1. Definition of terms and purpose of cataloguing

1. Catalogue

A list of books, maps, coins and any other medium that constitute a collection.

An organized set of bibliographic records that represent the holdings of a particular collection.

A collection may consist of any similar types of materials e.g books, periodicals, maps, CD-Roms, diskettes, coins, sound recordings, paintings, video and audio tapes.

2. Cataloguing

The process of identification and description of a bibliographic item, the recording of this information in form of catalogue record and the selection and formation of accessible points. The process of describing documents held in a library collection and providing entry points to them. The end product of this process is a library catalogue used in the identification and location of documents in an information centre. The process is done according to a set of rules of a certain cataloguing code.

3. Catalogue Cards

A plain or ruled card on which catalogue entries may be made.

4. Library Catalogue

A list of items contained in a library collection or a group of libraries arranged according to a systematic order.

5. Publishers Catalogue

It is a list of items published by a given publisher.

6. Descriptive Cataloguing

A part of the cataloguing process concerned with the identification of an item and with recording the information about the item in a bibliographic record (e.g. a library catalogue) so that the item may be identified precisely. Its purpose is to consistently record and describe each item in the library such that it is distinguishable from all others.

7. Bibliographic description

The description of an item containing details like; title and statement of responsibility areas, edition area etc.