Importing MARC Records

Anyone can participate in E-Discover the Classics. All you have to do is download a file of nearly 500 U.S. MARC format bibliographic records and import those into your library catalog. These records are in the public domain, so feel free to use them as you wish. The 856 field in the MARC record includes a link to a specific Project Gutenberg title.

CLiC selected the most user requested records up to November 30, 2010. Download counts are always changing so our set represents a ‘snap-shot in time’. Most of these records are in English, primarily e-books with some audiobooks included. There are several foreign language titles included.

Any MARC loader for most any integrated library system (ILS) should be able to add this file to your catalog. We have test loaded these records on to Koha, Innovative Interfaces, and SirsiDynix systems, and you can search for these records using 'Project Gutenberg'. If you have an older or non-standard ILS system and cannot load a generic US MARC format set, our record clean-up vendor can reprocess the data to work with many different ILS systems. This is an optional service with a fee attached. If you are interested in additional processing of the MARC records, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.

Information About the Clean-Up of Project Gutenberg MARC Records -

Authority Records

We have a generic MARC authority file for these bibliographic records. Note: all types of authorities are in one file which will not work with many ILS vendor's authority record load programs. As it will be difficult to load this file in most ILS systems, we did not included it on this website. If you would like a copy, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .