Canadiana: The National Bibliography of Canada

CONTENTS

• About Canadiana
• Canadiana formats
  • Canadiana on CD-ROM
  • Canadiana online
  • Canadiana records via FTP

About Canadiana

Each year in Canada over 45,000 titles are published. New publications appear in rapid succession and in a variety of formats, but many of them have a short-lived presence in the market place. One of the roles of Library and Archives Canada is to collect and preserve Canadian publications. Since 1950 the Library has been producing Canadiana, a comprehensive bibliography which documents the nation's published heritage, and in doing so makes that heritage known and accessible to present and future generations of Canadians.

Canadiana lists and describes a wide variety of publications produced in Canada, or published elsewhere but of special interest or significance to Canada. These include books, periodicals, sound recordings, microforms, music scores, pamphlets, government documents, theses, educational kits, video recordings and electronic documents. Canadiana provides standard cataloguing information for each item listed. It can be used for reference and research, for verifying bibliographic information and for cataloguing copy. It is a valuable selection aid for the development of library collections, for compiling bibliographies on Canadian studies and for acquiring Canadian publications.

Canadiana lists information on forthcoming publications to permit advance ordering of new Canadian books. It includes ISBN and ISSN information, the numbering systems used by book dealers and publishers to identify monograph and serial titles.

Canadiana is available on CD-ROM, as an online service and via FTP. The printed edition of Canadiana was discontinued after the December 1991 issue and the microfiche edition after the December 2000 issue. In addition to the current national bibliography, there are related services which cover specific time periods and types of Canadian publications and provide cataloguing support to libraries.

Please also note that Canadiana multi-year cumulations, Canadiana pre-1901: monographs and Canadiana authorities (microfiche) have ceased publication.