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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
Page last updated: 23 October 2009

