A coder looks at MARC

Jason Thomale has written an interesting article,  Interpreting MARC: Where’s the Bibliographic Data?  in the latest issue of Code4Lib Journal. In it he discusses realizing that MARC, first imagined in 1966, dates from before 44 years of rapid technological change. Even more important is the fact that MARC was created not to store bibliographic date, but to replicate catalog cards:

Its original purpose was to automate the processes and tasks of a 1950s/60s technical services department—i.e., the creation and printing of catalog cards

 Now, as we prepare, maybe,  to move on from MARC, it's interesting to look at it for the innovation it as.

From Catalogablog