I. Understanding MARC Bibliographic
What is a MARC record?
- A MARC record is a MA chine-Readable Cataloging record.
- “Machine-readable” means that one particular type of machine, a computer, can read and interpret the data in the cataloging record.
- Librarians follow the rules in Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd ed.,(AACR2) 2002 revision to compose the bibliographic description of a library item.
- This “description” is shown in the paragraph sections of a card. It includes the title, statement of responsibility, edition, material specific details, publication information, physical description, series, notes, and standard numbers.
- POINTS OF ACCESS: Rules in AACR2 are used to answer questions such as: For this book, should there be entries in the catalog for more than one author or more than one title? Should the title of the series be noted? How should the author’s name be written? Is this a “title main entry” item (no author)?
- Subject headings: Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), or another standard subject headings list to select the subjects under which the item will be listed. Use of an approved list is important for consistency.
- MARC Code The MARC 21 format uses “260″ “$a” “$b” and “$c” to mark the field that holds imprint data instead of storing the words “publication area,” “place of publication,” “name of publisher,” and “date of publication” in each record. This convention makes more efficient use of computer storage space.
FIELDS are marked by TAGS.
Field: Each bibliographic record is divided logically into fields. There is a field for the author, etc.
Tag: Each field is associated with a 3-digit number called a “tag.” A tag identifies the field — the kind of data — that follows.
- EXAMPLE: The tags used most frequently are:
10 tag marks the Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN)
020 tag marks the International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
100 tag marks a personal name main entry (author)
245 tag marks the title information (which includes the title, other title information, and the statement of responsibility)
250 tag marks the edition
260 tag marks the publication information
300 tag marks the physical description (often referred to as the “collation” when describing books)
440 tag marks the series statement/added entry
520 tag marks the annotation or summary note
650 tag marks a topical subject heading
700 tag marks a personal name added entry (joint author, editor, or illustrator)
EXAMPLE ENTRY: 100 1# $a Pirsig, Robert M.
Some fields are further defined by INDICATORS
- Indicators: Two character positions follow each tag (with the exception of Fields 001 through 009)
- It is the convention to represent a blank, or undefined, indicator position by the character “#”.
- EXAMPLE: 245 14 $a The emperor’s new clothes / $c adapted from Hans Christian Andersen and illustrated by Janet Stevens.
Some fields are further defined by SUBFIELDS
- Subfield: Most fields contain several related pieces of data. Each type of data within the field is called a subfield, and each subfield is preceded by a subfield code. Fields 001 through 009 have no subfields.
- Subfield codes are one lowercase letter (occasionally a number) preceded by a delimiter. A delimiter is a character used to separate subfields. ($)
- EXAMPLE: 300 ## $a 675 p. : $b ill. ; $c 24 cm.
Most of the access points are in:
1XX fields (main entries)
4XX fields (series statements)
6XX fields (subject headings)
7XX fields (added entries other than subject or series)
8XX fields (series added entries)
II. AACR2 chapters
It is hard to comment on the AACR2 (Anglo-American-Cataloging-Rules) chapters since this is a guide / tool that is used while creating MARC records. It seems to be very useful and thorough, and I’m sure will be helpful once I actually create these records. It’s good to note that AACR2 is very specific when concerning punctuation and wording, as this helps streamline metadata records across institutions.
