Bibliography

For "Works Cited" lists, see Citation.

Bibliographies at the University Library of Graz

Bibliography (from Greek: βιβλιογραφία, bibliographia; lit. book writing) in its most general sense is the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects. On the whole, bibliography is not concerned with the literary content of books, but rather the "bookishness" of books. Bibliography is sometimes used to refer to a works cited page, but is more generally meant to refer to any catalogue of books that follows an organized bibliographic approach. The medium a bibliography can take varies, as it can be a reference list at the end of an article or book, a bound catalogue such as those shown on the right, or an internet database.

Bibliographic works differ in the amount of detail depending on the purpose, and can be generally divided into two categories: enumerative bibliography (also called compilative, reference or systematic), which results in an overview of publications in a particular category, and analytical, or critical, bibliography, which studies the production of books. Bibliographical works are almost always considered to be tertiary sources.

Types

Enumerative bibliography

A bibliography is a list, either indicative or comprehensive, of writings sharing a common factor: this may be a topic, a language, a period, or some other theme. One particular instance of this is the list of sources used or considered in preparing a work, sometimes called a reference list.

Citation formats vary, but an entry for a book in a bibliography usually contains the following information:

• author(s)
• title
• publisher
• date of publication

An entry for a journal or periodical article usually contains:

• author(s)
• article title
• journal title
• volume
• pages
• date of publication

A bibliography may be arranged by author, topic, or some other scheme. Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. These descriptions, usually a few sentences long, provide a summary of the source and describe its relevance.

Bibliographies differ from library catalogs by including all relevant items rather than all items present in a particular library. However, the catalogs of some national libraries effectively serve as national bibliographies, as the national libraries own almost all their countries' publications.

Analytical bibliography

The critical study of bibliography can be subdivided into descriptive (or physical), historical, and textual bibliography. Descriptive bibliography is the close examination of a book as a physical object, recording its size, format, binding, and so on, while historical bibliography takes a broader view of the context in which a book is produced, in particular, printing, publishing and bookselling. Textual bibliography is another name for textual criticism.

Related terms in other media

A number of related terms have developed for listings of other media and artistic expression:

• Films - filmography
• Recorded music - discography
• Websites - webliography (the first use recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary is June 1995)

See also

• Citation
• Ibid / Op cit
• Reference management software / Citation creator
• List of bibliographies
• Library catalog

External links

• Bibliography Defined (an explanation of Bibliography according to the Bibliographical Society of America)
• How to write a Bibliography
• Bibliography Formatting Tool
• A bibliography of bibliographies
• Bibliography on the Web (The Bibliographical Society of America)