In the last two years individuals and organizations in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States have issued four important documents which deal with the cataloging of nonbook materials. After being studied carefully at the Library of Congress, these documents were used extensively in the preparation of a draft revision of chapter 12 of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules. The resulting draft is compared with the four documents used as source material, with information given concerning the coverage and structure of each and the differences in details in those rules which deal with main entry, medium. designators, imprint, and physical description.
Part III of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules is not a de facto standard for the descriptive cataloging of non book materials because of limitations of scope, awkwardness of arrangement, and lack of successful integration of the earlier separately published rules which it consolidated in 1967. It is essential that the planned second edition of AACR be as widely accepted in this part as in its other parts. Significant postpublication revision of AACR began with an examination of Part III. British and Canadian committees, not previously involved in this part, are helping to make forthcoming rules acceptable internationally and among various sizes and types of library. Problem areas are examined in detail.