September / October 2001 Vol. 33, no. 5

National Library of Canada, Library of Congress, and British Library Agree on Format Convergence

The National Library of Canada and the Library of Congress welcome the recent decision taken by the British Library to adopt MARC 21. The decision was reached following an extensive consultation exercise carried out by the British Library with the library community in the United Kingdom that clearly indicated support for full adoption of MARC 21. Adopted in 1999, MARC 21 is the harmonization of the CAN/MARC and USMARC formats into a single format.

At the May 2001 meeting of the MARC Harmonization Coordinating Committee, all three libraries agreed to work together in the ongoing development and maintenance of the MARC 21 format. The current agreement between the National Library of Canada and the Library of Congress will be reviewed and modified to accommodate the participation of the British Library. Technical staff from the three institutions will proceed with resolving any outstanding format issues.

The three national libraries on the Coordinating Committee are committed to ensuring not only the ongoing development and maintenance of MARC 21, but also its interoperability with emerging standards in metadata and exchange formats.

For further information, please contact

Ingrid Parent
Director General
Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services
National Library of Canada
Telephone: (819) 994-6887
Fax: (819) 953-0291
E-mail: ingrid.parent@nlc-bnc.ca