Conceptual and linguistic changes: document, resource, and item

Abstract

The bibliographic universe has radically changed in a short time; the major innovations, mainly related to the digital environment, have had consequences in terms of terminology. This contribution offers an analysis of three specific international cataloguing terms: document, resource, and item. The terms document and resource constitute an example of terminological evolution; item, introduced in cataloguing by FRBR as the fourth entity of Group I, highlights the difficulties of transposition from one linguistic system to another, and the multiple terminological meanings linked to different disciplinary contexts.