Historical Backdrop

The rapid growth of International bibliographic exchange formats including ISO's well known format for Bibliographic information interchange on magnetic tape(ISO-2709) and lack of compatibility among them poses problems both to libraries and other information services to exchange records with one another. Hence necessity arouse for each of this organizations to agree upon a common standard format for easy exchange purposes. As such to study desirability and feasibility of stabling optimum compatibility between existing bibliographic exchange formats led to the convening of the International Symposium on Bibliographic Exchange Formats with the initiation by Unesco General Information Programme in April 1978 in Taormina, Sicily. The symposium organised by UNISIST interternational centre  for Bibliographic Description in collaboration with International Council of Scientific Unions Abstracting Board, IFLA and ISO.

Scope and Uses of CCF

The CCF is designed to provide a standard format for three major purposes

1.To permit the exchange of bibliographic records between groups of libraries and abstracting and indexing libraries.

2.To permit a bibliographic agency to use a single set of computer programs to manipulate bibliographic records received from both thee libraries and abstracting and indexing libraries.

3.To serve as the basis of the format for an agency's own bibliographic database, by providing a list of useful data elements.

Uses

1.By specifying a small number mandatory data elements which are recognised by all sectors of Information community as essential in order to identifying an item.

2.By providing mandatory data elements that are sufficiently flexible to accommodate varying descriptive practices. A section entitled "USE" for each field and subfield indicates whether the use of that data element is mandatory or optional.

3.By providing a number optional elements which may be useful to describe an item according to the practices of the agency which creates the records or data elements.

4.By providing a mechanism for linking records and segments of records without imposing on the originating agency any uniform practice regarding the treatment of related groups or records of data elements.