SGML and the USMARC standard: Applying markup to bibliographic data

The recent increase in electronic publishing has led many in the library community to consider altering standards for bibliographic data to promote greater compatibility between digital works and their bibliographic representation. The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) has been prominently mentioned as a mechanism for encoding bibliographic data. This paper will examine the problems and potential of applying SGML to the USMARC record standard, with a particular emphasis on issues of field order and repeatability, character set encoding, and obsolete fields.