Opening up the bibliographies for the future – a collaborative research-driven model for bibliographies

Although the production and mediation of various kinds of bibliographical data represent one of the library’s core activities, today a number of practices, technologies and disciplines influence this vast field. Even though bibliography is usually understood as a product of library science models, the field also includes certain kinds of empirically-based research, philology and book history, among other disciplines. Within the library community there has been a focus on the present situation of constant technological changes, the emergence of new search technologies/user-interfaces, merging catalogues with bibliographies, integrating individual library catalogues into meta-catalogues, and large-scale digitization programs. Another focus has been the realization and implementation of FRBR, linked data and semantic technologies. Until recently the focus on special bibliography production has been to strengthen the national research infrastructure. Today, however, special bibliographies also seek to incorporate research data and theoretical models from the academic community. This paper discusses the National Library of Norway’s model for producing special bibliographies. Examples from three special bibliographies, Hamsun, Bjørnson, and Solstad, illustrate current aspirations for special bibliographies: to be research-driven, collaborative and technologically dynamic.