The paper presents basic approaches to managing archival resources in the Presidential library (Saint-Petersburg, Russia). All resources in the collection are described using the RUSMARC format (national implementation of UNIMARC), which provides sufficient instruments to keep the hierarchical structure of archival description and to give detailed characteristics of the materials.
A library chooses its cataloguing practice, depending on the environment where it operates. Some experience with and dilemmas about the use of the COMARC format are described as seen by cataloguers in a public library while solving their everyday practical cataloguing problems.
The Matica Srpska Library (Biblioteka Matice srpske, BMS) has entered the major part of its collection of rare publications into an online union catalogue. Software solution, based on temporarily added fields 370–379, has been used for the description of old and rare books, as well as for the preparation of printed catalogues.