MARC 21 : The Standard Exchange Format for the 21 st Century

Abstract

Standardisation in the exchange formats and structure of a database is essential to facilitate exchange of data in efficient and effective way between the libraries. The adoption of different standard creates incompatibility in exchanging data which act as a major barrier in the use of bibliographic and related information. Format compatibilities are necessary for computerized cataloguing data and these are being standardized by the ISO. The MARC 21 format is one of the popular standard exchange format which adhere to ISO 2709 standard and are using majority of the countries in the world. For exchanging data in machine readable form. This paper discusses the history and development of MARC formats, its structure and salient features which made MARC format a set of standard for identifying, storing and communicating cataloguing information.