A Very Brief Review of

the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format

by

Daniel N. Joudrey

Based on an idea by Arlene G. Taylor

 

The MARC (MAchine-Readable Cataloging) encoding system has been used to create electronic catalog records since the mid-1960s. The most current version for use in the United States is MARC 21, a harmonized version of USMARC and CAN/MARC, first published in 1999 and continually revised. Currently, the MARC encoding system holds the position of being the one used for bibliographic records in the vast majority of the world’s online catalogs, although this is poised for change.

MARC21 consists of five specific formats:

Each MARC format is made up of three structural elements: the record structure, the content designation, and the actual metadata content.

In this brief presententation, the focus is on content designation and the display of MARC data; the record structure is highly technical and beyond the scope of this project. In the next slides we will review some of the basics of the MARC21 Bibliographic Format.

 

Please click on the first link to begin or jump ahead to other areas.

  1. MARC Communications Format
  2. MARC Components
  3. MARC Displays
  4. MARC Tags, Indicators, Subfield codes, etc.
  5. MARC Fields Labeled