The MARC records for Learning Express Library and EBSCO have recently been updated so that they can be added to your OPACs. You can find them and records for other statewide databases on the OPLIN web page.
- Here is an interesting article about people and technology working together to catalog the books of the world. From The Library IS the Machine : “The problem that Google’s machines are having with these records is that the descriptions have always been meant for humans to read, not for computers to parse and understand.”
- Sources for free MARC records:
biblios.net
Library of Congress Catalog
Library of Congress Authorities
- MARC Standards Office at the Library of Congress has general MARC information, MARC formats, tools, development, and optional listservs.
Cool link:
Just for fun: “MARC Horrors”
The first part of the video to whet your interest:
“Deep within the bowels of systems on the Horizon,
Of systems from beyond the Millennium,
Of systems known only to small aliens as V-ger
We see the signs of MARC records –
MARC records that should not be —
MARC records with control characters in the leaders –
MARC records that require 25 characters per tag and yet have no indicators —
MARC records that although apparently valid, have two 245 tags –
And syntaxes and obsolete fields that have not existed since time beyond memory —
Since eons beyond which were known….”
