Discussion Paper 2002-DP07

DATE: December 18, 2001
REVISED:

NAME: Changes for UKMARC Format Alignment

SOURCE: British Library (BL), National Library of Canada (NLC), Library of Congress (LC)

SUMMARY: This paper presents the changes that the UKMARC users have suggested be made to MARC 21 to facilitate the alignment of the formats.

KEYWORDS: UKMARC

STATUS/COMMENTS:

12/18/01 - Made available to the MARC 21 community for discussion.

01/21/02 - Results of the MARC Advisory Committee discussion

• Fields 008/22, 006/05 (Target audience) - Participants felt that the definitions need to be modified to reflect different educational practices and that the relationship between the different codes should be studied.
  
  
• Fields 008/21, 006/04 (Music parts) - Participants were concerned about adding currently obsolete values back into the formats. Alan Danskin (BL) will follow-up with the music catalogers at the British Library to determine how they code this information and how it is used.
  
  
• Field 008/33 (Music) - There was some interest in accommodating the additions for those that need it.
  
  

• Fields 008/ 24-27 (Books), 008/24 (Serials) 008/25-27 (Serials), 006/07-10 (Books), 006/07 (Serials), 006/08-10 (Serials) (Nature of contents/Nature of entire work) - Participants requested a more thorough definition of "Specifications."
  
  

• Field 040, subfield $z (Record content owner) - Participants expressed concern about adding subfield $z to field 040 since the concept of ownership of records goes against the U.S. philosophy of record sharing. A request was made that field 040 not be used to carry this information. Consideration should be given to including the information elsewhere in the record.
  
  
• Field 756 - Participants requested that the discrepancies between field 756 and UNIMARC field 012 (Fingerprint identifier) be resolved to allow easier mapping between the formats. Consideration should be given to using the 0XX block since this is like a standard number.
  
  
• Field 563 - This will be further explored.
  
  
• Book Trade fields - There was concern as to whether this is bibliographic or acquisitions information and how much the format should support the latter. The relationships between the book trade fields and fields 035, 050 and 350 need to be explored.
  
  
• Character set additions - Some participants opposed expanding the character set repertoire for the euro sign, while others acknowledged the need for the addition. Many felt that the official abbreviation for the euro, EUR, could be used instead. Making all currency signs obsolete in favor of abbreviations was also discussed by the group.

Discussion Paper 2002-DP07: Changes for UKMARC Format Alignment

1. INTRODUCTION

In March 2001, following a broad consultative process, the British Library (BL) issued a press release that announced the decision of the UK library community to adopt MARC 21 as the standard for encoding new catalog records. They saw, among other advantages, the change enabling them to download and derive bibliographic records from a wider range of sources and enabling them to take advantage of a larger marketplace for library systems. This change will be advantageous to all MARC 21 users as many UK records will be available in the future without costly conversions that also inevitably resulted in some data loss.

This discussion paper introduces the possible changes for MARC 21 and, based on the discussion, proposals will be prepared for the June 2002 meetings and reviews.

2. SUGGESTED CHANGES

Since the British Library has been working since the mid-1990s with LC and NLC to bring UKMARC and MARC 21 closer together, the special requirements forwarded by the BL are minimal. The UK community, led by the BL, analyzed the format differences and recommended several changes. Unless otherwise noted below, the cost and impact was not expected to be significant by the BL. The BL expects that there will be one-time training and system costs associated with the implementation of new elements. It is assumed that bundling with other changes may control such costs. This overview allows the MARC 21 community to analyze cost and impact of the proposed changes to MARC 21.

The following descriptions of changes are derived from Change Request Forms compiled by the British Library. Additional information is inserted where needed, marked "Note". Additions to MARC 21 are enclosed in angle brackets <>.

2.1 Fields 008 and 006

008 - Books, Computer files, Music, Visual Materials / 22 - Target audience
006 - Books, Computer files, Music, Visual Materials / 05 - Target audience

# - Unknown or not specified
| - No attempt to code
a - Preschool
b - Primary
c - Elementary and junior high
d - Secondary (senior high)
j - Juvenile
<k - Adolescent>
e - Adult
f - Specialized
g - General

The BL currently identifies this category of material in the British National Bibliography. Also within the Reveal project in the UK, a MARC 21 based project, this value has had to be added to MARC 21.

Note: If this code is added, the current audience codes should undergo a review of the names and scopes of the existing values. The existing ones need to be clearly related to the new. In addition the names of existing values related to school groups need to be generalized to accommodate more educational systems. MARC 21 also has a specialized field, 521 (Target Audience Note) where detailed information about the target school groups or audience groups can be given along with an indication of the audience classification scheme used.

008 - Serials / 20 - ISSN center
006 - Serials / 03 - ISSN center

<2 - United Kingdom>

Note: This value was made obsolete in 1989 and the BL needs it reinstated. There were 36 values originally available for the ISSN center codes (a-z, 0-9) which was thought to be sufficient when the system was first set up. Now there are 73 centers, and with increasing use of the format, consideration should be given to establishing another location for this information.

<008 - Music / 21 - Music parts>
<006 - Music / 04 - Music parts>

<a - Instrumental and vocal parts>
<b - Instrumental parts>
<c - Vocal parts>
<n - Not applicable>
<u - Unknown>
<| - No attempt to code>

Use of the codes would be optional. The Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL) and the BL Music Library are anxious to retain these codes from UKMARC. The codes will be particularly useful for enabling the identification of material for orchestras and choirs. The British Library Document Supply Centre has a large collection of "parts" for interlibrary loan and document supply. The proposal is also endorsed by Cambridge University Library and the Royal College of Music.

Note: MARC 21 formerly had the character position for parts, 008/21 (Existence of parts) (values # - No parts exist, a - Parts exist, n - Not applicable, u - Unknown). Its coding was discussed extensively in the 1980s as some institutions coded it "parts exist" if parts had been published so existed someplace in the world and others coded it if they actually had the parts in hand. The decision was made to make it obsolete in 1986 and use holdings records for actual local holdings.

Before reinstating the 008/21 the relationship of the coding to field 300 and to the holdings format need to be clarified and the meaning of the coding agreed upon and clearly specified.

<008 - Music / 33 - Transposition and arrangement>
<006 - Music / 16 - Transposition and arrangement>

<a - Transposition- alteration of pitch>
<b - Arrangement - alteration of medium or texture>
<c - Both transposed and arranged>

Add this new position to the Music 008. The Royal College of Music in the UK would find this value useful in the future particularly when dealing with music technology and course requirements.

Note: The information on transposition and arrangement is also in the uniform title. The establishment of these is somewhat subjective but coding would be as valid as the information in the uniform title. The concepts may not apply to all music cultures.

<008 - Books / 24-27 - Nature of contents>
<006 - Books / 07-10 - Nature of contents>
<008 - Serials / 24 - Nature of entire work>
<006 - Serials / 07 - Nature of entire work>
<008 - Serials / 25-27 - Nature of contents>
<006 - Serials / 08-10 - Nature of contents>

<u - Standards or specifications>

The British Library is a major contributor to SIGLE (System for the Identification of Grey Literature in Europe). This is a mandatory code in the SIGLE system so that project would be affected.

Note: Value u appears to be the only one that has not been used previously. While it is often reserved for unknown, it may not need to be in this case. This value is proposed for the corresponding fields in the Serials 008 as this form of material may take the form of an integrating resource (e.g., the MARC documentation). Before harmonization, CAN/MARC had a value k (Official standards) that they gave up in favor of the value k (Discography). This is a much narrower set of standards material than the class covered by the proposed UK value, which could include many technical documents. The types of material to be encompassed in this new value would need to be made clear.

2.2 Record content property rights specification

040 - Cataloging Source

<$z - Record content owner Subfield z contains the MARC Organization Code or the name of the institution that owns the intellectual property rights for the record.>

The British Library and CURL in the UK derive revenue through payment of royalties on the reuse of bibliographic data. For CURL, this subfield is used to track the provenance of the records on the database in order to comply with licenses with external suppliers. It is part of the agreement with members and customers that they continue to store this field as a permanent marker of the provenance of the records. When switching to MARC21 a similar place to store this information in needed.

The BL is not able to estimate the potential cost of implementation for the community as a whole. It is believed that implementation costs will not be significant as subfield $z is consistent with other subfields in field 040. All records created by the British Library and CURL members would contain this subfield.

Note: LC and NLC cataloging records and that of many institutions worldwide are available for reuse for free. The content of their records and any derived from them would not be subject to claim of ownership by another party. The provenance of records is contained in the subfields $a (Original cataloging agency), $c (Transcribing agency), and $d (Modifying agency) and is intended to assist cataloging agencies in evaluating the usefulness and processing streams for the records.

2.3 Special early printed book fields

<756 - Fingerprint Note (R)>
<This field is used to assist the identification of antiquarian books by recording information comprising groups of characters taken from specified positions on specified pages of the book, in accordance with the principles laid down in Fingerprints = Empreintes = Impronte. Paris: Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes in association with the National Library of Scotland, 1984.>

<Indicators not defined - blanks>
<$a - First and second groups of characters (NR)>
<$b - Third and fourth groups of characters (NR)>
<$c - Date (NR)>
<$d - Number of volume or part (NR)>
<$5 - Institution to which field applies (NR)>

Example:

The absence of a fingerprint field in MARC 21 means that the field cannot be searched or displayed in the Consortium of European Research Libraries' database of "Hand Press Books" (hosted by RLG) because the UNIMARC fingerprint field (012) has to be rendered as 886 Foreign MARC Field.

Note: This field might be more logically a 5XX since it is called a note.

<563 - Binding Information (R)>
<This field is used to record binding information and it is intended primarily for use with antiquarian materials, rare books and other special collections.>

<Indicators not defined - blanks>
<$a - Binding note (NR)>
<$u - Uniform Resource Identifier (R)>
<To provide links to the image of a binding.>
<$5 - Institution to which field a applies (NR)>

The requirement for such a binding note, 563, which could be used in the bibliographic and/or holdings formats, is from the rare books community and the National Preservation Office in the UK. Early Printed Books catalogers use field 563 at St Andrews University, Durham University, Trinity College Dublin, and University of London Library, among others. National Library of Scotland and British Library would also adopt it in MARC 21.

There is no quantifiable fiscal benefit. This is a qualitative improvement, which will facilitate the identification and description of early printed books.

Note: The use fo the URI subfield is not clear in this field.

2.4 Book trade fields

<356 Trade Price>
<This field is intended primarily for use by the book trade and records the current price of an item. This field is also used to record the special export price of an item in any currency, including the local currency.>

<First indicator
0 - Domestic Price
1 - Foreign Price>
<Second indicator is undefined - blank>
<$a Price (NR)>
<$b Currency code (NR)
Subfield $b contains the standard banking abbreviations for the appropriate currency.>
<$c Price note (NR)>
<$d Unit of pricing (NR)
This subfield contains a code indicating the unit of the product to which the price in $a applies. The codes are as follows:
00 Per copy of whole product
01 Per page for printed or loose-leaf content only.>
<$e Price effective from (NR)
Contains the date from which a price becomes effective. The date is expressed as YYYYMMDD.>
<$f Price effective until (NR)
Contains the date until which a price remains effective. The date is expressed as YYYYMMDD.>

Examples:

<358 Trade information>
<This field is of use primarily to book trade users of the MARC format. It allows detailed information relating to the availability of items from publishers to be recorded.>

<Indicators not defined - blanks>
<$a Publishers' compressed title (NR)
Subfield $a contains sufficient bibliographic information to identify a book. The form a compressed title might take is at the discretion of the originating agency.>
<$b Precise date of publication (NR)
Subfield $b contains the date in the format YYYYMMDD. Where the MM or DD data is unknown, these positions contain zeroes, e.g. 19951200 for December 1995.>
<$c Availability code (NR)
Subfield $c contains a 2-digit status code (see list below) followed after a space by the date of the status report in YYYYMMDD format.>
<$d Expected date when next available (NR)
Subfield $d contains the date in YYYYMMDD format. Where the MM or DD data is unknown, these positions contain zeroes, e.g. 19951200 for December 1995. Subfield $d is used when subfield $c contains the codes RP or OO.>
<$e Availability note (NR)>
<$f Publisher's discount category (NR)>
<$g Date made out of print (not repeatable)
Contains the date made out of print. The date is structured YYYYMMDD. Where the month or date cannot be determined, fill with 0.>
<$h Country (NR)
Contains the code for the country in which the information in the note is applicable. The codes are taken from the MARC Code list for countries or from ISO 3166-1.>

<ONIX availability codes:

Examples:

UK comments on book trade fields:

Whitaker information Services - Strongly endorse the inclusion of UKMARC fields 355, 356 and 358 into MARC 21. Price and availability data is a key element in their bibliographic records and is constantly maintained by them to a very high standard. Its loss would significantly reduce the potential benefit that can be derived from their records. The precise date of UK publication and current UK price subfields were added to our UKMARC output at the request of customers. Non-appearance of equivalents in MARC 21 would be damaging to these customers.

British Library - MARC 21 allows price to be recorded 1) in the 02X block, as an adjunct to the standard numbers (although not for serials or reports) and 2) in the 541 "Immediate Source of acquisition note". Neither of these options satisfies the requirements of UKMARC users; the 541 relates to the Library, not the book trade; the 02X does not cover serials and does not allow sufficient detail to be recorded, e.g. type of price or currency.

Note: These fields are newly revised versions of 3 fields currently in the UKMARC format, 355, 356, and 358. The BL plans to incorporate these revised versions into the UKMARC format with their update no.7. MARC 21 has already field 037 (Source of Acquisition) for price, format, and source information and field 263 (projected Publication Date for projected publication date. Field 037 is used for serial and technical report prices, when/if they are included in a record, although it is open to terms of availability for all forms of material. MARC 21 price in field 541 (Immediate Source of Acquisition Note) is intended primarily for historical or archival items, not trade prices. None of these are as extensive as the trade information in 356 and 358 derived from the publisher's ONIX format.

2.5 Character set

The following characters have been requested by UKMARC users for addition to the MARC 21 Extended Latin Character set:

Euro sign - Unicode 20AC
Eszett - Unicode 00DF

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