Network Working Group R. Guenther
Request for Comments: 2220 Library of Congress
Category: Informational Network Devt. & MARC Standards Office
October 1997
The Application/MARC Content-type
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1997). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This memorandum provides a mechanism for representing objects which
are files of Machine-Readable Cataloging records (MARC). The MARC
formats are standards for the representation and communication of
bibliographic and related information. A MARC record contains
metadata for an information resource following MARC format
specifications.
1. IntrodUCtion
The MARC formats are sets of codes and content designators defined
for encoding metadata for five types of data: bibliographic,
holdings, authority, classification, and community information. The
structure of MARC records is an implementation of national and
international standards, ANSI Z39.2 (Information Interchange Format)
and ISO 2709 (Format for Information Interchange). Codes and
conventions in the formats identify and characterize data elements
within a record and support the manipulation of those data.
MARC formats are communication formats, primarily designed to provide
specification for the exchange of bibliographic and related
information between systems. They are widely used in a variety of
exchange and processing environments. They do not mandate internal
storage or display formats to be used by different systems.
2. Definition
Since there are different flavors of MARC which would be processed by
different applications, this content-type/suBType refers to the
harmonized USMARC/CANMARC specification. Additional content-
types/subtypes may be defined in the future (e.g.
application/unimarc).
MARC records involve three elements: the record structure, content
designation, and data content. Only those records that contain all
three elements according to the standard would use this content-
type/subtype, i.e. content extracted from the structure would not.
Since MARC does not mandate an internal storage format, parameters
have not been assigned to specific implementations (e.g. OCLC-MARC,
LC-MARC, etc.). In addition, parameters have not been defined for
the specific type of MARC format (e.g. bibliographic, authority,
holdings), since the information is contained in the Leader portion
of the record.
3. Registration Information
To: ietf-types@iana.org
Media type name: application
Media subtype name: marc
Required parameters: None
Optional parameters: None
Encoding considerations: MARC records may contain long lines and/or
arbitrary octet values. The base64 content-transfer-encoding is
recommended for transmission of MARC over electronic mail.
4. Security Considerations
There are no known security risks associated with the use or viewing
of MARC data. A MARC record may have security classification
associated with the document it describes or metadata in that record.
Although this does not present any security risk to the user of MARC
data, it may provide an opportunity for a security breach for the
source of classified MARC data.
5. Interoperability Considerations
MARC is a communication format and is designed for interoperability
between different systems that may store data in local formats
internally.
6. Published Specification
"USMARC Format for Bibliographic Data"; "USMARC Format for Authority
Data"; "USMARC Format for Holdings Data"; "USMARC Format for
Classification Data"; "USMARC Format for Community Information".
Additional information:
File extension: .mrc
OID: 1.2.840.10003.5.10
Person & email address to contact for further information:
Network Development & MARC Standards Office <ndmso@loc.gov>
101 Independence Ave. SE
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540-4102 U.S.A.
7. References
Library of Congress, Network Development and MARC Standards
Office, "USMARC Format for Bibliographic Data", 1994- .
"USMARC Format for Authority Data", 1993- .
"USMARC Format for Holdings Data", 1989- .
"USMARC Format for Classification Data", 1991- .
"USMARC Format for Community Information", 1993- .
8. Author's Address
Rebecca Guenther
Network Development & MARC Standards Office
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. SE
Washington, DC 20540-4102 U.S.A.
Phone: +1 (202) 707-5092
FAX: +1 (202) 707-0115
EMail: rgue@loc.gov
9. Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1997). All Rights Reserved.
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