Slovenian bibliography 4

Cultural wealth
Literary works, whatever they may be, undoubtedly represent the cultural wealth of every nation, and you probably all agree with that. Okay, now tell me, what have we written and published in the last ten years? Well, I got you!

Of course, there is an institution that is obligated to collect this information and pass it on to interested parties. This institution is the National and University Library (NUK), which recently published this information for the fourth time in the form of a CD. In addition to a CD, the set also includes a sufficiently extensive booklet in English and Slovenian with instructions for installing and using the program. The photographs used on the cover of the plaque, which indirectly show the beauty of Plečnik’s building, are also to be commended. Also, because of the latter, if not because of the content, the Slovenian bibliography can also be a nice gift. The Slovenian bibliography on a CD, is based on the i-Rose program, which is stable and easy to use, but somewhat outdated. Here we are referring mainly to the cumbersome user interface, which is not exactly in line with the latest solutions of modern programs. The reason for the choice of the interface itself could be put up for discussion. Let’s ask ourselves what the target group of users for this board is and what they will do with it. If they are users of Slovenian libraries and other institutions, then the user interface itself is not very important. It is would be completely different if the product was intended for a wider circle of customers. In this case, it would be worth considering a more modern and less cumbersome interface, which would also contribute to better sales. Although we have now criticized the program, it is still commendable. The program enables easy switching between Slovenian and English and booting directly from the CD. The latter is a rather big advantage, as we don’t usually need programs of this type every day. The basic use of the program is certainly searching for data. Here, the edition of the Slovenian Bibliography takes precedence over the printed one. Records can be searched by their author, type of publication, year of publication and other similar information. Dictionaries are also added for most records for faster work. The search results can then be viewed on the screen, printed out on a printer or recorded on the hard disk. Therefore, we can say again that many institutions, for which the price is not too much of an obstacle will be happy with this product. For ordinary mortals, however, we could not say such a thing.

CD content:
The Slovenian national bibliography is based on the ethnic principle. In essence, this is a catalog of all publications written either by Slovene authors, written in the Slovene language or published by a Slovene publishing house (foreign and emigrant and publishers are also taken into account). The bibliography includes original works by Slovene authors in foreign languages and foreign works translated into Slovene, as well as the entire production of Slovene publishing houses. It is created on the basis of a mandatory copy of publications and monitoring the production of cross-border and emigrant publishers. The records are prepared according to the national cataloging rules, i.e. E. Verona’s “Manual for the Use of Alphabetical Catalogs”, and follow the ISBD and the Paris Principles. The classification system is UDK, and the subject passwords are from the controlled dictionary from the National and University Library (NUK). The Slovenian bibliography, on a CD-ROM, contains records of monographic publications published after 1988. There are also some records for older publications that the library obtained with a delay, as well as for those being published for many years. Included are records for books and brochures, for electronic publications, music prints and cartographic material from both real publishing editions and self-published editions. The collection also includes conference proceedings, jubilee proceedings and radio plays published by Radio Slovenia. The collection does not contain internal acts of individual organizations or associations of local or municipal character, factory catalogs, price lists, tourist brochures, event programs, timetables, telephone and other directories or small prints. The records are taken from the Slovenian mutual catalog COBIB.