Audiovisual materials: a survey of bibliographic controls in distributors' catalogs

The current pattern of bibliographic control in audio-visual distributors' catalogs is described. Eight bibliographic control elements are defined, and the criteria for evaluating the occurrence of these elements in sixty-four sample catalogs are specified. When the distributors are grouped according to category, such as educational or commercial, the pattern of bibliographic control has three distinct clusters of elements. When the distributors are grouped by the number of titles handled, there is no clear pattern. The implications of these patterns are discussed in terms of practical library reference services. A solution to the problem of bibliographic control of health science audiovisual materials is proposed.