While the long established Format for Information Exchange (ISO 2709) enables the efficient transmission of compressed MARC data, other non-MARC text based data formats (e.g. .CSV, XML etc.) lack a common standard. Instead, general file archiving tools (e.g. .ZIP and TAR etc.) are often used to enable more efficient and rapid file transfer of data.

Such tools can also simplify the management of multi-file sets by enabling files to be combined into a single archive together with any related documentation. Additionally, NBAs may use generic compression tools (e.g. TAR) to package multiple files of ISO2709 formatted MARC data together with relevant documentation.