UBC, Background and Future Perspectives

This paper reviews the background of IFLA involvement in Universal Bibliographic Control (UBC) from 1950 to present. The goal of UBC is to reduce cataloguing costs through metadata reuse on an international scale. Each National Bibliographic Agency (NBA) is responsible for producing authoritative bibliographic and authority data for resources published in its own territory and making this data available. The purpose of UBC is to preserve all documentary heritage. UBC is linked to legal deposit regimes in each country and the provision of national bibliographies. In the IFLA Professional Statement on Universal Bibliographic Control, produced by the Bibliography Section in 2012, NBAs are given two responsibilities: for authoritative bibliographic data and authorized access points. IFLA is tasked with three responsibilities, all relating to standards. The presentation raises questions to be considered regarding the possible revision of the UBC Statement. Keywords: Universal Bibliographic Control, UBC, metadata interoperability.