MARC 21 Concise Bibliographic: Introduction

This is an ARCHIVED VERSION of the 2000 electronic edition of the MARC 21 Concise Formats. Please see www.loc.gov/marc/concise/ for the most up-to-date version of the electronic MARC 21 Concise Formats.

The MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data is designed to be a carrier for bibliographic information about printed and manuscript textual materials, computer files, maps, music, serials, visual materials, and mixed materials. Bibliographic data commonly includes titles, names, subjects, notes, publication data, and information about the physical description of an item. The bibliographic format contains data elements for the following types of material:

Books

textual material that is monographic in nature.

 

Serials

textual items with a recurring pattern of publication, e.g., periodicals, newspapers, yearbooks.

 

Computer files

used for computer software, numeric data, computer-oriented multimedia, online systems or services. Other classes of electronic resources are coded for their most significant aspect. Material may be monographic or serial in nature.

 

Maps

all types of cartographic materials, including sheet maps and globes.

 

Music

printed music, manuscript music, nonmusical sound recordings, and musical sound recordings.

 

Visual materials

projected media, two-dimensional graphics, three-dimensional artifacts or naturally occurring objects, and kits. Used for archival visual materials when format or medium is being emphasized.

 

Mixed materials

primarily archival and manuscript collections of a mixture of forms of material. Material may be monographic or serial in nature.

Kinds of Bibliographic Record

MARC bibliographic records are distinguished from all other types of MARC records by specific codes in Leader/06 (Type of record) which identifies the following bibliographic record types.

Fill Character and Related Values

Code u (Unknown or unspecified) when it is defined indicates that the creator of the record attempted to supply a code but was unable to determine what the appropriate code should be.

Code n (Not applicable) is defined in many coded positions to indicate that the characteristic defined by the position is not applicable to a specific type of item or kind of record.

Typographic Conventions

Throughout this document, the following typographical conventions are used:

0

The graphic 0 represents the digit zero in tags, fixed-position character position citations, and indicator positions. This character is distinct from an uppercase letter O used in examples or text.

#

The graphic symbol # is used for a blank (hex 20) in coded fields and in other special situations where the existence of the character blank might be ambiguous.

$

The graphic symbol $ is used for the delimiter (hex 1F) portion of a subfield code. Within the text, subfield codes are referred to as subfield $a, for example.

/

Specific character positions of fixed-length data elements, such as those in the Leader, Directory, and field 008, are expressed using a slash and the number of the character position, e.g., Leader/06.

1

The graphic 1 represents the digit one (hex 31) and the lowercase roman-alphabet letter l (eye) (hex 6C) in examples or text.

|

The graphic | represents a fill character (hex 7C).

Go to top of document

Organization of the Electronic Version of the Concise Format

Obsolete and deleted content designators are not listed. They are found the full printed version of the format and in the electronic MARC field lists.

Information for Translators and Other Users
Items highlighted in red indicate changes made after the 1998 edition of the USMARC Concise Formats
was published (This publication included the 1994 base text, along with Updates No. 1 (March 1995), No. 2 (March 1996)
and No. 3 (July 1997) of the USMARC Format for Bibliographic Data).

Items highlighted in green indicate changes made to the online format only. These changes will be corrected in the 2001 printed edition of the MARC 21 Concise Formats (Available soon).

For information about ordering the full MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data, please see: Print | CD-ROM

Go to top of document