However, as Head of Cataloguing there, she is well aware that she must encourage a change of viewpoint in an institution where separate sections have their own histories, identities, styles and cataloguing systems. On March 23, Oddy visited the National Library of Canada and spoke about the current situation and future directions in cataloguing at the British Library.
Some catalogues are machine-readable.
Some are in card form. Some are still in manuscript form. The variations spring, in part, from the different histories of different sections, she explained. For instance, the records in the British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books for the four million printed books from the beginning of printing to 1975, which is in MARC format, differ from the records for more recent books in other catalogues, which use current cataloguing rules. One section of the British Library traces its origins to the British National Bibliography.