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ONIX and MARC21

Although ONIX for Books is a trade product information format, the availability of rich metadata from publishers and others has generated considerable interest in the library community. Data from ONIX sources can be used to enhance the content and presentation of library online catalogues, as well as supporting selection and acquisitions. Library representatives play an active part in a number of ONIX national groups.

Several organisations have developed mappings from ONIX to MARC21, the most widely-used format for data exchange among libraries. Because ONIX tends to be more granular than MARC, a mapping in the other direction is inherently more difficult.

The Library of Congress publishes an ONIX-to-MARC21 mapping, based on ONIX 2.1, on its website. It is also piloting the use of ONIX feeds of advance information from publishers as part of its Cataloging-in-Publication (CIP) programme.

As part of the development of services intended to provide mutual benefit to publishers and libraries, OCLC has created new mappings between ONIX and MARC21, which are expected to be published by August 2009. We will update this page as soon as they are made available.

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