International acces to bibliographic data: MARC and MARC-related activisies

Abstract

Formals for the exchange of bibliographic data use the ISO 2709 record structure which started out as the structure for the Library of Congress MARC format. The UNISIST Reference Manual was an early international exhange format developed by ICSU —AB and Unesco and included calaloguing rules suitable for use by A & I Services. The national libraries developed UNIMARC under IFLA auspiccs as their exchange format since the national formats were not totally compatible. Unesco, concerned about the lack of compability between the major international exchange formats, sponsored a symposium, resulting from which a Common Communication Format was developed and ISO began work on a data elemem directory. International formats also exist for nuclear and agricultural information as well as for serials data. Other formats exist which are used internationally and have different structural characteristics. The International MARC Network Study Steering Committee has taken an interest in the exchange of bibliographic data and has organized a test of UNIMARC and supervised a UNIMARC Handbook to clraify the format. International exchange formats tend to acquire accompanying calaloguing rules: indeed they will only be really effective if there are internationally accepied calaloguing rules and authority files.