MARC (MAchine-Readable Cataloging) is a data format that emerged from a Library of Congress initiative to define a standard for catalog records that enables computers to interpret bibliographic information. MARC records use tags, indicators, and subfields to provide "signposts" that allow computers to distinguish between different elements like title, author, and subjects. Fields in MARC records are either fixed fields that use codes or variable fields for descriptive information. Common fields include titles, authors, and subjects that provide access points for finding records.

1. LIB 630 Organizing and Managing Library Collections
Spring 2013
Diving into
MARC
What’s MARC got to
do with it?

2. 2
Who’s MARC, anyway?
Artist or author?
Franz Marc
Blue Horses I
1911
Nope—none of them!

3. 3
Not a person, huh?
What does the acronym “MARC” mean?
MARC is the acronym for MAchine-Readable Cataloging.
It defines a data format that emerged from a Library of
Congress-led initiative that began thirty years ago. It
provides the mechanism by which computers exchange,
use, and interpret bibliographic information, and its data
elements make up the foundation of most library catalogs
used today. MARC became USMARC in the 1980s and
MARC 21 in the late 1990s.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Network Development and
MARC Standards Office Library of Congress
Library of Congress

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Machine-Readable?
Machine-Readable:
―Machine-readable‖ means that one particular
type of machine, a computer, can read and
interpret the data in the cataloging record.
Understanding MARC Bibliographic: Machine-
Readable Cataloging
Part I: What Does MARC Mean?

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Why Machine-Readable?
Why can’t a computer just read a catalog card?
Because the computer can’t interpret the
words on the card—it doesn’t know an author
from a title!
The MARC record contains a guide to its
data, or little ―signposts,‖ before each piece of
bibliographic information that triggers the
appropriate response from the computer.

6. 6
Signposts?
Fields, subfields and punctuation
(yes, that again!)
The place provided for each item of bibliographic
information (author, title, call number, etc.) is called
a ―field.‖
There are two kinds of fields:
Fixed fields (these have a fixed number of characters, i.e.
letters, numbers, spaces or signs, like punctuation). In the
MARC record, they are contained in the Leader and the
008 field.
Variable fields (these have a varied
number of characters)
More to come!

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What does a MARC record look like?
Do you see anything you can recognize?
What about the title and statement of
responsibility? Do you see the / symbol?
Statement of responsibility
Title
Section of MARC file for Standard Cataloging for School and Public Libraries
Downloaded from Library of Congress catalog

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What does it all mean?
The basic divisions of the MARC 21 bibliographic record are:
0xx Control information, identification and classification
number etc.
1xx Main entries (author name, meeting name, uniform
title)
2xx Titles and title paragraph (title, edition, imprint)
3xx Physical description
4xx Series statements Don’t these sound familiar?
5xx Notes
6xx Subjects access fields
7xx Added entries (author name, meeting name, uniform
title)
8xx Series added entries
9xx Reserved for local implementation
Fields

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Fixed fields
(Fixed, because they’re always of the same length)
Fixed fields use codes to convey certain
standard information about the work. In the
MARC record, they are contained in the
Leader and the 008 field.
Leader Fields: provide information
like type of record or bibliographic
level
008 Fields: contain codes for publication
status, dates, place of publication/country, etc.
GUIDE TO MARC FIELDS

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Variable fields
(Variable, because their length varies!)
Variable fields contain the descriptive information
about a work. They may also provide access points
that can be used to search for, find, and identify a
bibliographic record in the catalog. Access points
can be names, alternate titles, subject
headings, and/or call numbers. Variable fields make
up the bulk of the record. Online systems have a
certain character called an ―end of field‖
symbol which tells the computer
when to end the variable field.
GUIDE TO MARC FIELDS

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Elements of a field 1
FIELDS are marked by TAGS
A tag:
Each field is associated with a 3-digit number
called a ―tag.‖ A tag identifies the field -- the kind
of data -- that follows. Even though a printout or
screen display may show the tag immediately
followed by indicators (making it appear to be a 4-
or 5-digit number), the tag is always the first 3
digits.
 Two common tags are:
100 tag marks a personal name main entry (author)
245 tag marks the title information (which includes the
title, other title information, and the statement of
responsibility)
MARC Terms and Their Definitions Part III of Understanding
MARC Bibliographic: Machine-Readable Cataloging

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Elements of a field 2
Some fields are further defined by INDICATORS
Indicators do just that—they ―indicate‖ to the
computer that it must do something. The indicators
are the next two characters after the tag in variable
fields.
Each indicator value is a number from 0 to 9.
(Although the rules say it can be a letter, letters are
uncommon.) Even though two indicators together
may look like a 2-digit number, they really are two
single-digit numbers.
Indicators: 1 indicates a separate title
Tag for title information entry is required ; 4 says “skip first 4
characters and file under “emperor’s”
245 14 $a The emperor's new clothes / $c adapted from Hans
Christian Andersen and illustrated by Janet Stevens.

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Elements of a field 3
Subfields:
Most of the fields in a MARC record contain several
pieces of information. … Each of these pieces is called
a Subfield and there are various ways to set these
apart and to let the computer know where specific
pieces of information can be found. Some of the
possible subfields in the 245 field mentioned are title,
subtitle, statement of responsibility, and format (also
called medium).
Tag Indicators, indicating 1: separate title entry; and 4: skip 4 characters
Delimiters and subfield codes
245 14$aThe school library media manager /$cBlanche Woolls.

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Delimiters? Subfield codes?
What’s a delimiter?
A delimiter is a character used to separate subfields.
Different software programs use different
characters to represent the delimiter on the screen
or on printouts.
The most common delimiter characters are $ or |
Subfield code?
Subfield codes are one lowercase letter (occasionally
a number) preceded by a delimiter. Each subfield
code indicates what type of data follows it.
Example:
300 ## $a 675 p. : $b ill. ; $c 24 cm
Field 300 is Physical description. There are no defined indicators (##)
$a=pagination $b illustrations $c size of item

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Important fields to be aware of
020 International Standard Book Number -- (ISBN)
(R, or Repeatable i.e. there can be more than one 020 field)
Indicators undefined [entered as ##].
Subfields used most often:
$a -- International Standard Book Number
$c -- Terms of availability (often a price)
$z -- Cancelled/invalid ISBN (R)
Example:
020 ## $a 0877547637
The computer is programmed to recognize that field 020 means
the standard number and that $a in this field stands for ISBN, so
it will display or print that out as ISBN:0877547637

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A typical 2xx level entry
The 245 tag: Title and statement of responsibility
245 14$aThe school library media manager
/$cBlanche Woolls.
Notice the / ? Remember what that means?
That’s right, it’s the ISBD punctuation that says what follows is
whoever’s responsible for the item!
Then what comes before it is the title—right?
The $a is the MARC sign (called a delimiter) for the title subfield
The $c delimiter indicates the author subfield
The 14 isn’t fourteen, it’s 2 indicators: 1 to show that a title
added entry is needed, 4 to tell the computer to skip 4 spaces
when alphabetizing, i.e. skip ―The‖ and the space (4
characters: t,h,e,space) that follow and start at ―school‖

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Two more 245 examples
245 00$aLibrary evaluation :$ba casebook and can-do
guide /$cDanny P. Wallace, Connie Van Fleet, editors.
Library evaluation : a casebook and can-do guide /
Danny P. Wallace, Connie Van Fleet, editors.
245 00$aWorld Book millennium 2000$h[computer
file].
World Book millenium 2000 [computer file].
Notice here that the GMD [General Material Designation] is
included, since that’s part of the title and statement of
responsibility area, and this isn’t a book

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082 - Dewey Decimal Classification Number
R i.e. repeatable—there can be several numbers
First indicator: (Usually called Indicator 1)
Indicates which edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification
schedules was used
Abridged edition – indicator 0 Full edition– indicator 1.
Second indicator: (Usually called Indicator 2)
Indicates whether the Dewey Classification number was assigned
by the Library of Congress or by another library or vendor.
LC: 0 Other: 4
Subfields:
$a Classification no. (R) $b item no. (NR) $z edition no. (NR)

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100 Main entry -- Personal name -- (primary author)
(NR [not repeatable]; there can be only one main entry)
Indicator 1: Type of personal name entry element
0 -- Forename
1 -- Surname (this is the most common form)
3 -- Family name
Indicator 2 undefined.
Indicator 2 became obsolete in 1990. Older records may display 0 or 1
Subfields used most often:
$a -- Personal name
$b -- Numeration
$c -- Titles and other words associated with a name (R)
$q -- Fuller form of name
$d -- Dates associated with a name (generally, year of birth)
Example:
100 1# $a Gregory, Ruth W. $q (Ruth Wilhelme), $d 1910-

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What does “main entry” mean?
main entry
The entry in a library catalog that provides the
fullest description of a bibliographic item, by which
the work is to be uniformly identified and cited. In
AACR2, the main entry is the primary access point.
In the card catalog, it includes all the secondary
headings under which the item is cataloged (called
added entries). For most items, main
entry is under name of author. When
there is no author, main entry is under
title.

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245 Title Statement (NR)
Indicator 1: Title added entry
(i.e. Should the title be indexed as a title added entry?)
0 -- No title added entry (indicates a title main entry; i.e. no author is
given
1 -- Title added entry (the proper indicator when an author is given in
field 1XX; the most common situation)
Indicator 2: Nonfiling characters
0-9 --Number of nonfiling characters present, including spaces; usually set
at zero, except when the title begins with an article; e.g., for The
robe, the second indicator would be set to 4. The letters T, h, e, and the
space following them are then ignored in alphabetizing titles. The
record will be automatically filed under "r" -- for Robe.
Subfields used most often:
$a --Title proper $h --Medium (often used for non-book media) $p --Name of
part/section of a work (R) $b --Reminder of title (subtitles, etc.) $c --
Remainder of title page transcription / Statement of responsibility

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260 Publication, distribution, etc. (Imprint) (R)
Indicator 1:
Sequence of publishing statements
# -- No information provided
Indicator 2:
Undefined, therefore #
Subfields used most often:
$a -- Place of publication, distribution, etc. (R)
$b -- Name of publisher, distributor, etc. (R)
$c -- Date of publication, distribution, etc. (R)
Example:
260 ## $a New York : $b Chelsea House, $c 1986.

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300 Physical description (R)
Indicators undefined: ##
Subfields used most often:
$a -- Extent (number of pages) (R)
$b -- Other physical details (usually illustration
information)
$c -- Dimensions (cm.) (R)
$e -- Accompanying material (for
example, "teacher's guide" or "manual")
Example:
300 ## $a 139 p. : $b ill. ; $c 24 cm.

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Where can I find more details about fields and tags?
Tag of the Month from Follett
Need help understanding MARC tags?
Turn to Tag of the Month. This helpful resource
features a new topic every month, including a
description of the tag's uses and working examples.
You'll find Tag of the Month only at Follett Software.
The Tag of the Month page also features links to
other helpful cataloging resources, including the
online version of Understanding MARC Bibliographic:
Machine-Readable Cataloging, the definitive book on
MARC, co-authored by the Library of Congress and
Follett Software.

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Will I have to create a MARC record?
Highly unlikely!
If you do the original cataloging with
cataloging software, then the computer will
be programmed to automatically create the
MARC record, for export to another
program, or
You can subscribe to a MARC creation
service from your vendor, e.g. Follett through
Alliance Plus™ and Alliance A/V™
For copy cataloging, you can download from
another source and import to your software

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How can I import?
You can download MARC records for free
1. Go to http://catalog.loc.gov in your browser and then
click on Basic Search.
2. Conduct your search.
3. If only one item is found, you will see the single record
display. Otherwise select the appropriate title from
the list.
4. Click on the Full Record tab and examine the record.
5. You can then click the MARC Tags tab and see the
MARC record.
Continued on
next slide!

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Importing Marc part deux
6. If the cataloging record meets with your approval,
scroll down to the bottom of the screen. You will see the
following box:
7. Click on the drop-down menu and select one of the
MARC alternatives. Then click on the Press to SAVE
or PRINT button.
8. The file will either download automatically or you’ll be
asked to open or save it.
9. The file will have a .mrc extension, but it is a text file
and can be opened with Notepad if you need to.

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Importing MARC Part the Third
10. Open your cataloging/circulation software
11. Import according to the software instructions
(they’re all different, of course!)
See, for example:

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Give us an example!
Brief Record:

30. 30
MARC Record (selected tags)
Library of Congress shows delimiters as | rather than $
Tag 010 is LC control number
Tag 020 is ISBN
Tag 040 is Cataloging Source
i.e. who did the cataloging
Tag 050 is LC classification
Tag 082 gives Dewey classification
number
Subfield |2 (or $2) shows that number
could be extended to 025.322
Tags in the 500s are Notes
Tag 650 marks subject headings

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Does MARC have a home?
The Network Development and MARC Standards
Office plans and develops library and information
network standards at the Library of Congress. It is
the maintenance agency for several national
standards, including the MARC 21 formats.To
contact it, please e-mail ndmso@loc.gov.
The MARC Standards webpage has links to
extensive documentation on MARC 21, including
the concise formats, code and field lists, information
about MARC 21 development, and additional
documentation to help users with the MARC 21
format. Some of the documentation is available in
translation.

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What about RDA and FRBR?
Training material from Library Congress

33. 33
See also:
MARC isn’t Dead, but
it is a Dead End
MARC, not dead yet?
We know that MARC
isn’t dead; the
communications
format, along with its
AACR2 companion
rules for describing
bibliographic
resources, are deeply
and daily ingrained in
our systems and
processes. For the same
reasons, I think it is fair
to say that MARC isn’t
dying.
Posted on October 29, 2010

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Will MARC die?
MARC Must Die
When MARC was created, the Beatles were a hot new group
and those of us alive at the time wore really embarrassing
clothes and hairstyles. . . . The very nature of the MARC
(machine-readable cataloging) record is, to some degree, an
anachronism. It was developed in an age when memory,
storage, and processing power were all rare and expensive
commodities. Now they are ubiquitous and cheap.
With the advent of the web, XML, portable computing, and
other technological advances, libraries can become flexible,
responsive organizations that serve their users in exciting
new ways. Or not. If libraries cling to outdated standards,
they will find it increasingly difficult to serve their clients as
they expect and deserve.

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But it’s not dead yet!