MARC

For the first time, the MARC I program was developed by the Library of Congress in 1965-1966 in order to obtain cataloging data in machine-readable form. Similar work was carried out in the UK by the British National Cataloging Council to ensure that machine-readable data were used in the preparation of the British National Bibliography (British National Bibliography) (project BNB MARC). Based on these developments in 1968, the communicative Anglo-American format MARC (project MARC II) began to be created. The goals of its creation were to ensure:

• the flexibility of solving cataloging and other library tasks,
• suitability for a national bibliographic description of any types of documents and the use of the recording structure in automated systems.

In 1971 ^[2] , a generalized version of MARC was adopted as the international standard ISO 2709.

In CMEA, and subsequently in the CIS, ISO 2709 was adapted as GOST 7.14-84 (ST SEV 4269-83) SIBID and GOST 7.14-98 SIBID. However, both of these standards (both the international original and the Russian-language adaptation) were too general and did not contain details significant for librarianship, and therefore could not be applied directly. About ISO 2709, we can say that almost all formats of the MARC family correspond to it in terms of determining the data format, being its subsets. But, at the same time, they usually go beyond its scope in terms of determining the specific fields of its records.

In the process of developing the use of the format in the 1970s. More than 20 different versions of it appeared, oriented to national cataloging rules (including UKMARC ( Great Britain ), INTERMARC ( France ), USMARC ( USA ), AUSMARC ( Austria ), CANMARC ( Canada ), DanMARC ( Denmark ), LCMARC, NorMARCV SwaMARC and etc.).

To overcome the incompatibility of these formats in 1977, the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) published the publication "Universal MARC Format" (UNIMARC). Its goal is proclaimed "... to facilitate the international exchange of computer readable data between national bibliographic services." It was assumed that this format should become an intermediary between any national versions of the MARC formats and, therefore, provide the conversion of data from the national format into it, and from it into another national format.

The second edition of UNIMARC was published in 1980, and the UNIMARC Handbook in 1983, which focused on cataloging monographs and serial publications. The requirements of the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) were used.

In 1987, a new version of the UNIMARC format was published, which is reflected in the UNIMARC Application Guide, “UNIMARC Manual,” which expanded its effect to other types of documents. In addition, the Guidelines provided for the possibility of using this format “as a model for the development of new machine-readable bibliographic formats”.

At the same time, the development of the USMARC format went on its own.

In its latest editions, the USMARC format has turned into a complex of specialized formats (USMARC Concise Formats) for recording bibliographic, authoritative, classification data, fund data and public information (respectively - USMARC for Bibliographic Date; USMARC Format for Authority Data, USMARC for Classification Data, USMARC Format for Holding Data, USMARC Format for Community information). Each of these formats is published, contains a similar description of the fields, instructions for use, and rules for entering and identifying data.

In the 1990s, the issue of unification of the exchange formats of English-speaking countries working on the same cataloging plans was on the agenda. The developers of the new format (the original name of IMARС) planned the harmonization of formats in the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. But the real work on coordination was carried out only by representatives of the USA and Canada ^[3] .

In 1999, as a result of the harmonization and subsequent merger of bibliographic formats in the USA and Canada (USMARC and CANMARC), it was announced that a new format (“21st Century Format”), MARC-21, would be formed on their basis. From now on, organizations focusing on the USMARC format should switch to the MARC-21 format and monitor all subsequent changes, including new additions to it (previously there were no such requirements). MARC-21 includes formats:

• bibliographic data;
• authority data;
• fund data;
• classification data;
• public information.

Currently, the MARC-21 format is used in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, in the university libraries of the UK and France, Hungary, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Finland, as well as in the National Library of Italy.

The database in MARC format is a sequence of individual records of variable length, each of which refers to one particular publication. The internal structure of each record is of variable length, with a variable composition of standard fields, some of which can be multiple. This data storage format is convenient for working with magnetic tapes on which such data was originally stored; for relational DBMSs, it was a serious inconvenience. The mapping of MARC in XML is, however, more natural.

Now there is a whole family of MARC formats. Two main branches in the development of the format competing among themselves: MARC21 and UNIMARC .

MARC21

Supported by the U.S. Library of Congress , used primarily in the U.S. and the UK

MARCXML

XML Schema Based on MARC21. Defines an XML variant that matches expressive properties with MARC21. Just like MARC21 itself, it is designed and maintained by the U.S. Library of Congress

UNIMARC

It is supported by the international organization IFLA and is used mainly in Europe and Asia.

In its second edition of 1994 and taking into account the additions of recent years, the UNIMARC format includes the fields necessary for describing such types of documents as monographic text documents (primarily modern books), old-print editions, serial editions, sheet music, graphic materials on opaque basis, audio materials, video and projection materials, electronic resources, cartographic materials.

Fields of the UNIMARC format can be divided into general and specific. General fields are used to describe any types of documents, specific - only when describing certain types. Specific fields are found in field blocks of the 0XX, 1XX, 2XX format. In block 0XX there are fields for recording unique international identifying document numbers ( ISBN , ISSN , ISMN , etc.). In block 1XX, there are encoded data fields separately for books (105), serial editions (110), video materials (115), graphic materials (116), electronic resources (135). In the 2XX descriptive information block, a specific field 230 reflects a region of specific information about electronic resources.

UNIMARC includes a fairly large list of fields, but even this list is not enough to describe special types of scientific and technical literature: dissertations, R&D reports, patent, regulatory and technical documents and industrial catalogs, and it is precisely specific fields that are missing.

The UNIMARC format has been developed over the years, it is constantly being improved now, but very slowly. This is due to the fact that the IFLA Standing Committee, supporting UNIMARC, is small and works on a voluntary basis by consensus, using mainly correspondence for mutual consultations. One of the last major changes made to the format structure by the Standing Committee is the approval of a set of fields for describing electronic resources, many of which had preliminary status in the 1987 edition. All of the above circumstances prompted the development of a version of the format, adding fields and subfields for national use that is allowed by this international standard. In addition, for most types of documents, it was decided to develop guidelines for the use of the MARC format, which should include descriptions of the specifics of filling in specific and general fields for each type, as well as recommendations for describing standard documents for each type in the national version of the format , that is, the task was to develop samples, or models, descriptions of documents.

National Versions

There are various national versions of the MARC formats. As a rule, these are versions of the formats MARC21, UNIMARC and others adapted to the linguistic and national specifics.

MARC in Russia

In Russia, there is no single universally accepted version of MARC, adapted for the needs of the Russian language and domestic libraries. A number of versions of this format are currently used. One of the widespread is RUSMARC ^[4] - the official Russian version of UNIMARC, which is promoted by part of the Russian library community with some support from the Ministry of Culture.

However, a significant part of large libraries invested quite actively in using the USMARC version adapted to the Russian language. Among them are the SPSL , which translated the standard into Russian ^[5] , and the Russian State Library , which, after the replacement of the USMARC standard MARC21, reoriented to it ^[6] .

MARC in the Former USSR

• The Belarusian communicative format for presenting bibliographic records in machine-readable form - BELMARC ^[7] , was developed on the basis of UNIMARC.

• Ukrainian version of UNIMARC: UKRMARK National format for presentation of bibliographic data (draft) .

• XML
• .mrc file - Bibliographic data ( Machine-Readable Cataloging records )
• MECOF
• ISBD
• Z39.50

• Voroisky, F. S. Fundamentals of designing automated library information systems / F. S. Voroisky. - Moscow: Fizmatlit, 2002.

• UNIMARC conversion specifications in MARC 21, version. 3.0, 2001 (English) (English)
• MARC 21
• MARC 21 XML Schema