[Overview]
In 1977, the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations)
published the first edition of UNIMARC: Universal MARC Format, followed
by a second edition in 1980 and a UNIMARC Handbook in 1983. UNIMARC
(Universal Machine Readable Cataloging) is a common bibliographic
format for library catalogs, as a solution to the 20 existing national
MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) formats, which meant lack of
compatibility and extensive editing when bibliographical records were
exchanged. With UNIMARC, catalogers would be able to process records
created in any MARC format. Records in one MARC format would first be
converted into UNIMARC, and then be converted into another MARC format.
[In Depth (published in 1999)]
At the time, the future of online catalogs was linked to the
harmonization of the MARC format. Set up in the early 1970s, MARC is an
acronym for Machine Readable Catalogue. This acronym is rather
misleading as MARC is neither a kind of catalog nor a method of
cataloguing. According to UNIMARC: An Introduction, a document of the
Universal Bibliographic Control and International MARC Core Programme,
MARC is "a short and convenient term for assigning labels to each part
of a catalogue record so that it can be handled by computers. While the
MARC format was primarily designed to serve the needs of libraries, the
concept has since been embraced by the wider information community as a
convenient way of storing and exchanging bibliographic data."
After MARC came MARC II. MARC II established rules to be followed
consistently over the years. The MARC communication format intended to
be "hospitable to all kinds of library materials; sufficiently flexible
for a variety of applications in addition to catalogue production; and
usable in a range of automated systems."
Over the years, however, despite cooperation efforts, several versions
of MARC emerged, e.g. UKMARC, INTERMARC and USMARC, whose paths
diverged because of different national cataloguing practices and
requirements. We had an extended family of more than 20 MARC formats.
Differences in data content meant some extensive editing was needed
before records could be exchanged.
One solution to incompatible data was to create an international MARC
format - called UNIMARC - which would accept records created in any
MARC format. Records in one MARC format would first be converted into
UNIMARC, and then be converted into another MARC format, so that each
national bibliographic agency would need to write only two
programs - one to convert into UNIMARC and one to convert from
UNIMARC - instead of having to write twenty programs for the conversion
of each MARC format (e.g. INTERMARC to UKMARC, USMARC to UKMARC etc.).
In 1977, the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions) published UNIMARC: Universal MARC Format, followed by a
second edition in 1980 and a UNIMARC Handbook in 1983. These
publications focused primarily on the cataloguing of monographs and
serials, while taking into account international efforts towards the
standardization of bibliographic information reflected in the ISBDs
(International Standard Bibliographic Descriptions).
In the mid-1980s, UNIMARC expanded to cover documents other than
monographs and serials. A new UNIMARC Manual was produced in 1987, with
an updated description of UNIMARC. By this time UNIMARC had been
adopted by several bibliographic agencies as their in-house format.
Developments didn't stop there. A standard for authorities files was
set up in 1991, as explained on the website of IFLA in 1998:
"Previously agencies had entered an author's name into the
bibliographic format as many times as there were documents associated
with him or her. With the new system they created a single
authoritative form of the name (with references) in the authorities
file; the record control number for this name was the only item
included in the bibliographic file. The user would still see the name
in the bibliographic record, however, as the computer could import it
from the authorities file at a convenient time. So in 1991
UNIMARC/Authorities was published."
In 1991 a Permanent UNIMARC Committee was also created to regularly
monitor the development of UNIMARC. Users realized that continuous
maintenance - and not just the occasional rewriting of manuals - was
needed, to make sure all changes were compatible with what already
existed.
On top of adopting UNIMARC as a common format, The British Library
(using UKMARC), the Library of Congress (using USMARC) and the National
Library of Canada (using CAN/MARC) worked on harmonizing their national
MARC formats. A three-year program to achieve a common MARC format was
agreed on by the three libraries in December 1995.
Other libraries began using SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language)
as a common format for both the bibliographic records and the
hypertextual and multimedia documents linked to them. As most
publishers were using SGML for book records, librarians and publishers
began working on a convergence between MARC and SGML. The Library of
Congress worked on a DTD (Definition of Type of Document, which defines
its logical structure) for the USMARC format. A DTD for the UNIMARC
format was developed by the European Union. Some European libraries
chose SGML to encode their bibliographic data. In the Belgian Union
Catalog, for example, the use of SGML allowed to add descriptive
elements and to facilitate the production of an annual CD-ROM.