ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Following on the outstanding success achieved by the Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt and the Zentralstelle für maschinelle Dokumentation in producing Deutsche Bibliographie with the help of the computer, at the same time maintaining the typographical appearance desirable in a national bibliography, the S.A.N.B. is the second national bibliography to be produced by a similar process. Once again the programming is being undertaken by the Zentralstelle für maschinelle Dokumentation. The great difference in contrast to the Deutsche Bibliographie is that it is arranged according to D.D.C. classification numbers, unavoidable in a land where publications appear in up to twenty languages. The problem of diacritical signs which the use of a variety of languages entails, and the adjustment of indexes, were special problems requiring attention.

The first quarterly volume of the S.A.N.B. for 1968, prepared by the computer, has already appeared. The S.A.N.B. appears in three quarterly volumes, a yearly and perennial cumulation, and is published by the State Library, P.O. Box 397, Pretoria, Transvaal, Republic of South Africa.