ABSTRACT
The electronic era has introduced an array of new carriers of information, from the early magnetic tapes to floppy disks, CD-ROMs, and the Internet, where information can be distributed in various ways, ranging from e-mail to the now-ubiquitous World Wide Web. Cataloging practices have been greatly impacted by the development of these new electronic media. Witness, for instance, the continuing evolution in the International Standard Bibliographic Description program. In 1977, ISBD(NBM): International Standard Bibliographic Description for Non-Book Materials originally provided instructions for the description of machine-readable data files. A specialized ISBD-ISBD(CF): International Standard Bibliographic Description for Computer Files-was later written, with a final draft appearing in 1988. This now has grown into ISBD(ER): International Standard Bibliographic Description for Electronic Resources.l
As new forms of communication have developed and international standards have evolved to provide for their bibliographic description, the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules have likewise adapted. Chapter 9 of the second edition of the code (AACR2), dealing with computer files, is being revised to bring it into alignment with ISBD(ER) and to expand its scope to include new types of electronic resources, including interactive multimedia. The Joint Steering Committee has kept the library community apprised of its progress in the work, posting reports on the Web.2 At the same time-and again prompted by the emergence of electronic resources-Chapter 12, which has until now
dealt with serials, is being revised to cover the entire gamut of "continuing resources."
