IFLA's Programme of Universal Bibliographic Control: Origins and Early Years

The author states that the origins of IFLA's UBC (Universal Bibliographic Control) programme can be traced to the International Meeting of Cataloguing Experts, held in Copenhagen in 1969. One of the decisions taken at that meeting pointed out the need for a permanent secretariat to ensure continuity of the work. In July 1971 the IFLA Cataloguing Secretariat was established with a three-year grant from the Council on Library Resources. The name for the programme, UBC, followed, and UBC was chosen for the theme of the 1973 IFLA Conference in Grenoble. The author identifies early priorities for the UBC Programme, identifies early publications, the development of the ISBDs (International Standard Bibliographic Description), and other projects, contracts, publicity and support.