ISBD(NBM) - IFLA

0 PRELIMINARY NOTES
0.1 Scope, purpose and use
0.1.1 Scope
The International Standard Bibliographic Description for Non-Book Materials – referred to hereinafter
as the ISBD(NBM) – specifies the requirements for the description and identification of non-book
items, assigns an order to the elements of the description and specifies a system of punctuation for
the description. Its provisions relate first to the bibliographic records produced by national
bibliographic agencies (in issues of the printed national bibliography, in other printed records, and in
associated machine-readable data files), and second to bibliographic records of other cataloguing
agencies, whether in machine-readable or printed form. (In the case of bibliographic data stored in a
machine-readable medium, the ISBDs prescribe display conventions for eye-readable output, such
as online displays or printed products, rather than the data structure used within the machinereadable
medium itself.)
By monographic non-book items is to be understood a range of materials (other than those which
are the subjects of other ISBDs) having for their primary purpose the transmission of ideas,
information or aesthetic content. The definition is to be taken as applying for the most part to items in
multiple copies; it therefore excludes original works of art and specimens of found objects, except in
so far as such objects are packaged and marketed commercially. (Art prints published in a limited
artist's edition are however included.) Book jackets are examples of other items receiving no explicit
treatment, even though they may be collected by libraries. The boundaries indicated are not,
however, rigidly circumscribed, and it is recognized that for many purposes objects outside the
intended scope of the ISBD(NBM) may be satisfactorily described within its terms. Because of the
rapid changes in the characteristics of computer files, stipulations for the description of this material
have been removed from ISBD(NBM). A separate ISBD(CF) is being developed for the description
of this material.
ISBD(NBM) is one of several published ISBDs; the others cover serials (ISBD(S)), monographic
publications (ISBD(M)), cartographic materials (ISBD(CM)), pre-1801 monographs (ISBD(A)) and
printed music (ISBD(PM)). Each ISBD is intended to embody a coherent set of provisions for its own
type of publication, but there has been no attempt to make any ISBD exclusive. Users will, on
occasion, need to refer to several ISBDs when, for example, the item for description exhibits the
characteristics described in other ISBDs, such as a non-book item published as a serial, or a sound
recording with an accompanying monograph. All the ISBDs are based on the general ISBD
(ISBD(G)) (see comparative outline at 0.3).
When the item for description is one of the special sound recordings conveying printed texts to the
visually handicapped ("talking books"), such a surrogate may be described alternatively with an
emphasis on the original printed text. 2
The ISBD(NBM) is primarily concerned with the current needs of libraries, national bibliographic
agencies and resource centres. It therefore may require elaboration before being applied to obsolete
categories of material, or to meet the requirements of sound, film and other archives.
At the same time, since many of the categories of material described in ISBD(NBM) are products of
volatile technologies, the specific stipulations of this ISBD, particularly in area 5 (Physical
2 See International Exchange of Bibliographic Information on Materials for the Blind and Physically Handicapped / by Pieter J.
A. de Villiers and David E. Shumaker; Round Table of Libraries for the Blind, International Federation of Library
Associations. – Washington, D.C. : The Round 'Table, Executive Secretariat, 1980.
1