The Australian National Bibliographic Database

The Australian National Bibliographic Database (ANBD) is a large bibliographic database covering the collections of hundreds of Australian libraries. It is Australia’s largest single bibliographic resource with millions of entries for books, journals and items in other formats such as films, sound recordings, video recordings, maps, pictures, CDs, braille and talking books, large print books, music scores, computer files and electronic journals.

The ANBD contains bibliographic records from a number of sources including national cataloguing agency records from Australia and overseas and original cataloguing contributed by Australian libraries. These bibliographic records are supplemented by location information supplied by Australian libraries.

With over 45 million holdings recording the collections of over 850 Australian libraries, the ANBD enables users to locate material held all over Australia. This means greater access to information for all Australian library users through the provision of local and interlibrary lending.

The ANBD supports copy cataloguing for Australian libraries thereby reducing the cost of making resources available to library users. It also assists libraries with their co-operative acquisition and cancellation programs. It is particularly valuable in the field of serials cancellation, where holdings can be checked to establish whether a potential cancellation is the last subscription in the region, state or country.

The ANBD has been developed and maintained through the efforts of the Australian library community and the National Library since 1981. It is updated continuously with contributions of cataloguing and holdings from Australian libraries.

Size and coverage of the ANBD

Category Current size
Bibliographic records 17.5 million records
Locations information 42 million records

From time to time updates on the ANBD statistics are provided to subscribers via the discussion list librariesaustralia-l.

Sources of bibliographic information on the ANBD

The ANBD is updated regularly with MARC records from the following national and international agencies:

Agency subscriptions  
Australian National Bibliography 1972+
British National Bibliography 1971+
New Zealand Bibliographic Network 1982-1999
New Zealand National Bibliography 1982+
Singapore National Bibliography 1967+
Library of Congress Books 1968+
Library of Congress Serials 1973+
Library of Congress Films 1972+
Library of Congress Music 1984+
Library of Congress Maps 1973+
Selected bibliographic records purchased by Australian libraries for formed collections, e.g.: Underground Press collection, History of Women and Rehabilitation and handicapped literature 1981+
Vietnamese National Bibliography 1986-1995

Australian Higher Degree Theses on the ANBD
Microform Collections

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Page last updated: 23 October 2009