MARC HARMONISATION: A REMINDER
In June, the British Library launched a major consultation exercise to
determine the future maintenance and development of the UKMARC format.
The UK library and information community together with appropriate
professional bodies, system suppliers and overseas stakeholders, are
invited by the British Library to consider and advise on their
requirements for extensive harmonisation between the UKMARC format and
MARC21.
We are grateful for the many helpful and constructive responses
received so far.
However, we are keen to ensure that as many users of the UKMARC format
as possible make their views known, as this issue is of vital
importance to the future of bibliographic services and standards in
the UK and to users of British Library MARC data.
We would therefore urge those of you who have still to respond to do
so at your earliest convenience. To summarise, the principal options
are:
- Continue using UKMARC, adopting unique fields from MARC21 to
enhance UKMARC's capabilities where they do not conflict with existing
UKMARC practice. This represents a continuation of existing policy.
- Adopt a partially harmonised format that changes many fields to
MARC21 but retains some unique features of UKMARC, e.g. ISBD-related
subfield encoding and the UKMARC method of treating of multi-level
works. This is the solution recommended by the BIC (Book Industry
Communication) Bibliographic Standards Technical Subgroup in the
document MARC Harmonisation: a report to the British Library from,
October 1999
- Adopt the full MARC21 format, abandoning UKMARC altogether.
Full details are available on the British Library web pages at:-
www.bl.uk/services/bsds/nbs/marc-harmony
And comprise:-
- A letter, incorporating an outline of implications and background
issues from Stuart Ede, Director, Collection Management, British
Library
- A questionnaire / response form.
- The full text of the document "MARC Harmonisation: a report to the
British Library from the BIC (Book Industry Communication)
Bibliographic Standards Technical Subgroup", October 1999
Consultation questionnaire/response forms may be completed and
submitted direct from the marc-harmony web page above.
The consultation period closes on October 31st 2000.
Printed copies of the report MARC Harmonisation, the letter and
questionnaire/ response form may also be obtained upon request from: -
James Elliot
Bibliographic Policy & Liaison
The British Library
National Bibliographic Service
Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BQ
Tel: + 44 (0) 1937 546322
Fax: + 44 (0) 1937 546586
In addition, users are encouraged to debate and discuss the issue of
MARC harmonisation on the UKMARC discussion list at:
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