Universal bibliography / Universal bibliographic control (UBC)
The term universal bibliography originally meant an attempt (or perhaps an utopian dream) of creating a complete world bibliography. This project was initiated by the International Office of Bibliography, created in 1895 in Belgium, but was later given up and it was decided to concentrate on building a system of national bibliographies. Today the term universal bibliographies is used for multidisciplinary and international bibliographies, which supplements the disciplinary and the national bibliographies. Dissertations Abstracts International, Inside Conferences, Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory and World Translation Index are examples.
Rayward (1994) describe parts of the history of the Belgian project. The International Office of Bibliography in Belgium began to make a bibliography on cards arranged in the classified subject order of the Decimal Classification, which was translated and expanded for this purpose and developed to the UDC-classification system. The Universal Bibliographic Repertory, what today is called a database, grew to more than 11 million entries. In 1906 a pictorial database was created. Called the Répertoire Iconographique Universel it was intended to be a pictorial counterpart to the bibliographic database and was organized according to the same principles. In 1907 a Répertoire Encyclopédique des Dossiers was developed. In this, brochures, pamphlets, periodical and newspaper articles along with other kinds of documents were assembled to give a substantive, "encyclopedic" dimension to the repertory.
The concept UBC means universal or world wide bibliographic control, a goal associated with IFLA, that endorses UBC as a long-term programme for the development of a world-wide system for the control and exchange of bibliographic information, http://www.ifla.org/VI/3/icnbs/fina.htm
Literature:
Rayward, W. B. (1994). The International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID). IN: Encyclopedia of Library History, edited By Wayne A. Wiegand and Don G. Davis, Jr. New York: Garland Press. (Pp. 290-294). Available: http://people.lis.uiuc.edu/~wrayward/otlet/FIDHIST2.htm
http://people.lis.uiuc.edu/~wrayward/otlet/FIDHIST2.htm
See also: FID (International Féderation for Information and Documentation); Universal library
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 22-10-2006