About OCLC-MARC records
OCLC-MARC records describes records produced since November 1993. It also lists documentation that describes records produced before November 1993.
Scope
OCLC-MARC Records describes the record structure, character sets, and exchange media formatting for OCLC-MARC records via electronic file transfer, and via export. This manual also provides a list of content designators and their names.
Audience for this manual
OCLC-MARC Records assumes familiarity with ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standards associated with MARC record processing. It assumes a general knowledge of computerized data processing and data processing in libraries.
Type of records
OCLC-MARC records can be bibliographic records or authority records. An OCLC-MARC record is composed of three elements:
- The record structure
- The content designation
- The data content of the record
OCLC-MARC record structure
OCLC-MARC record structure is an implementation of the ANSI Information Interchange Format (ANSI Z39.2). This manual describes OCLC-MARC record structure following the outline of ANSI Z39.2 and indicates the specific choices made for OCLC’s implementation of the standard.
OCLC-MARC record content designation
This document lists tags, fields, indicators, and data elements for OCLC’s implementation of ANSI Z39.2. Much of the information in this document is based on information distributed by the Library of Congress in the following publications: MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data, MARC 21 Format for Authority Data, and MARC 21 Format for Holdings Data.
- For complete descriptions of content designators in OCLC bibliographic records, see Bibliographic Formats and Standards.
- For OCLC authority records, see Authorities: Format and indexes.
OCLC-MARC record content
For OCLC standards for record content, see Bibliographic Formats and Standards and Authorities: Format and indexes.
Typographical conventions
Throughout this document, the following typographical conventions are used:
- Typographical conventions - Table
-
Convention Description 0 The graphic 0 represents the digit zero. This character must be distinguished from the uppercase alphabet letter O. 
The graphic symbol is used for blank.‡ The graphic symbol ‡ is used for the delimiter portion of a subfield code. / The graphic / is used to specify character positions of the leader, directory, and fields 007 and 008, e.g., leader/06, 007/00, and 008/12. 1 The graphic 1 represents the digit one. This character must be distinguished from the lowercase alphabet letter l (el) and uppercase alphabet letter I (eye). ■ The graphic ■ represents a fill character.
Previous editions of documentation
Since record processing specifications change, OCLC makes the following documents available if you need to process OCLC-MARC records produced during the periods listed:
Caution
Each document covers different time periods. New editions do not supersede previous editions. Do not discard previous editions.
Use of the word obsolete
In OCLC-MARC Records, any element, value, field, subfield, etc., marked obsolete is no longer valid. Current records will not contain these invalid codes. However, records supplied from archives (e.g., OCLC Bibliographic Snapshot service records) may contain obsolete MARC coding.
OCLC services
In addition to export from OCLC Connexion™, the following OCLC services provide OCLC-MARC records: