There are similarities and differences between the titles of bibliography and catalogue. For example, the traditional book-style and newspaper-style book catalogue can be called catalogue or bibliography; For card-type and machine-readable catalogs, they are generally only called card-type bibliographies or machine-readable catalogs, not card-type bibliographies or machine-readable catalogs; For machine-readable catalog database, it is also used to be called bibliographic database, and less called catalog database; The file catalogue can be called the whole case catalogue and the file catalogue, not the bibliography. For many newspapers and periodicals, it can be called newspaper catalogue, periodical catalogue or index and title catalogue, not "bibliography". In addition, titles such as chapters of a book can only be called catalogue or catalogue, not bibliography.

At present, the title of the bibliography is still evolving. For example, it can be said that the bibliography includes abstracts and indexes, but it cannot be said that the catalogue also includes abstracts and indexes. Therefore, the practical significance of bibliography is expanding, that is, it is greater than the meaning of catalogue.

According to the principle of Chinese word formation, we can understand "book" in "bibliography" as "document" in a broad sense, and "purpose" as "catalogue, target and clue". Taken together, "bibliography" is the catalogue and clue of all kinds of documents. In this way, according to the described objects, bibliography actually includes catalogues, abstracts, indexes, bibliographies, tool guides and so on. Its carrier forms are divided into book type, card type, loose-leaf type, newspaper type, microfilm type, machine-readable type and so on.

In specific use, except for the national bibliography, which can continue to be called the national bibliography, the title of the catalogue should be the official written language in other forms of paper printed catalogues. For example, it can be called: thematic catalogue, joint catalogue, personal writings catalogue, local literature catalogue, etc. At the same time, in order to take care of historical habits, this kind of book catalogue is still allowed to match the bibliography in a certain scope and form.