ABSTRACT
In some contexts, the phrase international standards is used to refer only to those standards which have been endorsed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) which are sometimes referred to as official or de jure standards. Here the phrase is used to refer to any convention which can be called a standard and which has international acceptance. The MARC standards which underpin many of the library world’s cooperative activities are not formal international standards, although the record structure on which they are basedthat described in International Standard ISO 2709-is. The Dewey Decimal Classification scheme is not, nor is the Universal Decimal Classification, though by a quirk of fate it is actually a British Standard. The Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules are not nor are the International Standard Bibliographic Descriptions, though some countries have adopted them as national standards. Nevertheless these are discussed in this chapter. It is also worth noting that in the time of the Cold War library professionals in Eastern bloc countries were much more able to gain governmental permission to accept standards which emanated from ISO and UNESCO than from IFLA and were even less able to adopt standards from foreign national institutions such as the Library of Congress. Thus “official” standards and those developed by UNESCO had a certain kind of influence which in today’s different political climate is waning.
