Guidelines for electronic national bibliographies: are they needed?

Electronic national bibliographies (ENB) (online and on CD-ROM) have been around since late 80's. They differ substantially regarding the functions supported, access points and indexes, and the user interface. One of the results of the European 'National Libraries Project on CD-ROM' in 1993 was the first example of guidelines for ENB. While partly outdated now due to development of computer hardware and software, they could still serve as a good starting point for new guidelines which are needed both for development of existing ENB and planning of new ones. The need for and areas of new guidelines for ENB are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]