The UKMARC Manual

The British Library adopted MARC 21 as its cataloguing format in June 2004. Since that date, these pages have not been maintained. Information on our current practices can be found on our Bibliographic Standards pages.

UKMARC and AACR2

As part of the progress which was being made towards the international standardisation of bibliographic information at this time, IFLA’s programme of International Standard Bibliographic Descriptions (ISBDs) led to the publication in 1977 of ISBD(G): General International Standard Bibliographic Description (rev. ed. 1992). The importance of ISBD(G) is that it laid the basis for constructing an integrated cataloguing code, hospitable to books and other media, and as such was relevant to the revision of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. The revision of AACR was undertaken by the British Library, the Library of Congress and other bodies in the UK and North America. The objectives were to reconcile the British and North American texts of 1967, to incorporate amendments, and to provide for wider international interest in AACR. The publication of the second edition in 1978 was a landmark in standardising procedures for the description of books and other items and for the construction of headings and references and in addressing the needs of machine processing.

The British Library decided to adopt AACR2 with effect from 1981 and the changes this made necessary to UKMARC were incorporated into the second edition of the UK MARC Manual in 1980. Throughout the 1980s there was a growing international commitment to networks and shared cataloguing based on AACR2 which by then had been adopted by a number of non-English speaking countries. Although the basic concepts of AACR2 did not change, three sets of rule revisions were required to take account of international usage, new library materials, and rapid technological change. This process was consolidated with the publication of the 1988 revision of AACR2. In 1994 a set of amendments, known as Amendments 1993, was published comprising clarifications and slight changes to existing rules which the British Library has since applied to BNBMARC records.

The UK MARC Manual was updated regularly during the 1980s as changes were made to AACR2. These piecemeal amendments led to a general revision of the format which was carried through with the publication of the third edition in 1990. There have since been two extensions, the first covering rare books fields (1992) and the second listing additional fields for the book industry (1993). These changes and other corrections were consolidated in the fourth and last printed edition (1996), which has been revised and updated on a regular basis.

For further information please contact:

The British Library
Bibliographic Development
Boston Spa, Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BQ
United Kingdom

Tel: + 44 (0) 1937 546548
Fax: + 44 (0) 1937 546586
Email: bd-info@bl.uk