Library of Congress
Cataloging in Publication Program
Purpose of the CIP Program
- The purpose of the Cataloging in Publication (CIP) Program is to serve the nation's libraries by cataloging books in advance of publication.
- Publishers submit applications via the Library of Congress PrePub Book Link.
- The Library creates a bibliographic record for each publication and sends it to the publisher.
- The publisher prints the record (known as CIP data) on the verso of the title page.
- The CIP data is thereby available to each library that acquires a copy of the book.
- The Library of Congress also distributes these records weekly in machine readable form to large libraries, bibliographic services, and book vendors around the world.
- Many of these organizations redistribute these records in products and services designed to alert the library community to forthcoming publications and to facilitate acquisition.
