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.
Guenther Informational [Page 1]
RFC 2220 Application/MARC Content-type October 1997 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. Guenther Informational [Page 2]
RFC 2220 Application/MARC Content-type October 1997 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 Guenther Informational [Page 3]
RFC 2220 Application/MARC Content-type October 1997 9. Full Copyright Statement Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1997). All Rights Reserved. This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implmentation may be prepared, copied, published andand distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than English. The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns. This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE." Guenther Informational [Page 4]
mirror server hosted at Truenetwork, Russian Federation.