A detailed set of standardized rules for cataloging various types of library materials that had its origin in Catalog Rules: Author and Title Entries, published in 1908 under the auspices of the American Library Association and the Library Association (UK), and the A.L.A. Cataloging Rules for Author and Title Entries (1949), with its companion volume Rules for Descriptive Cataloging in the Library of Congress. Cooperation between the ALA, the Library Association, and the Canadian Library Association resumed with the joint publication in 1967 of Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, which is divided into two parts: rules for creating the bibliographic description of an item of any type and rules governing the choice and form of entry of headings (access points) in the catalog.

                   A second edition (AACR2) was published in 1978 and revised in 1988 (AACR2R) to reflect changes in information formats. The 1998 revision includes changes and corrections authorized since 1988 by the Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR (JSC), including amendments authorized through 1997. Additional amendments were issued in 1999 and 2001. The current version, Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, Second edition, 2002 Revision (AACR2 2002), includes extensive revisions to chapter 12 on continuing resources (formerly known as serials). AACR2-e is a hypertext version published by ALA Editions that includes all amendments through 2001. In the summer of 2010, the JSC released a controversial new code, Resource Description and Access (RDA), which was tested by the Library of Congress, the National Agricultural Library, and the National Library of Medicine and found to be in need of modification. Click here to read a brief history of AACR, courtesy of the JSC. See also: catalog code and Paris Principles.