The business of national bibliography: an example of cooperation between public and private institutions

Abstract

Describes the cooperation between a private company, Dansk Biblioteks Center (DBC), and the Royal Library in the production of the Danish National Bibliography as a successful example of how public authorities and private enterprise can work together to produce a country’s national bibliography. Presents details of the DBC: range of work; annual turnover and profit for 1994–1995; and the role of the National Bibliographic Agreement. Notes the role played by the National Library Authority. Describes in some detail the work of the Danish National Bibliography, its operations, publications and types of materials included. Focuses attention on the DANBIBonline database of centralized cataloguing records, pooled with Library of Congress and British National Bibliography data, and the facilities offered by DANBIB: reuse and transmission of records; National Bibliography; location data; online searching and ordering; legal deposit; interloans; BookData, UnCover and FirstSearch services; and an Internet gateway. Concludes with notes on other cataloguing databases available in Denmark and presents key figures taken from an earlier survey of business libraries in Denmark (see Business Information Review, 13(3), September 1996, pp. 151–65) and comparable data for the publishing sector.