Book excerpt: This book is an introduction, 'handy' and authoritative guide to the principles of cataloguing for librarians, information scientists and information managers. It is intended to be used in conjunction with an internationally recognised standard to show how, firstly, cataloguing underpins all the other activities of an information service and, secondly, how to apply best practice in a variety of different situations. - Relates theory to practice, which is not the case with many other books on the topic - Includes guidance on subject cataloguing as well as descriptive cataloguing - Written in an easy-to-read style Covers the use of ISBD and Dublin Core in descriptive cataloguing, rather than being tied exclusively to using AACR