The Necessity of Standards

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The Necessity of Standards

Standardization is a pillar of theMARC record community. It was seen as a standard from the time of its inception. It is this standardization that facilitates the sharing of cataloging information between systems all over the world. If one were to create his/her own style of organizing bibliographic information, they would, in effect, be denying other libraries - and their patrons - the use of these records. Without standards, cost becomes impractical: one of the reasons for the consistent development of the MARC record, for sharing cataloging information, is the fact that one person can create a record to the benefit of countless others, thereby relieving the burden of overtaxed resources (time and money).

If the greatest consideration is given to the patron, then surely the MARC record serves an indispensable purpose. Imagine the patron in an underfunded library, one without access to MARC records, and his/her fruitless pursuit of information not readily held in the physical structure of that library. This patron would have to overtax his/her own resources (mostly time) by sifting through any number of print reference tools which may or may not direct them to the information desired. He/she would be forced to consider, among other things, currency; whether or not this or that library still had in its possession the relevant materials.

MARC records afford one the oppurtunity of "instant enlightenment." A patron can learn what libraries carry what materials, if that item is available at that time, or even discover alternate avenues of searching for relevant materials by simply looking at the MARC record itself. This is made possible by the standardization of MARC 21, which is maintained by MARC 21 Specifications for Record Structure, Character Sets, and Exchange Media, issued by the Library of Congress.


	Playing With MARC \| home A Brief History \| The Machine-Readable Cataloging Record \| Content Designators \| Field Tag Formulas \| The Necessity of Standards \| Bibliography The Necessity of Standards Standardization is a pillar of theMARC record community. It was seen as a standard from the time of its inception. It is this standardization that facilitates the sharing of cataloging information between systems all over the world. If one were to create his/her own style of organizing bibliographic information, they would, in effect, be denying other libraries - and their patrons - the use of these records. Without standards, cost becomes impractical: one of the reasons for the consistent development of the MARC record, for sharing cataloging information, is the fact that one person can create a record to the benefit of countless others, thereby relieving the burden of overtaxed resources (time and money). If the greatest consideration is given to the patron, then surely the MARC record serves an indispensable purpose. Imagine the patron in an underfunded library, one without access to MARC records, and his/her fruitless pursuit of information not readily held in the physical structure of that library. This patron would have to overtax his/her own resources (mostly time) by sifting through any number of print reference tools which may or may not direct them to the information desired. He/she would be forced to consider, among other things, currency; whether or not this or that library still had in its possession the relevant materials. MARC records afford one the oppurtunity of "instant enlightenment." A patron can learn what libraries carry what materials, if that item is available at that time, or even discover alternate avenues of searching for relevant materials by simply looking at the MARC record itself. This is made possible by the standardization of MARC 21, which is maintained by MARC 21 Specifications for Record Structure, Character Sets, and Exchange Media, issued by the Library of Congress.