Rudimentary Overviews

• MARC Standards
  Produced by the Library of Congress
  The home pages consist of several dozen links containing information related to the MARC format. Unfortunately, most of these links take the user to tables of other links, and some of these return the user back to the initial page. Some links are, however, full of valuable information; remember, the Library of Congress led the initiative for MARC in the 1960’s, so this site is a good place for beginners. The Frequently Asked Questions page is highly recommended.
  
  
• SLC: MARC Authority Record Cheat Sheet
  By J. McRee Elrod
  This site helps decode the sometimes mystifying structure of MARC authority records. Most of the site is a list of the commonly used fields and subfields followed by definitions. Though not all possible fields are listed, Elrod has a link to the LOC website to fill in the gaps. Helpful to those trying to figure out just exactly what all those numbers mean.
  
  
• MARC Records and Variable-Length Record Structures
  By R.E. Wyllys
  A good site for the absolute beginner. Explains the basics of the MARC record and throws in a tutorial on fixed and variable-length computer records as well. Full of examples but a bit distracted in its presentation—touches on MARC at the beginning and end but very little in the middle.
  
  
• Understanding MARC Bibliographic: Machine-Readable Cataloging
  By Betty Furrie
  A good site for those who have worked in a library for years yet are new to automation. The content is presented in several formats, from question-and-answer to sample records and tables. The orange background on the main page is unique and striking, but the use of orange hyperlinks on a white background on the rest of the pages is an eyesore.

More Advanced Overviews

• OCLC-MARC Records
  By Ron Jones et al.
  Another extensive site. The homepage is a table of links that take the user to individual chapters of a manual about OCLC-MARC records from 1993 to the present. The chapters describe the structure of OCLC-MARC records and how to format them for export. Though thorough and informative, the manual assumes familiarity with ANSI standards and would not be ideal for those new to MARC cataloging.
  
  
• Introduction to the MARC 21 Format for Authority Data
  Produced by Its.Marc
  A thorough glossary sorted into headings such as scope, components, and organization. The entries are nicely cross-referenced but a bit arcane in places. The page mentions that its audience is “personnel involved in the creation and maintenance of authority records,” so the layman is advised to look elsewhere.
  
  
• MARC Records Frequently Asked Questions
  By Karen Burns
  Another good introductory site for librarians on the trailing edge of automation. A brief overview and a glance at the author credit seems to indicate that the site was written for use by public librarians. Like most sites of an introductory nature, the author uses a question-and-answer format and shows a few examples as well. Answers the big questions, but there are plenty of other almost identical sites with this content.
  
  
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online MARC Records FAQ
  Produced by Thomson/Gale
  At first blush, this is a typical FAQ site on MARC records, but this site is focused on the MARC cataloging of Eighteenth Century Records Online. The site addresses both this collection and introductory questions about MARC formats and record editing and purchasing. Good attention paid to the cataloging of electronic media as well.

Articles

• Making Room for MARC in a Dublin Core World
  By Norm Medeiros
  Concise, well-written article that deals with Dublin Core and whether it will replace MARC. Offers the possibility that MARC and Dublin Core can co-exist peacefully through the adoption of CORC, the Cooperative Online Resource Catalog. The article benefits from the author’s belief in retaining and modifying existing technologies instead of scrapping them for new and popular solutions.
  
  
• Survey of Four META-DATA Candidates
  By James Powell
  A concise article that presents four ways in which items can be cataloged in a digital library. MARC is presented, along with RFC-1807, Envision (TRBIB) DTD, and TEI DTD Header. The author catalogs the same item in each of the four ways, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of each method. The article centers around MARC’s apparent inability to describe book chapters and journal articles, and proposes Envision as the best possible solution. This article is plainly written, factual, and helpful.
  
  
• MARC Developments in UNITED KINGDOM
  By Alan Hopkinson
  A thorough article encompassing a discussion of all MARC formats that have been developed over the years. Hopkinson provides a brief history of MARC and a survey of its uses. The article discusses alternatives to MARC, such as XML and Dublin Core, but upholds MARC as the standard due its stability and historical value. Though generally well-written, this article seems hurried and awkward in places.
  
  
• Authority Control in the Context of Bibliographic Control in the Electronic Environment
  By Michael Gorman
  A long and thoroughly documented article on authority control and vocabulary control in library cataloging schemata. Cuts through the terminology and jargon that cloud the concept of metadata and exposes the problems of limited precision and recall that plague indexing and retrieval schemes. For the most part, Gorman shuns Dublin Core as too simplistic and suggests a new international program for cataloging electronic sources, based on MARC format. This scholarly article is well-written and of immediate value to both those new in the field and those with years of experience.
  
  
• Moving from MARC to XML
  By K.T. Lam
  An article full of valuable, though highly technical, information, infuriatingly divided into three chapters on three different pages. The article’s prose is turgid, overwrought and full of spelling errors. It does, however, point to the merits of XML in creating superior bibliographic records. The page links to several examples of how XML is better able to handle non-Western character sets; the importance of this is highlighted by the fact that the author is from Hong Kong. A valuable site that unfortunately suffers from poor writing and poor layout.
  
  
• Applying XML to the Bibliographic Description
  By David J. Fiander
  A long, scholarly article dealing with applying metadata formats like SGML and XML to traditional MARC cataloging structures. The article celebrates the benefits of MARC as the preeminent electronic cataloging system and seeks to use its merits as a guideline for evaluating popular new methods. The article is well-researched but perhaps a bit daunting to some due to its technical nature and length. Catalogers who are a bit recalcitrant to the wholesale adoption of popular new technologies will enjoy this article’s cautious approach.
  
  
• Beyond MARC
  By Mick Ridley
  This article, written by a database specialist from the United Kingdom, concerns the need to adopt new technologies that are more thorough and adaptable than MARC. Unfortunately, the article is hard to read due to its off-the-cuff manner and effusive prose. The reader feels like he or she is listening to a loquacious technician prattle on rather than reading a paper submitted to the International Conference on Principles and Future Development of AACR (here abbreviated as Int. Conf.). Nevertheless, this easy manner may be a positive aspect to some.