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ISBD(CR): International Standard Bibliographie Description for Serials and Other Continuing Resources. München: K.G. Saur, 2002. 112p. 68 cloth (ISBN 3-598-11599-7). Free download available at www.ifla.org/VII/s13/ pnbs/isbdcr-final.pdf.
ISSN Manual-Cataloguing Part. Paris: ISSN International Centre, 2003. UOp. $25 paper (ISBN 92-9114-004-X). www.issn.org:8080/ English/pub/tools/manual.
These two publications form a duet in the new music for cataloging serials (or as we should now think of them, continuing resources). The introductions to both the ISBD(CR) and the /SSN Manual speak much about harmonization-with each other and with the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR) community. The ISBD(CR) is a revision of the ISBD(S): International Standard Bibliographic Description for Serials, first published by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in 1977, with the second edition of the standard dating from 1988. For those interested in history, the two introductions provide a short and useful summary of how ISBDs, and ISBD(S) in particular, came about. Times change, and it has been important that standards and instructions for creating bibliographic descriptions change with them.
There are several noteworthy revisions included in ISBD(CR), foremost among them the expansion of the standards scope. In addition to addressing the more familiar serial publications, new publications deemed integrating resources are also covered. Integrating resources are publications (in any medium) that are added to or changed by updates that are incorporated into the whole publication. This means the standard covers loose-leaf publication updates and Web sites to which information is continually added. What a welcome relief this is to catalogers who had been waiting for a decision on how those materials were to be handled in bibliographic descriptions. Although the terminology struck a minor chord for me at first, the clear definitions found in the glossary and the regular use of the words "continuing resources" and "integrating resources," they now have a better sound. It will take time, but probably not much time, for catalogers to become familiar with the terms.
Another major and welcome change in ISBD(CR) is the list of instructions regarding when a title change has occurred. What serial cataloging meeting hasn't included laments about...