A proposal for a national standard for
bibliographic information on magnetic tape both for information services and the library community in India is presented. The format is based on MARC and the UNISIST-RM. The structure of the format is as
defined in ISO 2709 – 1973 and the content
designators are formed using a three character numeric tag, a six character indicator and a two character subfield identifier. The third character
position in the indicator is used as a repeat count the fourth, fifth and sixth character positions. are used to indicate the length of the field of that repetition. The format includes many coded information to cater to the requirements of the
computer-based information system for Science and Technology, that is being developed in India. It is proposed to use ISBDs for choice and form of data items and use International standards for the
character set for the representation of the data items. It is indicated that this format could be transformed into that of an international standard for exchange purpose by ormat transformation process. A complete set of tags, indicators and subfield identifiers and a table of UNISIST-RM data elements that correspond to the proposed format are given
