MARC Records Sets
Open access library resources to facilitate discovery.
The MARC record sets below include links to open access resources hosted by Watson Library. They can be ingested into your library’s ILS to facilitate discovery for your library patrons. These bibliographic records all include an 856 field with a link to a freely available version of the resource.
Watson Library Sets
- Auction Catalogue PDFs
Annually updated set of auction catalogues, primarily from Christies, Sotheby's, Bonhams, Phillips, and Hotel Drouot. Watson Library sent requests to auction houses for permission to provide online access to these catalogues and proceeded if there was no denial. This set currently includes 2,171 bibliographic records that link to PDFs of the publications, hosted by Watson Library. Last updated April 17, 2026.
- Contemporary Catalogue Project PDFs
These records, cataloged by Watson Library, are primarily exhibition catalogues from galleries throughout the world. These records contain over 507 titles related to BIPOC artists, 1831 related to women artists, and 99 related to LGBTQIA+ artists. This set currently includes 6,053 bibliographic records that link to PDFs of the publications, hosted by Watson Library. Last updated
April 14, 2026.Learn more about the Contemporary Catalogues Project.
- Digital Benin Auction Catalogues
These 47 records, dating from 1899 to 2006, contain information on the sale of art and artifacts taken from the Kingdom of Benin in February of 1897. These catalogues were digitized through a partnership between Watson Library and the Internet Archive. This work supports Digital Benin, a platform that seeks to bring together objects, historical images, and other documentation to provide an overview of the artifacts. This set includes 47 bibliographic records that link to the digitized catalogue on Internet Archive.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications
This annually updated record set links to open access versions of Metropolitan Museum of Art publications. This includes monographs, Metropolitan Museum Journal articles, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletins, and entries in The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. This set currently includes 4,118 bibliographic records that link to a full-text online resource, either from Watson Library's Digital Collections, MetPublications, or both.
- OneStar Press
The complete catalog of artists' books published by OneStar Press from 2000 to 2019. This set includes 294 bibliographic records that link to PDFs of the publications, hosted by Watson Library. These records are also included in the Contemporary Catalogue PDFs set.
Additional Resources
- OCLC Knowledgebase Collections: An alternative to downloading these MARC records directly is to select these collections through OCLC Worldshare interface and enable MARC record delivery.
- MARCEdit has many tutorials for bringing the records into MarcEdit for review:
Contact Us
For feedback, suggestions, and questions about these records, please contact watson.library@metmuseum.org.
Access and Usage Terms
Use of these record sets is subject to The Met’s Terms and Conditions.