An Electronic Library Communications Format: A Definition and Development Proposal for MARC III

The Memex Research Institute has proposed a research project to describe in machine‐readable form all the information needed to create electronic “books” in a standard communications format. Two kinds of extended computer file formats employing the MARC structure will be defined: Access Formats that take into consideration the many existing index and abstract system formats and their associated databases; and Document Formats that provide for storage, representation, transmission, and display of machine‐readable works in text or image form. The formats that emerge can be employed by libraries, publishers, information utilities, and computer users worldwide to convert printed works to electronic forms or to create original works in electric format, and thus foment the creation of networked electronic library collections.