<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Karen Coyle article on the future of MARC</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>Greetings--<BR>
<BR>
The latest issue (no. 14) of code{4}lib Journal includes the following article of potential interest:<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><FONT COLOR="#522D23"><FONT SIZE="4"><FONT FACE="Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'><B>MARC21 as Data: A Start<BR>
</B></SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Arial"><B><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>Karen Coyle<BR>
</SPAN></B><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>The forty-five-year-old MARC format, currently at version MARC21, is an obvious barrier to the provision of library services in a web-based environment. There is a growing consensus that the time has come for libraries to move to a new format. We cannot, however, decide on a new data format until we at least have an inventory of the data elements that are carried in our current one. Listing those data elements is not simple: over the years this record format has undergone constant change that has pushed the limits of the record structure and introduced inconsistencies in the way that data is coded. This article describes one person’s attempt to decode the content of MARC21.<BR>
<BR>
<a href="http://journal.code4lib.org/issues/issue14">http://journal.code4lib.org/issues/issue14</a><BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><FONT SIZE="4"><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10.5pt'>-- <BR>
Jackie Dooley<BR>
Program Officer<BR>
OCLC Research<BR>
<BR>
<a href="dooleyj@oclc.org">dooleyj@oclc.org</a><BR>
949.492.5060 (work/home) -- Pacific Time<BR>
949.295.1529 (mobile)<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'><BR>
</SPAN></FONT>
</BODY>
</HTML>