Library of Congress

MDS Technical Notice

September 25, 2000


Changes to MDS Services Regarding Records for Electronic Resources

Prior to October 15, 2000, all monographic bibliographic records for electronic resources (also known as computer files or machine-readable data files) were distributed in MDS-Computer Files. As a result of the redefinition of “computer file” in Type of Record (Leader/06) in July of 1997, electronic resources should now be coded in Type of Record for the significant content, not based on the carrier alone. Beginning October 15, 2000, bibliographic records for monographic electronic resources will be distributed based on the content of the Type of Record value (Leader/06) as follows:

Leader/06 Value MDS Service1
a Language materia Books
c Printed music Music
d Manuscript music Maps
e Cartographic material2 Maps
f Manuscript cartographic material2 Maps
g Projected medium Visual Materials
i Nonmusical sound recording Music
j Musical sound recording Music
k Two-dimensional nonproj. graphic Visual Materials
m Computer file Computer Files3
o Kit Visual Materials
p Mixed material Manuscripts
r Three-dimensional artifact Visual Materials
t Manuscript language materialt Books or Manuscripts

1 Records for serial electronic resources (bibliographic level/leader07 = s) are included in MDS-Serials.
2 Records for cartographic electronic resources have been included in MDS-Maps since Jan. 1998.
3 Records for electronic resources that meet the redefinition of “computer files” in MARC 21 will continue to be distributed in MDS-Computer Files. Updates to records that have already been distributed in MDS-Computer Files will generally continue to remain in that distribution; movement of records from the Computer Files service to another more appropriate service will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis
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