Page 153 - DLIS007_LIBRARY AUTOMATION

Library Automation

Notes 8.1.2 Machine-Readable Cataloguing

In 1964, the Council on Library Resources commissioned a study about capturing cataloguing
data in machine-readable form. A report called “The Recording of Library of Congress
Bibliographic Data” in Machine Form resulted from the study, and was used as the basis for the
first Conference on Machine-Readable Catalogue Copy in 1965. Participants at the conference
determined the requirements for a machine-readable record and discussed how it might be used
in libraries.

Did u know? The Library of Congress’ Information Systems Office developed and
distributed a report based on this meeting titled “A Proposed Format for a Standardized
Machine-Readable Catalogue Record” (Avram, 1968).
During a second conference held at the Library of Congress, the MARC Pilot Project was
conceived. Planning for the project began in February 1966. The MARC I format was created,
codes for place of publication, language, and publisher were developed, computer software was
designed, and procedures were developed and documented. In November 1966, the Information
Systems Office of the Library of Congress began to distribute magnetic tapes of MARC records
to 16 libraries that agreed to participate in the pilot project. The tapes contained English language
Library of Congress catalogue records that were formatted in MARC I. During the pilot project,
the Library of Congress converted 35,000 records. Some of the libraries that participated in the
pilot project were able to use MARC records to automate some aspects of their library operations.
Some of the pilot libraries, however, struggled with a lack of computer programming knowledge
as well as a lack of experience with complex bibliographic data (Torkington, 1974).
The pilot project officially ended June 30, 1967, but distribution of records continued into 1968
(Avram, 1968). The Library of Congress decided that the pilot project was an overall success and
began to work on the MARC II format in March 1967, while the pilot project was still being
carried out. The MARC II format was developed based on feedback from libraries that participated
in the pilot project. The Information Sciences and Automation Division of the American Library
Association formed a Machine-Readable Cataloguing Format Committee to review the MARC
II format (Avram, 1968). MARC II was designed to serve as a communication or exchange
medium. The Library of Congress began general distribution of MARC II records in March 1969.
Responsibility for creating MARC records was transferred from the Library of Congress’
Information Systems Office to a newly created department called the MARC Editorial Office. At
first, coverage was limited to American imprints, but this was later expanded to include current
English language imprints. By the end of 1972, the MARC database contained more than 300,000
records, and projects to develop MARC systems began in several other countries including
Great Britain, France, Italy, West Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan. The development of the
MARC format laid the foundation for libraries to share bibliographic data. Databases and services
were subsequently created to support that sharing.

8.1.3 Shared Cataloguing

The Ohio College Association hired Frederick G. Kilgour in 1967 to establish the Ohio College
Library Centre (OCLC), which was the world’s first computerized library network. In 1971
OCLC introduced a shared cataloguing database, now called WorldCat, to support 54 academic
libraries in Ohio. This online cataloguing system allowed libraries to achieve dramatic cost
savings by sharing bibliographic records. One library could create an online bibliographic
record and other libraries could use that same record to create cards with local information for
their print catalogues. The Alden Library at Ohio University increased the number of books it
catalogued by a third and simultaneously reduced its staff by 17 positions in the first year of use.

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