Towards new principles of cataloguing: Reflections on the IME ICC of Frankfurt

Abstract

There has been much discussion about the timeliness and necessity for revising cataloguing principles, actually the Principles of Paris of 1961, for bringing them into line with the objectives of modern cataloguing; a new formulation that would take into consideration the relational structure of a catalogue, «in a “complete” view (the catalogue, not the catalogue by author) with a Cutterian style, that can now be done in a new technological dimension, and in the background of which we can just see, not the collection of onelibrary, but virtually the collection of all libraries (the function of localization lies on the document, not on the possession)». IFLA and some national professional associations have greatly contributed to encouraging this process of change and their new formulation through the publication of studies and guidelines. This contribution has a double objective: present the Italian professional community with the work carried out by IFLA in the second half of 2003 and emphasize the new aspects of the document and some critical points of the process in course, in the hopes of encouraging a constructive debate and contributing to the improvement of its elaboration.