The distinctive features of Enumerative Bibliography and Knowledge Organisation

Abstract

This essay aims to contribute to the debate on the significance and relevance of enumerative bibliography, bibliographic methodology and its outputs. Adopting a qualitative approach, it examines the most widely accepted definitions of bibliography in the Italian context, the characteristics of bibliographic repositories and the stages involved in compiling such repositories, in order to compare them with new tools for bibliographic research, namely databases, portals, digital collections (for example, institutional repositories and so-called ‘digital libraries’), search engines and discovery tools, and in particular library catalogues. The issue of the distinctiveness of enumerative bibliography as a discipline, as compared to information science and knowledge organisation, shifts the focus of the analysis to the bibliographer’s working methods and to the activities that are essential for the compilation of a bibliographic catalogue. From this perspective, knowledge organisation is of particular importance in bibliographic repertoires, leading to three outcomes: establishing a correct relationship between Bibliography and Information Science, and in particular with Knowledge Organisation; highlighting the differences in the application of knowledge organisation in bibliographic repertoires and library catalogues; identifying similarities and differences between the bibliographic method used in the construction of bibliographic repertoires and the reference service provided by libraries. The concluding section of this paper reflects on the status of the subject bibliography in the context of the challenges posed by new approaches to scientific research today, particularly in relation to the Open Science paradigm, and the need to find new ways of communicating the results of bibliographic work.