This document contains a list of places and their associated two- or three-character lowercase alphabetic codes. The list includes individual codes for presently existing national entities, states of the United States, provinces and territories of Canada, divisions of the United Kingdom, and internationally recognized dependencies. The purpose of this list is to allow the designation of the place associated with an item by codes in the MARC record for that item. The list contains 362 discrete codes, of which 45 are discontinued codes no longer valid for use.
The list was originally compiled in 1967/68 in collaboration with a number of agencies and the Library of Congress MARC Pilot Project participants.
The list published here includes all valid and obsolete codes as of May 2003. This revised edition includes 1 newly assigned code. Appendix A lists all changes since the 2000 edition.
Go to top of documentThe country codes are two- or three-character lowercase alphabetic strings. National entities are generally assigned a two-character code (exceptions are noted below). When possible, the first letter of the code is the same as the first letter of the place name in most cases. When there were insufficient available codes beginning with the first letter of the place name to accommodate all of the place names that begin with that letter of the alphabet, a code with x as the first letter was assigned, e.g. Marshall Islands (xe).
Three-character codes are assigned to states of the United States, provinces and territories of Canada and divisions of the United Kingdom. In this case, the first two characters represent the constituent part, and the third character represents the country, e.g. nyu for New York. Three-character codes are also used for the United States (xxu), Canada (xxc), and the United Kingdom (xxk) when the state, province or territory, or division is not known, but the country is known, or when it is not desired to code at the lower level. In this case, the first two characters (xx) represent "unknown or undetermined," and the third character represents the country.
Codes are assigned according to present geographic boundaries. A place which has historically been located in more than one political jurisdiction is coded for the jurisdiction in which it is presently located.
When a place is given in the bibliographic record with a question mark, a corresponding country code is assigned without regard to the uncertainty. If the place is completely unknown, or undetermined, the code xx is used (see section "Special Codes for Special Situations" below).
In addition to codes for individual places, codes are also provided for two special situations.
No place, unknown, or undetermined [xx]. This code is used if the place associated with the item is completely unknown, or undetermined.
Various places [vp]. This code is used if various places are associated with different pieces making up the item.
Prior to 1971, when the place associated with the item was in question, this condition was indicated by the addition of the letter q in the third character position of the code or by the use of the next higher letter if the third character position was already used. This practice was discontinued in June 1971. For example, with imprint [Paris?], before 1971 code frq was used instead of fr; and with imprint [Chicago?], code ilv was used instead of ilu. When using the country codes to retrieve records, this practice should be specially noted as not all records encoded before 1971 may have been changed.
Go to top of documentThe country code list is made up of three parts: Part I: Name Sequence, Part II: Code Sequence, and Part III: Regional Sequence. A description of these parts follows.
In this part, the places are listed alphabetically by the name. An entry for a place represented by a code gives the name followed by the code in brackets, both in boldface. Any variant names of the place or names of places assigned to use that code are listed on successive lines, with the first such name preceded by the symbol UF (used for). For example:
These UF names may represent alternate names of the place, older names of the place, names representing component or subjurisdictional parts of the place, or names of places formerly assigned a separate code. The UF names from each entry also appear in their alphabetic position in the list as references, but not in boldface. These references do not give the code; the entry under the name referred to must be consulted to determine the code. For example:
Entries may also include a note in italics explaining a change in the use of codes. For example:
See the section "Changes in the Codes" below for more information about these notes.
In this part, the places and their codes are listed alphabetically by the code. Only the code and the name of the place are given in this part. Tracings or references for variant forms of the place names are not included. For example:
Discontinued codes are also listed in this part in their alphabetical sequence. They are identified by a hyphen preceding the code. For example:
In this part, the places and their codes are arranged in 12 groups by region. The groups are:
The groups and the allocation of places to the groups are based on the arrangement in the MARC Code List for Geographic Areas. Within each group, the places are arranged alphabetically by name. States of the United States, provinces and territories of Canada, and divisions of the United Kingdom are arranged alphabetically under the name of the parent jurisdiction. Places with discontinued codes are not included in this part.
Go to top of documentThis list provides codes for countries and other places existing at the time the list was compiled. The names of the places are also those current at the time of compilation. Changes in the status of places as well as changes in names are reflected in revised versions of this list. The following discusses how such changes are presented in the list.
When a country has changed its name, the existing code is retained but the new name is used and the earlier name is added as a reference. For example:
When it becomes necessary to change a code because the status of an entity has changed, notes are added to the list to explain the code changes and the date the change was made. If the old code is discontinued, it is retained in the code list for information.
The code for the latest name (the new code) should be used in all new records. The old code, however, will not always be changed in previously input records. Thus when using country codes to retrieve records, if the code for the entity has changed since the implementation of an earlier code list, it is advisable to specify both the new and previously assigned (historical) codes in the retrieval request if records coded prior to the changes are desired.
Example: Two entities previously coded separately combine to form one entity, e.g., North Vietnam and South Vietnam combined to become Vietnam. In this case, two existing codes are discontinued, and a new code in addition to appropriate explanatory notes are added.
Example: One entity assigned a single code splits into two or more separate entities. In this case, each of the new entities is assigned a new code, and the code for the older combined entity is discontinued. Notes are also added to each entity indicating the date of the code change.
Example: One entity previously assigned a code is annexed by another entity which is already assigned a different code, e.g., Sikkim was annexed by India. In this case, the code for the annexed entity is discontinued, and the annexed entity becomes a reference to the name of the entity whose code is used after the change.
Example: An entity which was assigned the code of another entity splits off. In this case, the code for the existing entity is retained, and a new code is created for the entity which split off.
The Library of Congress is the maintenance agency for this list. Questions and requests for information should be sent to the Cataloging Policy and Support Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540-4305. Internet: cpso@loc.gov. Notices announcing additions or changes to code values are issued 90 days prior to the date they should be used in records. For announcements, see MARC News and Announcements at: www.loc.gov/marc/. At the end of the 90 days, the new codes are incorporated into the web version of this list available at: www.loc.gov/marc/countries/.
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