Super records: An approach towards the description of works appearing in various manifestations

Attempts to introduce a new approach for describing bibliographic entities in order to fulfil all the functions of the catalogue in the online environment. While it is assumed that the basic unit of description is the item in hand and records describing items would fulfil the finding, identifying, choosing and locating functions; super records, which are based on the concept of “super works”, would fulfil the collocating function in a more meaningful way. This approach is a solution to the problem of the same work appearing in various manifestations and formats. Super records for voluminous works include attributes that are common to different versions of a work and are linked to bibliographic records for items. A prototype catalogue of super records has been developed and made available on the Web to introduce the advantages, limitations and possible consequences of the concept on cataloguing principles, MARC and Z39.50.