Interoperability Between Dublin Core, Unimarc, Marc21, With AACR2R as the Standard Frameworks for Cataloguing in the Digital Environment

Abstract

The technological development of the past 25 years, such as the electronic database, online services, CD-ROMs and the introduction of internet has radically transformed the process and access to information through catalogues. AACR2 rules cover the description of and the provision of access points for all library materials. The rules for description are based on the general frame work for the description of library materials the general international standard bibliographical description (ISBD(G)). The transformation of ISBD(G) to AACR2 is one phase. The second phase leads to creation of machine readable metadata. The most popular are Dublin core, UNIMARC, MARC21. Another local library software LIBSYS which is used in Indian libraries has also been used here for presentation of the mapping between different formats to draw conclusions to make them interoperable. As far as metadata interoperability is concerned, the OPAC display, now almost completely dependant on the AACR2 the world over requires minimum data aggregation, mainly the author, title, series, subject, etc. aggregation which are the mandatory fields prescribed by IFLA.