The MARC Formats: An Overview

The USMARC Archival and Manuscripts Control (AMC) format provides archivists with the means to communicate and exchange information about holdings in machine-readable form. This article gives a brief history of the USMARC formats developed by the Library of Congress for bibliographic data and authority records and outlines the basic structure of a MARC record. It explains the role USMARC formats have played in the creation of national and international standards for the exchange of bibliographic information and in the growth of bibliographic utilities. The review process for proposed changes to the formats is described.