Letter from the Director for Cataloging

Dear Colleagues: At the recent IFLA Conference in Boston, participants of the Workshop on Publishing Industry and National Bibliographies discussed the importance of the relationship between the publishing community and national libraries. The Cataloging in Publication programs throughout the world play an important role in this relationship. We do not, however, have a forum for the various CIP programs to share their experiences nor do we have an up-to-date directory of CIP programs. The informal survey that follows attempts to remedy this shortcoming. It aims (1) to identify all CIP programs; (2) to gather factual information about each program; and (3) to obtain observations from the principals of each program regarding its relationship with the publishing community. To this end, members of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries that have a CIP program (active or suspended) or that are actively developing a CIP program are asked to request appropriate staff to complete this survey. I should note that in developing this survey we encountered something of a paradox. To know what questions to ask requires a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the CIP programs from the outset which is, of course, the very knowlege we are seeking. We have as a consequence adopted a modest approach, limiting the survey to primarily basic questions. We also included a comments section with each group of quesitons so you could include information that the structured questions would not otherwise elicite. So while we recognize the limits of this survey hopefully it will position us to develop a more comprehensive survey in the future should we so desire. Finally, please accept my apologies for presenting this survey in English only. No funds were budgeted for this project. It was developed with resources taken from those assigned to sustain the Library of Congress CIP program. To develop the survey in more than one language would have been prohibitive. The results will be shared with all members of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries. Thank you for your cooperation. Beacher Wiggins Director for Cataloging Library of Congress
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Dear Colleagues:

At the recent IFLA Conference in Boston, participants of the Workshop on Publishing Industry and National Bibliographies discussed the importance of the relationship between the publishing community and national libraries.

The Cataloging in Publication programs throughout the world play an important role in this relationship. We do not, however, have a forum for the various CIP programs to share their experiences nor do we have an up-to-date directory of CIP programs. The informal survey that follows attempts to remedy this shortcoming.

It aims (1) to identify all CIP programs; (2) to gather factual information about each program; and (3) to obtain observations from the principals of each program regarding its relationship with the publishing community.

To this end, members of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries that have a CIP program (active or suspended) or that are actively developing a CIP program are asked to request appropriate staff to complete this survey.

I should note that in developing this survey we encountered something of a paradox. To know what questions to ask requires a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the CIP programs from the outset which is, of course, the very knowlege we are seeking. We have as a consequence adopted a modest approach, limiting the survey to primarily basic questions. We also included a comments section with each group of quesitons so you could include information that the structured questions would not otherwise elicite. So while we recognize the limits of this survey hopefully it will position us to develop a more comprehensive survey in the future should we so desire.

Finally, please accept my apologies for presenting this survey in English only. No funds were budgeted for this project. It was developed with resources taken from those assigned to sustain the Library of Congress CIP program. To develop the survey in more than one language would have been prohibitive. The results will be shared with all members of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Beacher Wiggins
Director for Cataloging
Library of Congress

Back Survey

Library of Congress Cataloging Directorate ( July 25, 2003 )