This online help contains a list of geographic areas and their associated one- to seven-character codes.  The list includes separate codes for countries, first order political divisions of some countries, regions, geographic features, outer space, and celestial bodies.  The purpose of this list is to allow places reflected in the subject headings assigned to an item to be designated by codes in the MARC record for that item.  The list contains 579 discrete codes, of which 51 are discontinued codes no longer valid for use.

This list was originally developed through the collaboration of three former units of the Library of Congress:  Research Services, MARC Development Office, and Subject Cataloging Division.  It is currently maintained by the Library of Congress' Cataloging Policy and Support Office and Network Development and MARC Standards Office.

The list published here includes all valid and obsolete codes as of March 2006.  This revised edition includes 4 newly assigned codes.  Appendix A lists all changes made since the 2002 edition.

See also:

Introduction