UNIMARCThe primary purpose of UNIMARC is to facilitate the international exchange of bibliographic data in machine-readable form between national bibliographic agencies. UNIMARC may also be used as a model for the development of new machine-readable bibliographic formats. The UNIMARC bibliographic format was first published in 1977, with a second edition in 1980. A revised and expanded version was issued in 1983, with further revisions in 1987 and 1994. In addition the concise Classification format was issued in 2000, and the Holdings format was issued in 2004. UNIMARC records are composed of three elements: the record label, the content designation and the data content of the record. The record structure is an implementation of the standard for information interchange (ANSI/NISO Z39.2 and ISO 2709). Thus MARC records have three main components:
The content designation of the data elements is usually defined by standards outside the formats: International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD), Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR), the various thesauri for subject headings, and the different classification schemes. UNIMARC is maintained by an IFLA committee, the Permanent UNIMARC Committee (PUC). Bibliographic formatUNIMARC records contain bibliographic information about printed and manuscript text materials, computer files, maps, music, serials, visual materials, and mixed media materials. Bibliographic data commonly includes titles, names, subjects, publication data, notes and information about the physical nature of the item. Fields in this format are:
Holdings formatThis format was developed to describe information concerning the specific characteristics of a bibliographic unit or a set of bibliographic units in a given institution. Fields in this format are:
Classification formatThis format was developed to describe information concerning the specific characteristics of a bibliographic unit or a set of bibliographic units in a given institution. Fields in this format are:
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