Much has been written over the years about the issues and shortcomings of the MARC format.
Nonetheless,MARC formatting has been widely used by
libraries around the world since the 1960s,
when it was first created. This long-‐established and ubiquitous usage has resulted in countless legacy
bibliographic records that currently exist in the MARC
format. To lose this carefully crafted data or to expend the finances, time, and manual effort required to convert all of this legacy data into a new format may be a cause for
reservation in the community.