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KORMARC
a
Oh Dong-Geun MLIS, Dr. Litt. professor
a
Department of Library and Information Science, Kei-Myung
University, Daegu 704-701, Korea.
Published online: 02 Dec 2013.

To cite this article: Oh Dong-Geun MLIS, Dr. Litt. professor (1992) KORMARC, The
International Information & Library Review, 24:4, 341-352

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 . B Libr. Rev. (1992) 24, 341-352

OH DONG-GEUN*

ABSTRACT
‘This article investigates the characteristics of KORMARC
(Korean Machine Readable MARC) format and the role
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and influence of KORMARC on the development of library

automation in Korea, as an example of library automation
in the developing countries. The first section is a general
overview of the development of KORMARC. In the second
section, the characteristics of the KORMARC format for
monographs are investigated, mainly based on the biblio-
graphic characteristics in the East-Asian countries. In the
third section, the influence of KORMARC on library auto-
mation in Korea is reviewed along with the prospects for the
future.

After Library of Congress attempted to automate the traditional tool

ofretrieval, catalogs, many other nations have developed and used their
own MARCs. As illustrated in Gilbert King’s report, the possibility of
library automation can be applicable to the catalog and the automation
of catalog can be the core operation of the work.
MARC has improved not only all the operations in the library through
the sharing of bibliographic data, simplification of the cataloging and
the reduction of the cost, but has also contributed to the standardization
of cataloging and nationwide library development when developed by
the national central library and distributed through the network. At an
international level, it also contributes to the exchange of bibliographic
information and international standardization.
With the growing consciousness to the need for library automation,
the Korean Central National Library (hereafter referred to as CNL)
started its library automation project in 1978. Since then CNL as a
central library in Korea has developed and maintained KORMARC,
Korean Machine Readable MARC.

* Oh Dong-Geun, MLIS, Dr. Litt., is a professor at the Department ofLibrary and Information
Science, Kei-Myung University, Daegu 704-701, Korea.

1057-2317/92/040341+ 12 $08.00/O 0 1992 Academic Press Limited

 342 OHDONG-GEUN

‘l’hc purpose of this article is to investigate the characteristics D

KORMARC format and its role and influence on the developmen
library automation in Korea, as an example of library automatio
the developing countries, The first section is a general overview of the’
development ofKORMARC. In the second section, the characteristics
of KORMAR C format for monographs are investigated, mainly based
on the bibliographic characteristics in the East-Asian countries and in
the third section, the influence of KORMARC on library automation
in Korea is reviewed.

KORMARC: ITS DEVELOPMENT AND CURRENT STATUS

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The Central National Library initiated its library automation program

with the purpose of supplying information for research and social devel-
opment in the country faster and more accurately, to construct a
bibliographic information network connecting the university and the
public libraries online, to develop a standard format for the processing
of the information as the base for the network, and to emphasize the
importance and modernize the function of the Library through the
computerization of material at home and abroad.’ Therefore its aims
were not only the modernization of the functions of the Library itself,
but also the enhancement of nationwide information availability.
In February 1977, the plan for the Library automation was adopted
as one of the main projects. To implement this plan, a task force was
appointed under the Central National Library Automation Committee.
This task force planned the bibliographic core system, automating the
cataloging first and then developing other operations step by step.
After 2 years’ work, the final draft of the KORMARC Format for
Monographs was completed based mainly on LC MARC: it was pub-
lished in 1980.’ In 1982, the Department of Automation was set up as
a separate unit and an independent computer system using JEPCOM
4296 was built. Printed cards using the data input were supplied from
the following year and the Descriptive Cataloging Rules for KOR-
MARC was completed. The same year, the KORMARC Users’ Coun-
cil was established to co-ordinate the efficient operation of KORMARC.
The Technical Committee for the Revision of KORMARC under the
Council worked for the revision of the format to be used as a common
format and in 1984 completed the KORMARC Standard Format for
Monographs, partly introducing UNIMARC.3
After this difficult introductory stage, in 1987 “The General Master
Plan for the Computerization of the Central National Library” was
established, which involves complete revision of library law and com-
pletion of the new building of the Central National Library. This is a
 KORMARC 343

n three stages. The major tasks of the plan are: (I j

ot: a comp\ete system Yoorthe CentTa\ National Wlbrary ,
LAS; (2) estabY&ment of KQWWXC databAse ani
o&ne netwo& of the YibxaGs 01 the nabn, czibd KQWiSX; (3)
estabhshwnt of ‘h system for the use of fw Cgn scho\aYiy inYQlmat\Qn f
U n&r this plan, in 198% a new computer system, T ANDEM Nonstop
TX? 202 (%MB), was installed and implemented, an?l staff numbers
were increased in the automation department. The system has been
partly in operation since 1989, e.g. deposit, acquisition and cataloging
have been computerized. The KORMARC data amounts to approxi-
mately 200000 titles of Korean materials. The KORMARC Users’
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Council has involved participation by 66 libraries. CNL have supplied

the KORMARC program or data to 13 libraries, and printed cards to
67 libraries.
In 1991, in order to establish the format as Korean Standard (KS),
CNL commissioned the Korea Society for Information Management for
the study and development of the format for monographs, serials and
non-book materials, with the descriptive cataloging rules. After an open
hearing, the report from the Society presented to CNL and the final
draft of the format for monographs for KS was published in 1992.5 The
Society is now developing another format for the old and rare books.

CHARACTERISTICS OF KORMARC FORMATS

As mentioned earlier, KORMARC format for monographs was

developed mainly based on LC MARC and partly referring to UK
MARC and later to UNIMARC. Therefore KORMARC naturally
contains many attributes of USMARC, such as its structure and many
data elements, but it should reflect the bibliographic characteristics of
Korean materials to add some data elements and to modify some fields
and subfields.

Formal Structure
The general structure of KORMARC is the same as that of ISO,
consisting of five parts, namely leader, directory, control fields, variable
fields and record terminator (RT). The structure is shown in Table I.

TABLE I
General Structure of KORMARC

Leader Directory Control Fields Variable Fields RT

 344 OHDONG-GEUN

TABLE II

KORMARC Leader

Offset Usage

o-4 Record length

5 Status
6 Type of record
7 Bibliographic level
8- 9 Blank
10 Indicator length
11 Identifier length
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12-16 Base address

17 Encoding level
18 Descriptive cataloging form
19 Linked record requirement
20-23 Entry map

The leader is a lixed field of 24 characters, the contents of which are

shown in Table II. Among the elements, status, type of record,
bibliographic level, encoding level, descriptive cataloging form and
linked record requirement are entered directly; others are auto-
matically.
The directory, an element to retrieve the data elements after control
fields by tag, consists of a set of directory entries of 12 characters.
Each directory entry contains three elements, three-character tag, four-
character length of field, and five-character starting character position.
The number of the directory entry is the same as that of the tag input
in the record, and the tags are arranged in ascending order. Directory
entry structure is shown in Table III. The last entry of the directory is
followed by field terminator.
Control helds consist of data and field terminator (FT) (ASCII
lE( 16))* only, without indicators and identifiers. Control field struc-
ture is shown in Table IV.
Each variable field consists of two indicators followed by any number
of subfields. Each subfield begins with an identifier. The identifier of

TABLE III
KOXMAKC Directory Entry Structure

Tag Field Length Starting Character Position FT

* KORMARC now uses me byte “/* sign as FT for the time being.
 XORx.RRC

‘Y RBLE w
Control Field Structure

Data FT

KORMARC is composed of two elements, a subfield delimiter (ASCII

IF( 16)) t and a data clement identifier. Each field is terminated with a
field terminator and each record is terminated with a record terminator
(RT) (ASCII lD(16)).; V ariable field structure is shown in Table V.
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Content Designators
Content designators are codes identifying data elements and/or pro-
viding additional information about a data element.’ As manifested
from the above, KORMARC uses three kinds of content designators,
namely tag, indicator and identifier.
The tag consists of three-character numeric codes. It is contained in
the first portion of the directory entry. As in USMARC, according to
the first character of the tag, control and variable data fields are grouped
into blocks, usually by the function of the data, as follows:
oxx Control information, identification and classification
informations, etc.
IXX Main entries
2xx Titles and Title paragraph
3xx Physical description, etc.
4xx Series statements
5xx Notes
6XX Subject access fields
7xx Added entries other than subject or series; linking fields
8XX Series added entries
9xX Reserved for local implication
and within the blocks related to access point, the following meanings

TABLE V
Variable Field Structure

Indicator Identifier Data 1 Identifier Data 2 ... FT

t KORMARC now uses cme byte $ sign as a subfield delimiter for the time being.
$ KORMARC now uses one byte & sign as RT for the time being.
 346 OH DONG-GEUN

are usually preserved to the Iinal two characters of the tag’:

X00 Personal names

X 10 Corporate names
Xl 1 Meeting names
X30 Uniform titles.
KORMARC uses two indicators, a first and second indicator. Both
are numeric codes. Indicator values are interpreted independently. A
blank in a defined indicator position means no information provided.
The identifier consists of two characters, as discussed earlier. A data
element identifier may be a lowercase alphabetic code or a numeric
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code. As other formats, identifiers of KORMARC are defined inde-

pendently for each field. But in the fields related to access points,
parallel meanings are preserved.

Content of Record
The content is the data elements recorded in the fields and subfields.
In this section, characteristic data elements in KORMARC are con-
sidered in two parts, those of fixed fields and those of variable fields.
Coded Data Elements. As discussed earlier, data elements in the leader
are fixed-length, coded data, but the typical elements in data fields are
those of Fixed-Length Data Elements Field (008). This field contains
40 character positions (00-39) that provide coded data elements poten-
tially useFu1 for retrieval and data management purposes. These data
elements are shown in Table VI.
As in other formats, the data elements are potentially defined.
Character positions not defined also contain blank.
Intellectual Level (22) specifies doctoral dissertation, thesis, old book,
as well as juvenile work, textbook and reference work. Korean Uni-
versity Publication (26-27) and Korean Government Publication (38-
39) specifies the university or college, and national or local government
agency in Korea, respectively, according to the code lists for them. This
code can be useful for the retrieval of work published by any university
or government agency in Korea. Form of Literature (33) specifies a
characteristic literary form of Korea such as old Korean folksongs, sijo,
as well as fiction, non-fiction, drama, etc.
A Modified Record Code, common to other formats, is not provided
in KORMARC, in this field. The information on the modification is
entered in Field 949.

Data Elements in Variable Fields

Data Elements of Bibliographic Description. Bibliographic description is
a set of bibliographic data recordings identifying a publication.8 The
 KORMARC 347

TABLE VI
Data Elements of Field 008

Offset Data element Length

00-05 Date entered on file 6

06 Type ofdate/Publication date 1
07-10 Date 1 4
11-14 Date 2 4
15-17 Place of publication 3
18-21 Illustrations 4
22 Intellectual level* 1
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23 Form of item I
24-25 Nature of contents 2
26-27 Korean university publication* 2
28 Modified record 1
29 Conference publication 1
30 Festschrift 1
31 Index 1
32 Cataloging source 2
33 Form of literature* 1
34 Biography 1
35-37 Language 3
38-39 Korean government publication* 2

* Characteristic elements in KORMARC

TABLE VII
Fields for Bibliographic Description

Tag Field Name

240 Uniform title

245 Title statement
250 Edition statement
255 Mathematical data area
260 Publication, distribution, etc.
263 Projected publication data
300 Physical description
350 Price
400~-490 Series statement
500-586 Notes

fields relating to it in KORMARC are shown in Table VII.

The data elements in the bibliographic description fields are entered
according to the instructions in Descriptive Cataloging Rules for KOR-
MARC. These rules were originally designed for KORMARC in 1983
 34% OH DONG-GEUN

and partly rev&d in 1985, but, as the name implies, they are
for the description not containing those for the access point.
matters worse, it is slightly different from KCRS, Korean
cataloging rules-it is also now at the stage of bibliographic d
and tracing-despite the fact that both of them are based on
is, therefore, necessary to integrate two rules for description, with its
completion having rules for the access point.
The data element in this field generally has the same content as
USMARC, with some exceptions in some subfields reflecting Korean
bibliographic characteristics. One of the notable examples is the treat-
ment of Kwan-thing, the word or words written above or before the
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main title.g The format specifies in field 245 that the title can be
entered under that, either including or excluding Kwan-thing as an
added entry.
Data Elements ofAccess Point. Data elements related to the access point
in KORMARC are those of main, subject-added, added and of series-
added entry fields. Therefore, data elements in access points are divided
into main entry and added entry, and in each entry into personal name,
corporate name, meeting name and uniform title, as in USMARC,
following the main entry system. The fields related to the access point
(including classification number and subject analysis) are shown in
Table VIII.
All data in the main and added entry fields in KORMARC are
entered in Korean only--despite the fact that in Korean Hanja
(Chinese script) is widely used in everyday life. It is desirable, therefore,
to consider any method to link the entry in Korean to that in Hanja.”
Some of the subfields in these fields also reflect the Korean bib-
liographic characteristics. In the personal author fields, East-Asian
personal name is entered in a subfield ($a) in direct order, i.e. surname
and forename. This reflects library practice in Korea, using the Korean
personal name in the heading as in direct order, neither separating
surname and forename nor inverting it.” But to a Westerner, it is
entered in the same subfield in inverted form,
Another example of this kind is the subfield for the dynasty ($f)
and for its numeration ($g). The subfield for the dynasty is found in
the CHINESE MARC usage for their dynasty.” In the East-Asian
countries, dynasty is no less used than year as the element for the
chronological division, especially in the historical studies. It can
therefore be a useful subfield for retrieval for this purpose.
Other fields generally follow the specifications in USMARC or
UNIMARC, with some exceptions such as in the classification fields
adding data related to Korea, KDC (Korean Decimal Classification).
Data Elements for Identz&ation. The fields for identification basically
 KORMARC 349
TABLE VIII
Fields for AccessPoint
--
T-L Fie\h
cm*___ _____ -~ ---- _
RWpi\W\tJj loo bkin es&q‘. P eXsQnd name
100 RAded entxyz Y erscsd name
110 Main entry: Corporate name
710 Added entry: Corporate name
111 Main entry: Meeting name
711 Added entry: Meeting name
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Title 130 Main entry: Uniform title

730 Added entry: Uniform title
740 Added entry: Variant title
Subject 600 Subject added entry: Personal name
610 Subject added entry: Corporate name
611 Subject added entry: Meeting name
630 Subject added entry: Uniform title
650 Subject added entry: Topical term
651 Subject added entry: Geographic name
653 Index term: Uncontrolled
Classification 050 LCC
056 KDC
080 UDC
082 DDC
085 Other classification
Subject analysis 043 Geographic area code
045 Time period of content

consist of’ the fields for identifying the record itself or the item that it
records. They are shown IX. Data elements in these fields
in Table
have rare characteristics, besides the differences in the tag.
Linking Entry Fields. One of the main enhancements in the draft of
the KS edition over the former edition is the introduction of linking
entry fields to link related items. They were partly included in the
Standard Edition of 1984, although usage was reserved and it was
intervened in the series entry fields with the tag 451-474. The fields in
the draft for KS are shown in Table X. The data elements in these
iields are generally the same as those in USMARC and/or UNIMARC.

INFLUENCE OF KORMARC ON THE LIBRARY AUTOMA,TION

IN KOREA

The Central National Library ofKorea planned and initiated its library
automation in Korea using MARC formats as early as 1978. Since then
 350 OHDONG-GEUN

TABLE IX
Fields for ldentz$cation

Tag Field

001 Control number

005 Date and time of latest. transaction
010 Library of Congress control number
012 Central National Library Control number
015 National Bibliography Number
017 Copyright registration number
020 ISBN
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027 STRN
035 Systems control number
040 Cataloging source
042 Authentication code
053 Accession number
088 Report number

TABLE X
Linking Entry Fields

Tag Field

765 Original language entry

767 Translation entry
770 Supplement/special issue entry
772 Parent record entry
773 Host item entry
775 Other edition entry
776 Additional physical form entry
780 Preceding entry
785 Succeeding entry
787 Non-specific relationship entry

KORMARC has been the major concern of all members of the library
community. KORMARC has now become the essential element when
a library considers the library automation.
As discussed earlier, CNL has distributed its software and data, as
well as its tapes and printed cards to other institutions. CNL has also
introduced more than 300 interested personnel to KORMARC through
their workshop program. These continuous efforts have resulted in
widespread use of its data and formats. According to a survey in 1989,
14 university libraries and two special libraries have adopted KOR-
 KORMARC 351

CNL surveyed the current status of library automation in Korea

from l&31 March 1992, in order to use it as a foundation for the
development of the library network and for the standardization of docu-
mentation. A total of406 questionnaires were returned from 896, in-
cluding 232 public, 305 university and college and 359 special libraries.
This survey shows that 133 libraries (32%) have now introduced
automation into their library operations, 47 of them using turn-key
systems of some kind and 39 of them using their own self-developed
systems: 66% of them have used MARC formats. Forty-seven libraries
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have secured their own mainframe computers and 87 use personal

computers. Two hundred and eight libraries responded that they could
secure any computer systems when implementing library automation,
and 98 libraries are now using foreign online databascs.14
KORMARC can now be said to meet another challenge, mainly
owing to the wide introduction of Bibliofile from LC and CAT CD450
from OCLC in major Korean libraries, in CD-ROM. These CD-ROM
products, with MARC format, allow Korean libraries, as in other areas
of the world, to make full use of the benefit of the copy cataloging to
the retrospective as well as current materials, without the burden of the
communication cost. From these satisfactory results using MARC in
cataloging Western materials, Korean libraries are now expecting CNL
to cover all Korean materials and to supply the cataloging information
of the retrospective as well as current items, in standard format.
With the enormous growth of interest in library automation using
MARC, CNL has continuously been forced to accelerate the further
development of their formats, including formats other than books and
the increase of the data entered. In 1991, approximately 230 000 titles
were entered in KORMARC, and this will be increased to 400000
titles when the retrospective items to 1983 are completed. The nation-
wide online library network program, KOLINET, planned by CNL,
plans to link more than 120 major libraries in Korea through an online
system. When this is completed, the shared cataloging system can be
realized, all participating libraries can contribute their own data and
use its data equally.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

KORMARC was developed, as in other countries, by the national

library with the purpose not only to automate its own catalog system,
but also to assist other libraries in Korea. Its development was impeded
 352 011 DONG-GEWN

bccausc of bibliographic conditions in Korea, such as under-

development of bibliographic tools including cataloging rules and sub-
jcct heading. Some librarians seem to have an illusion that MARC can
solve all the problems of the traditional catalog, but our Korean exam-
ple shows that many rnore investigations are required to automate the
catalog.
Another problem confronted by those developing and distributing
MARC is the indifference of users who have no experiences of the
advantages of it. Ironically, foreign CD-ROM MARC products, in
Korea, have now proved the old saying, “to see is to believe”.
Only the participation and interest of the users, with help from the
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government, can result in fruitful development. This is capable of

contributing to national bibliographic control as well as to automation
ol’individual libraries and furthermore universal bibliographic control.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to thank Dr. Jeong l’il-Mo, Dr. Lee Too-Young,
and Dr. Hyeon Kyu-Seob for their many instances of help.

REFERENCES

1 l’hc Central National Library. The Central National Library Selections 1973-1983.
Seoul. The Library. 1983, p. 114.
2 Korean Machine Readable Cataloging Anal Drafl. Seoul. CNL. 1980.
3 Korean Machine Readable Cataloging Standard Formatfor Monograph. Seoul. CNL 1984.
4 Lee Chun-Soo (1989) Korean National Library Information System promoted
by CNL. In Towa7-d.r the Acceleration of East-Asian Scholarly IrlfDrmation Flout, Vol. 1,
NACSIS. (In Korean and Japanese).
5 Korean Machine Readable Cataloging jbr Monograph. Draft for KS. Seoul. CNL. 1992.
6 Description in this chapter is mainly based on the format for monographs for KS.
7 UNIMARC Manual. London. IFLA. 1987, p. 2.
8 WLA. ZSBU(M). London. IFLA International Office for UBC. 1978. p. 2.
9 Jcong Pil-Mo and Oh Dong-Gcun (1990) On the processing of the Kwan-thing
m the title ofEast-Asian Materials- Prom Korean perspective. Cataloging & Classi-
,jcalion Quarlerly 12(2), pp. 83-104.
10 Jcong Pil-Mo and Oh Dong-Geun (1991) ‘The influence of pronunciation and
scripts on the East-Asian MARC formats. International Cataloguing and Bibliographic
Control 20(4), pp. 56-60.
II Lee .Jae-Chul (1967) On the form of the entry for Oriental names. Jounzal of
Humanities 18, pp. 65-92 (in Korean).
12 CHINESE MARC Format (2nd edition). Taipei. National Central Library, 1984.
13 Shin Hye-Sook and Lee Chi-Ju (1989) Current status of KORMARC. ‘Towards
tfle Acceleration of East-Asian Scholarly Information Flow, Vol. 1 (in Korean and in
Japanese).
14 Newsletter of libraries (published by CNL) 1992, 2(3), p. 4.