Bibliographic Description of Documents in the Historical Context

Abstract

Bibliographic description as a result of the centuries-old knowledge of the document at various stages of development is the basis of bibliographic information and one of the points of access to information resources. The aim of this paper is to reveal the peculiarities of the development of the bibliographic description of documents at various historical stages and to determine ways of improving bibliographic description on the basis of world trends. The study used comparative analysis of the experience of some countries in the development of standardization in the field of cataloging. The history of the bibliographic description has evolved in accordance with the trend of the times, adapting to new technologies and social demands of the scientific community. The whole historical development of the bibliographic description led to the need for its standardization. The most important problem was the development of unified international standards for bibliographic description and the alignment of national standards with international standards. Using a single method of bibliographic description unifies approaches in the field of cataloging information resources. The theoretical significance of the research lies in the fact that it reveals the essence of bibliographic description and the principles of its compilation. The historical and methodological aspects of the bibliographic description of the document are investigated beginning with its inception in antiquity and ending – in contemporary times. Practical significance and implementation of the research results consist in determining trends and prospects for the modern development of bibliographic description.