Overview

Series A consists of media works from the publishers’ book trade. It also contains foreign-language media works about Germany, marked *G*, and translations of German-language works published abroad, marked *Ü*. The bibliographic information themselves are structured on the basis of DDC Subject Categories. The subject categories included are also saved as bookmarks in the PDF file to make the Nationalbibliografie easier to navigate. Individual elements of multi-part publications are listed in their own subject category provided they have one; otherwise, they are listed in the same subject category as the complete work. Titles are arranged in alphabetical order within each subject category.

Titles have been described using the Resource Description and Access (RDA) framework since October 2015. These descriptions are based on the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD).

Examples of bibliographic information

The prefix “SW:” is followed in lower-case italics by the subject headings that have been assigned in accordance with the most recently updated Rules for Regeln für die Schlagwortkatalogisierung (German rules for cataloguing by subject headings) and linked to form one or more sequences. The elements in each subject heading sequence are separated by semi-colons. The individual subject headings match the controlled terminology in the vocabulary used in the Integrated Authority File (GND). If a document has to be catalogued using two or more subject heading sequences, these are written consecutively and only separated by the character ¤. The subject heading sequences are followed by Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) numbers; these are prefixed by “DDC:” and also set out in lower-case italics. Up to three numbers may be listed. The DDC numbers are followed by additional information, also in lower-case italics, from the controlled terminology used in the GND’s vocabulary, e.g. “data carrier”, “nature of content” and “target audience”. Multiple items in the same category are separated by the character ¤.

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