This document provides specifications for the conversion of bibliographic records in the UNIMARC format to the MARC 21 format. It covers various types of materials including language materials (books), notated music (scores), cartographic materials (maps), projected and video materials, sound recordings, computer files and three-dimensional artifacts (realia). The specifications cover the conversion of items at four bibliographic levels: analytic, collection, monograph, and serial. This document was originally written for a UNIMARC conversion program developed by the Library of Congress (LC) in 1984. Although updated in 2001, resources were not available for exhaustive review. Some UNIMARC or MARC 21 elements may be missing from this specification. This document reflects the UNIMARC and MARC 21 standards as August, 2001.
The conversion specifications are presented in tabular form, arranged in the order of the UNIMARC format data (see Front matter/Introduction for more information on the arrangement of the specifications). The specifications are in the PDF format. You may need Adobe's Acrobat Reader 5 to view and print these pages.
The specifications are divided into sections to facilitate viewing and printing. The links for each section are below.
The Network Development and MARC Standards Office is interested in hearing about experiences MARC users have converting from UNIMARC to MARC 21 using programs designed from these specifications. Please feel free to report errors in the data element mappings suggested in these specifications.
For questions or comments, contact us at ndmso@loc.gov.
Library of Congress