For instance Elsevier Science offers to libraries and data bases the bibliographic records of articles coded in SGML through the CAP-CAS electronic service. One can think to ask for the same information for the books using the SGML format. DTD corresponds to this need. It allows to describe the full collection and parts of the collection of archival documents. In the second case all the descriptive information of the textual document, copied directly in the source document, can be used directly in the document if it is properly marked up by the publisher or during the cataloguing process.
Several approaches are under development.
Another is the metadata initiatives starting from the Web HTML needs. As a conclusion on the current situation we can say that cataloguing in MARC format is creating a bibliographic record with MARC tags as a translation in format of an ISBD like card or entry of a printed catalogue. Cataloguing in SGML can be simply doing the same thing with SGML MARC tags using an SGML tool, but it has no real benefit. It can also be a new approach to consider the full electronic document to which an SGML editing process is applied in order to qualify the descriptive information and to add organizing information to facilitate the access to the document. References Gaynor, Edward, 1996.