2003 MARC Format Update

Changes to MARC 21, which were published in October 2002, were implemented by OCLC in May 2003, with release of Technical Bulletin 249. See www.oclc.org/technicalbulletins/249/. Please note that since I am not an RLIN user, I am unable to report on their plans.

Field 247 is renamed and redefined. In the past, it was only used for pre-AACR2 latest entry cataloging. With the changed rules for integrating resources, the field has been renamed, Former Title. "A former title proper. Use when one cataloging record represents several titles associated with an entity." This is one change we will put to use for both loose-leafs and electronic resources.

As a sign of the times, a URL (uniform resource identifier) may now be added to several bibliographic notes, including Restrictions on Access Note (field 506), System Details Note (field 538), and Terms Governing Use and Reproduction Note (field 540). A URL is authorized for authority records in Source Data Found (field 670), but the Library of Congress does not yet want them used in LC, NACO or SACO records.

The second indicator of the Other Index Term – Genre/Form (field 655) has been changed to mirror the codes used in other subject fields. Take Library of Congress Subject Headings for genre/form as an example:

Old practice: 655 #7 ...$2 lcsh
New practice: 655 #0 ...

For the most part, these changes are not dramatic ones. Several of them respond to needs of libraries in the United Kingdom, who are working toward implementation of MARC 21. For example, codes for groups of children are redefined and renamed in the fixed-field for Target Audience. Several more changes respond to needs of the archival community, so if you catalog archival material you should take a look at them. A number of the changes reflect the new use of 'electronic resource' in place of 'computer file' and 'continuing resource' in place of 'serial'.

Non-Filing Characters

In February of this year, the Library of Congress implemented changes to the method of counting non-filing characters. See http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/nonfil.html. The changes are in response to clarification included when MARC 21 was first published. Both OCLC and RLIN indicate that they can handle these new conventions and still handle the old methods. If your local system supports these new conventions, you should now follow them for current cataloging.

Here is an excerpt from the LC document, which describes the change much better than I could.

"This change applies when definite or indefinite articles are present and the first filing word following the article begins with a character modified by a diacritic...

"Count the article, diacritics associated with the article, any blank space, an alif, an ayn, or any mark of punctuation preceding the first filing character. Do *not* count a diacritic associated with the first filing character...

"Old practice: 245 13 $aL'été ...
"New practice: 245 12 $aL'été ..."

Please visit the cited document for a complete description with more examples. Those of us with few foreign language materials in our collections, will be little affected by this change.

FRBR and OCLC

An article titled "The Concept of a Work in WorldCat: An Application of FRBR" by Rick Bennett, Brian F. Lavoie and Edward T. O'Neill was published in Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services, 27:1 (Spring 2003) and is available at http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/archive/2003/lavoie_frbr.pdf. The abstract appearing with the article says:

"This paper explores the concept of a work in WorldCat, the OCLC Online Union Catalog, using the hierarchy of bibliographic entities defined in the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) report. A methodology is described for constructing a sample of works by applying the FRBR model to randomly selected WorldCat records. This sample is used to estimate the number of works in WorldCat, and describe some of their key characteristics. Results suggest that the majority of benefits associated with applying FRBR to WorldCat could be obtained by concentrating on a relatively small number of complex works."

In a few pages it gives a good description of FRBR, describes how it was tested against a portion of the OCLC database, and draws conclusions from the test.

MARC at AALL in Seattle

If FRBR interests you, make sure you attend the Program A-4 on Sunday morning, July 13, in Seattle. Kathy Winzer has lined up a great group of speakers, so don't miss it.

Also, check out the new 30-minute slots on Wednesday afternoon. As Program L-4, I will give my MARBI report and have some time for any discussion it might generate. Since it has its own slot in the schedule, don't expect the MARBI report during business or committee meetings. I'm sure that none of you will miss having to hear it more than once.

Putting MARC to Good Use