Library and Information Science

The Nippon Cataloging Rules have been compiled and published by the Japan Library Association in three editions, 1952, 1965 and 1977. The revision work was initiated in 1971 and the preliminary edition was published in December 1977. Its successive drafts were subjected to public hearings in due course.

The new (preliminary) edition is based on the principle of independent description on unit cards, entirely different from that of preceding editions And its scope of application is limited to Japanese books and other materials. In comparing with the earlier editions the author analyzes its structure and phrasing. Attention is given to the first part of the Rules and it was recommended to be modelled on other rules and legal documents.

As to the basic terminology, the author selected terms used in articles 1.1 through 1.5 and proposes revisions. One of the reasons of the ambiguity in the Rules seems to be originated from poor definitions, which is already intensively criticized by a study group of the Japan Institution of Library Science. As the new Rules adopts Katakana headings for author, title, and subject entries, it is necessary to establish orthography (or transcription rules) in this script, but that for borrowed words is particularly fluctuating as well as classical words, so that there may arise confusion in this regard. Second problem is the use of signs in headings and descriptions, particularly in relation to titles and subtitles. The Rules do not use punctuation marks as given in the ISBD(M), instead, spaces and signs are used elsewhere frequently without any explications. The author tries to make the use of rather arbitrary signs as least as possible without incurring difficulty in the ease of identification.