Fritz and Fritz stress repeatedly—and appropriately—that their book is intended as a general overview of MARC, not as a detailed MARC manual. Given its stated purpose, MARC21 for Everyone provides a remarkably thorough introduction to MARC coding for bibliographic records. Its only significant weakness is that it was published in 2003, and some of the information and examples are already outdated.

But is it really for everyone, as the title claims? And is it really a practical guide? The answer to both questions is yes, with some qualifications.

The titular “everyone” encompasses most library staff. Chapter 6 delineates “Who Needs to Know What” for staff in all areas of public and technical services, as well as systems and administration. The information in this book will satisfy the needs of most of these groups but not all. For example, the authors note that “catalogers need to know everything about MARC, in much more detail than we will cover here” (61). However, even for (new) catalogers, the work could be a useful introductory training tool.

The claim that MARC21 for Everyone is a practical guide is subject to a stronger qualification. The book is divided into Part 1, “MARC: The Underlying Fundamentals,” and Part 2, “MARC21 Codes You Should Know.” Part 1 contains background information on cataloging in general and MARC in particular. While not exactly impractical, it probably contains more historical information than some readers care to know, particularly those who want to understand just enough about MARC to perform their jobs.

On the other hand, Part 2 contains practical, nuts-and-bolts information about using and deciphering MARC coding. The authors’ intention is to “present [the reader] with the most common fields found in MARC21 bibliographic records” (63). In general they have omitted only relatively obscure fields. Part 2 consists of four chapters, each devoted to fields that serve the same function (for example, all the “indexed” or “heading” fields are discussed in Chapter 7). This organization makes the book much more user-friendly for beginners than would a strictly numeric arrangement. Readers who want to look up a particular field can use the index to do so.

The book’s added features, such as screen shots and tables, quizzes at the end of each chapter, and a robust glossary, help to make MARC21 for Everyone a valuable tool for learning (and teaching) MARC basics.