Page 57 - DLIS405_INFORMATION_STORAGE_AND_RETRIEVAL

Information Storage and Retrieval Seema Sharma, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 5: MAchine-Readable Cataloguing and Online

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction

5.1 MAchine-Readable Cataloguing
5.2 Common Communication Format

5.3 History of Online Public Access Catalogue
5.4 Summary

5.5 Keywords

5.6 Review Questions
5.7 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Describe machine-readable cataloguing
• Define common communication format
• Discuss about the history of online public access catalogue.

Introduction

MARC is an acronym, used in the field of library science that stands for MAchine-Readable
Cataloguing. MAchine-readable means that one particular type of machine, a computer, can read
and interpret the data in the cataloguing record and thus, provide online a means of discovering
information. Many words have been written on the subject of the MAchine-Readable Cataloguing
(MARC) Program: the events that led to the pilot project, the development of the format, the
operational Distribution Service, the influence of MARC on standardization, and the impetus it
gave to library automation projects and to the creation of networks here and abroad.
An Online Public Access Catalogue (often abbreviated as OPAC or simply Library Catalogue) is an
online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries. Users search a library catalogue
principally to locate books and other material physically located at a library.

5.1 MAchine-Readable Cataloguing

The MARC standards consist of the MARC formats, which are standards for the representation and
communication of bibliographic and related information in machine-readable form, and related
documentation. It defines a bibliographic data format that was developed by Henriette Avram at

52 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY