Dublin Core to MARC Crosswalk

Network Development and MARC Standards Office
Library of Congress

Date issued: 2008-04-23

Previous version: //www.loc.gov/marc/dccross_20010312.html

I. Introduction

The following is a crosswalk between the metadata terms in the Dublin Core Element Set and MARC 21 bibliographic data elements. The crosswalk may be used for conversion of Dublin Core metadata into MARC, for instance as a tool for developing XSLT transformations. For conversion of MARC 21 into Dublin Core, the MARC to Dublin Core Crosswalk should be used, since in this conversion many fields are mapped into a single Dublin Core element.

In the Dublin Core to MARC mapping, two mappings are provided, one for unqualified Dublin Core elements (i.e. the main fifteen elements as in Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, version 1.1) and the other for qualified (those in addition that appear only in DCMI Metadata Terms). The latter includes both refinements of the original fifteen as well as syntax and vocabulary encoding schemes.

MARC 21 fields are listed with field number, then two indicator values with field name/subfield name in parentheses. If both the field and subfield have the same name, the subfield name is not included. A blank (H'20') is indicated in this document by "#". The label is a shortened form of the element name.

Definitions are taken from Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, Version 1.1: Reference Description. For further information about Dublin Core elements, including application notes (given in Comment), refer to that document. All Dublin Core elements are optional and repeatable. In this document elements are listed in alphabetical order by Dublin Core label.

II. Dublin Core to MARC Crosswalk (15 elements in version 1.1 and refinements)

Contributor -- An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource.

Note: there is no way to specify whether the Contributor is a person or organization because it is not in the Dublin Core data. If it can reasonably be determined that the contributor is a person or organization, fields 700 1#$a (Added Entry--Personal Name) or 710 2#$a (Added Entry--Corporate Name) may be used.

Coverage -- The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which he resource is relevant.

Creator -- An entity primarily responsible for making the resource.

Note: there is no way to specify whether the Creator is a person or organization because it is not in the Dublin Core data. If it can reasonably be determined that the Creator is a person or organization, fields 100 1#$a (Main Entry--Personal Name) or 110 2#$a (Main Entry--Corporate Name) may be used for the first Creator, and 700 1#$a (Added Entry--Personal Name) or 7102#$a (Added Entry--Corporate Name) for others may be used.

Date -- A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource.

Description -- An account of the resource.

Format -- The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource.

Identifier -- An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context.

Note: other types of identifiers (e.g. ISSN, ISBN) may be expressed in the form of URIs in dc:identifier.

Language -- A language of the resource.

Publisher -- An entity responsible for making the resource available.

Relation -- A related resource.

Rights -- Information about rights held in and over the resource.

Source -- A related resource from which the described resource is derived.

Subject -- The topic of the resource.

Title -- A name given to the resource.

Type -- The nature or genre of the resource.

See Section III for use to determine Leader/06 (Type of Record) values.

III. Additional Dublin Core Elements

IV. Notes

In addition to the variable length fields listed in the mapping, a MARC 21 record will also include a Leader and field 008 (Fixed-Length Data Elements). Certain character positions in each of these fixed length fields of a USMARC record will need to be coded, although most will generate default values.

Leader: a fixed field comprising the first 24 character positions (00-23) of each record that provides information for the processing of the record. The following positions should be generated:

Type value Leader/06 value
collection
p
dataset
m
event
r
image
k
interactive resource
m
service
m
software
m
sound
i
text
a

If no type is indicated, use value "a". If two type values are indicated, and one of these is "collection" use the other value for setting Leader/06. If more than two, use "m".

008 Fixed Length Data Elements: Forty character positions (00-39) containing positionally-defined data elements that provide coded information about the record as a whole or about special bibliographic aspects of the item being cataloged. For records originating as Dublin Core, the following character positions are used:

042$a Authentication Code: Use "dc" (identifies that MARC 21 record is derived from Dublin Core style record).

IV. Uses for mapping Dublin Core to MARC

A mapping between the elements in the Dublin Core and MARC 21 fields is necessary so that conversions between various syntaxes can occur accurately. Once Dublin Core style metadata is widely provided, it might interact with MARC records in various ways such as the following:

Enhancement of simple resource description record. A cataloging agency may wish to extract the metadata provided in Dublin Core style and convert the data elements to MARC 21 fields, resulting in a skeletal record. That record might then be enhanced as needed to add additional information generally provided in the particular catalog. Some projects convert data and use as basic record for reporting to national bibliography.

Searching across syntaxes and databases. Libraries have large systems with valuable information in metadata records in MARC format. It will be important for systems to be able to search metadata in different syntaxes and databases and have commonality in the definition and use of elements. A primary use for this mapping is for harvesting metadata records from different sources, where there may be a need to translate Dublin Core records to MARC or vice versa.


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