1996 (latest changes to the Dewey schedules are published in Dewey decimal classification additions, notes, and decision. Albany, N.Y. : Forest Press, 1981- ). Online access is via OCLC Connexion (called WebDewey)
  • Library of Congress classification. Online access is via the Library of Congress’s Classification Web.