THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC CONTROL OF DICTIONARIES PUBLISHED IN MALAYSIA BETWEEN 1990-2005

Abstract

This study analysed the bibliographic control of dictionaries published in Malaysia between 1990 to 2005. The data was collected from six libraries; University of Malaya Library, Library of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, National Library of Malaysia, University of Science Malaysia Library, Tun Sri Lanang Library at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and University Technology MARA Library. A total number of 1,231 titles of dictionaries have been published in Malaysia in 16 years. The highest number of dictionaries published in Malaysia was in 1995, 2000 and 2003 with 95 titles. There were 201 publishers involved in the production of dictionaries and more than 50% (103 out of 201) of the publishers were one time publishers. The most active publisher was Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka with 227 titles of dictionaries, followed by Fajar Bakti with 90 titles and Golden Books Centre with 70 titles. A total of 402 authors were involved in compiling dictionaries. The most prolific author in compiling dictionaries was Abdullah Hassan followed by Mohd Azani Ghazali. The dictionaries were compiled in five subjects areas; Arts, Language and Literature, Science, Social Science and Technology and Computer. 827 titles of dictionaries were in Language & Literature. The dictionaries were categorized into five types; monolingual (511 titles), bilingual (596 titles), trilingual (119 titles) and polyglotal (5 titles). It was found out that 35 languages were covered by dictionaries published in Malaysia. Most of the dictionaries were published in two languages; Malay and English. This study describes the dictionaries published in Malaysia within the 16 years and highlights those involved in their publications. This iii study also contributes to the bibliographic control of dictionaries published in Malaysia could be used by libraries for collection development purposes.