What are data communication or information interchange standards?
A. The success of shared cataloging is due in part to the adoption of cataloging standards but is also attributable to the development of effective data communication/record interchange standards and protocols. These standards which define the technical framework for exchanging information work between systems and functioning either within a single institution or among systems in multiple institutions. Of primary importance are the family of national and international MARC (MAchine eadable Cataloging) standards widely used by libraries around the world. Of the national MARC standards, USMARC (developed by the Library of Congress), is the most widely used. An alternative to MARC is SGML(Standardized General Markup Language) which constructs finding aids–a form of documentation that combines brief descriptive information about a collection with background and othercontext-of-the collection information. A “marked-up” document can support electronic links between the reference to objects
