The Australian Bibliographic Network: Current state and planned redevelopment Available to Purchase

One of Australia's unique achievements in the world of librarianship is the Australian Bibliographic Network, generally known as ABN. It performs several different roles: it acts as a source of bibliographic records, a national bibliographic database, and an inter‐library loan system. Since its foundation, in 1981, it has grown to link all states and territories, and counts nearly 1,200 libraries as members, though there are still several major institutions which have not joined. The ABN database consists of 8.7 million bibliographic records, from five different countries, as well as more than 15 million holdings statements for Australian libraries. In its size and truly national scope, ABN is probably unique in the world.