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Index of topics

• Introduction
• LCCN
• CIP / PCIP
• MARC
• ISNI
• ISTC
• OCLC

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MARC – MAchine-Readable Cataloguing

This is a standard for a digital version of the information carried in a CIP or PCIP block — and more.

Here's a MARC record for one of my books, from my local library. Easier to show than to tell.

This is how it looks in the library's internal catalogue. The MARC specification goes on forever with all sorts of optional fields, and when it gets passed along to Worldcat (see OCLC below) a lot more had been added to the “Linked Data” XML record they maintain, with a great deal of additional info.

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Index of topics

• Introduction
• LCCN
• CIP / PCIP
• MARC
• ISNI
• ISTC
• OCLC

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CIP / PCIP – Cataloguing-in-Publication / Publisher's Cataloguing-in-Publication

Remember the card catalogues in libraries (if you're old enough)? This is the same sort of information, done as a brief bibliographic block that goes at the bottom of the copyright page of your book. It takes the place of your LCCN statement (because it incorporates the LCCN on the last line) like this:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Myers, Karen, 1953-
To carry the horn : the hounds of Annwn : 1 / Karen Myers. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-9635384-0-6
1. Fox hunting–Fiction. 2. Fantasy fiction. I. Title.
PS3613.Y4726T6 2012
813′.6–dc23

2012040017

Even though LCCNs are only for print editions (see above), and the LCCN is included in the CIP block, the same CIP block applies to all formats of the work (Print, EPUB, MOBI, Audio). A PCIP block (see below) can be created for books without LCCNs, including books that have no print edition.

Let's look at some of these cryptic numbers.

The ISBN is the 13-digit version. It has a complex history of its own. A digression — the original ISBN (International Standard Book Number) was 10-digits long. As it began to run out of numbers to accommodate new books, it evolved into a version of the 13-digit EAN (European Article Number), an identifier related to the UPC (Universal Product Code) for any manufactured article in the world. The first 3 digits of the EAN indicate the country and, since books were already considered to be international, the prefixes “978” and “979” were dedicated to books, and consequently referred to, jokingly, as the country of “Bookland”.

The 10-digit ISBN is always called an “ISBN”, but the 13-digit version can be referred to as an “ISBN” or, in a nod to its derivation, as an “EAN”.

The “PS3613.Y4726T6 2012” is a Library of Congress Call Number (which, despite its initials, is not to be confused with the LCCN above). This book is in “American Literature / Prose fiction”.

The “813′.6–dc23” is a Dewey Decimal Classification. This book is in “American Literature in English”.

This 4-part post covers a lot of the bibliographic data that holds the knowledge part of the book trade together, with a section for each of these.

I've written about ISBNs elsewhere. If you're a member of the #neverISBN or the #oneISBNtoRuleThemAll tribes, then this post is not for you — the ISBN holds it all together. It's a prerequisite for all of this. And remember, the ISBN identifies a single format of your work.

Many of these standards are international, but some of the national library stuff is, well, national. I'm describing the situation in the US, but other countries have similar setups.

The intent of this post is to provide basic orientation for indie authors. To find out more about these standards and the groups that maintain them, break out your search engines and go to work.

Will you sell any more books if you enable these standards for your books? Probably not. But there are other reasons to create and maintain high-quality bibliographic data for your books, not least of which is future-proofing your work and making it just that bit more appetizing for library acquisition.

Ready or not, let's dive right in.

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Index of topics

• Introduction
• LCCN
• CIP / PCIP
• MARC
• ISNI
• ISTC
• OCLC

 

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LCCN – Library of Congress Control Number

The Library of Congress (LoC) is the “library of record” for the United States. Check out the link — it's had a long and fascinating history. The LoC created its own cataloguing system, the Library of Congress Classification, which gives every document an individual identifying number, the LCCN.

LCCNs refer only to print editions. You get one from the Library of Congress by asking for one. It can be a confusing process, mostly because of the nomenclature of the various programs. (Here is a useful guide.) Basically, you sign up for a program (the Pre-Assigned Control Number program, or PCN) that allows you to request an LCCN, which is in the form of YYYYnnnnnn, where “YYYY” is the current year, and “nnnnnn” is a numerical sequence that starts over each year.

Once granted, the LCCN goes on the copyright page of your book like this:

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012040017

Incidentally, the LoC makes LCCN records for other things. For example, it maintains various “authority” lists such as subjects and names, and other systems can refer to them (such as Worldcat (OCLC) below).

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Index of topics

• Introduction
• LCCN
• CIP / PCIP
• MARC
• ISNI
• ISTC
• OCLC

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