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DATE: May 26, 2022
REVISED:
NAME: Adding Subfield $3 to Field 041 in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
SOURCE: Music Library Association (MLA) and Online Audiovisual Catalogers (OLAC)
SUMMARY: This paper examines the possibility of adding subfield $3 (Materials specified) to field 041 (Language Code) in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format, along with the changes that would need to be made to the MARC 008/35-37 (Language) and 041 field documentation in support of this addition.
KEYWORDS: Field 041 (BD); Language Code (BD); Field 008/35-37 (BD); Language (BD); Subfield $3, in field 041 (BD); Materials specified (BD)
RELATED: 2021-06; 2018-DP03; 2017-FT01
STATUS/COMMENTS:
05/26/22 – Made available to the MARC community for discussion.
06/28/22 – Results of MARC Advisory Committee discussion: The paper was met with general support from MAC. Committee discussion primarily focused on the scope and range of the provided examples, with a call for articulation of further use cases and examples beyond those primarily focusing on audio-visual resources. Pre-meeting and discussion feedback will be taken into account by the paper authors to move forward with a proposal.
Subfield $3 (Materials specified) is currently defined for use uniformly across many MARC fields in the Bibliographic format and permits catalogers to better associate metadata with specific parts of a bibliographic description. Most recently, for example, Subfield $3 was defined for field 046 (Special Coded Dates) when the MARC Advisory Committee (MAC) approved Proposal No. 2021-06 in January 2021. Subfield $3 was previously defined as well for fields 377 (Associated Language), 380 (Form of Work), 381 (Other Distinguishing Characteristics of Work or Expression), and 383 (Numeric Designation of Musical Work) when Discussion Paper No. 2018-DP03 was converted to a proposal and approved by MAC during its 2018 Midwinter Meetings. In 2017, too, subfield $3 was defined for field 384 (Key) when the MARC Steering Group approved Fast-Track Proposal No. 2017-FT01.
Many catalogers, including (and perhaps especially) those working with music and audiovisual materials, work with compilations on a regular basis. In bibliographic description, subfield $3 allows catalogers to better associate metadata with the specific works or expressions contained in such compilations. As suggested above, subfield $3 is already used by catalogers across many MARC fields, for example, in field 382 in order to indicate musical medium of performance for specific works and expressions in compilations such as record albums.
In most cases, for subfield $3 to be of use in bibliographic description, the field in which it is applied will need to be repeatable, which field 041 is. The Content Designator History for the field, however, indicates that the field was made repeatable specifically to accommodate the use of non-MARC language codes. Nevertheless, the 041 field documentation does not place any limitation on the field's repeatability, and in practice, it has been repeated in bibliographic records for reasons other than accommodation of non-MARC language codes: OLAC’s DVD/Blu-ray disc cataloging best practices, for example, recommend repeating the field when multiple works with different language information are present in an item (see Example 2.3.1(d) below).
Field 041 is currently defined, in part, in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format as follows:
FIELD DEFINITION AND SCOPE
Codes for languages associated with an item when the language code in field 008/35-37 of the record is insufficient to convey full information. Includes records for multilingual items, items that involve translation, and items where the medium of communication is a sign language. Sources of the codes are: MARC Code List for Languages or other code lists such as ISO 639-1 (Codes for the representation of names of languages - Part 1 : alpha-2 code).
Languages may also be recorded in textual form in field 546 (Language Note).
Used in conjunction with 008/35-37 (Language). If there is a code in 008/35-37, it is recorded as the first code in subfields $a or $d (for sound recordings) of field 041. If 008/35-37 contains all blanks (No information provided) or the code "zxx" (No linguistic content) and field 041 is being used, e.g., to record the language code(s) of accompanying material, no subfield $a or $d is present. If only a non-MARC code is used to express the predominant language in an item, field 008/35-37 is coded with three fill characters (| | |).
Used when one or more of the following conditions exist:
- The item contains more than one language one of which may be a sign language
- The item is or includes a translation
- The language of the summaries, abstracts, or accompanying material differs from the language of the main item
- The language of a table of contents differs from the language of the main item
Field 041 may also be used to express the original language of the work.
...
For audiovisual materials, field 041 is used with motion pictures, filmstrips, slides, transparencies, and videorecordings when one or more of the following conditions exist:
- The sound track has different language versions
- The accompanying sound (discs, tapes, etc.) has different language versions
- The overprinted titles (subtitles) or separate titles for silent films are in different languages
- The sound accompanying a work is in one language and the same text is printed on the work in the form of overprinted titles in another language
- The accompanying printed script for works with no sound or, if with sound, no narration, is in different languages
- The medium of communication includes sign language.
Field 041 may also be used to record additional language-related information about written or original languages on motion pictures and videorecordings
...
At the risk of belaboring a point that has already been sufficiently discussed in the past (for example, in connection with MARC Discussion Paper No. 2018-DP03), we recognize that subfield $8 is already available for use in the 041 field. However, to quote that Discussion Paper:
All of the 3XX fields mentioned above have a Subfield $8 defined as "field link and sequence number." The subfield allows a cataloger to codify a certain relationship between one MARC field and another, and by using the field link type of "c" for "constituent item," the subfield $8 could be used to link these MARC fields to their constituent units. However, for several reasons, the $8 subfield proves to be a limited tool to express relationships within a MARC record.
Though subfield $8 is useful for creating unambiguous machine-readable links between fields, the strings used to provide the linkage would prove incomprehensible to most patrons if they were displayed without some machine processing to render them more meaningful. By contrast, subfield $3 can be better suited for creating human-readable labels for metadata identification. MARC fields where the subfield $3 is employed could be presented to patrons with little to no manipulation and still result in useful displays.
For subfield $8 to function, it requires that the information to be linked be described in discrete MARC fields. Subfield $3 lacks this limitation. One can easily use it to specify that a certain 3XX field applies to "Preface" or "2nd work" or "accompanying CD," even if those logical or physical components are not described in individual MARC fields that could be linked. Of course, a cataloger could also use subfield $3 to provide a label that would relate discrete data elements to information expressed formally in access points.
To the above arguments we add some practical considerations. Subfield $8 has not been embraced by catalogers in North America. Encoding subfield $8 can be a time-consuming and exacting process, and the authors of this paper are not aware of input tools to assist a cataloger in the task. Nor are we aware of OPACs or discovery layers that have been designed to take advantage of subfield $8.
To the best of our knowledge, the situation has not changed since these assertions were originally made.
Compilations often contain works and expressions, including translations, involving multiple languages. Clear, unambiguous encoding of this information can improve user access to these materials. Bibliographic descriptions of these materials, however, sometimes include complex 041 fields that cannot indicate what data apply to which part(s) of the compilation.
2.3.1 To present a simple example, a sound recording or video of a performance might contain two pieces of vocal music: one sung in its original German, and one also sung in German, but translated from the original Italian. Currently, at least four possibilities for encoding this information present themselves:
2.3.1(a) 041 1# $d ger $h ita
This example makes it clear that both works on the recording are sung in German, but could be interpreted to indicate that either one or both works are translated from Italian.
2.3.1(b) 041 1# $d ger $h ger $h ita
This example makes it clear that both works on the recording are sung in German, and that one is sung in the original language while the other is sung in translation. As the two subfields $h are listed in alphabetical order, however, there is no way to discern which of the two works is the translation.
2.3.1(c) 041 1# $d ger $h ger $d ger $h ita
This example makes it clear that both works on the recording are sung in German, with the implication—through positionality—that the second work is the translation. Note, however, that the use of positionality to indicate the relationship between pieces of information is generally not considered reliable for purposes of machine processing.
2.3.1(d) 041 0# $d ger (or $d ger $h ger)
041 1# $d ger $h itaThis example makes it clear that both works on the recording are sung in German, with the implication—by means of the order of the 041 fields—that the second work is the translation. Note that this is the practice currently endorsed by OLAC in its Best Practices for Cataloging DVD-Video and Blu-ray Discs Using RDA and MARC21 (page 53).
2.3.2 Keep in mind that there are often more than two works in a compilation. For example, consider the following 041 field for a DVD set of foreign films:
008/35-37 chi
041 1# $a chi $a rus $a tgl $a tha $a tur $j eng $j por $h chi $h por $h rus $h tgl $h tha $h tur
546 ## $3 Insiang $a In Tagalog with English subtitles.
546 ## $3 Mysterious object at noon $a In Thai with English subtitles.
546 ## $3 Revenge $a In Russian with English subtitles.
546 ## $3 Limite $a Silent with musical accompaniment and some Portuguese intertitles with English subtitles.
546 ## $3 Law of the border $a In Turkish with English subtitles.
546 ## $3 Taipei story $a In Mandarin and Hokkien with English subtitles.
Note that 041 fields may include not only the multiple languages of works along with possible original and even intermediate languages (as in the previous example), but also subtitles, intertitles, printed transcripts or song texts (these often translated into different languages), program notes, and so forth. The ability to use subfield $3 in the 041 field could be useful in clarifying all of this information.
[Note: proposed changes to current definitions are in bracketed italics.]
In the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format:
Define a new subfield $3 (Materials Specified) in Field 041 (Language Code) as follows:
$3 - Materials specified (NR)
Part of the described material to which the field applies.
In the Field 041 Field Definition and Scope, revise the beginning of the third paragraph as follows:
Used in conjunction with 008/35-37 (Language). If there is a code in 008/35-37, it is recorded as the first code in subfields $a or $d (for sound recordings) of field 041. [If multiple 041 fields are present, it is recorded as the first code in subfields $a or $d (for sound recordings) of the first 041 field.]
Revise the definition of subfield $a of Field 041 and add a supporting example as follows:
$a - Language code of text/sound track or separate title
Language code in the first occurrence of subfield $a [(in the first 041 field if multiple 041 fields are present)] is also recorded in 008/35-37 (Language) unless 008/35-37 contains blanks (###) or the code "zxx" (No linguistic content)....
[008/35-37 jpn
041 1# $3 Gojira $a jpn $j eng $h jpn
041 0# $3 Godzilla $a eng $h eng
[DVD contains two films, one with a Japanese sound track, and one with an English sound track]]
Revise the definition of subfield $d of Field 041 and add a supporting example as follows:
$d - Language code of sung or spoken text
Language code(s) for the audible portion of an item, usually the sung or spoken content of a sound recording or computer file. [If there is no subfield $a,]T[t]he language code in the first occurrence of subfield $d [(in the first 041 field if multiple 041 fields are present)], if there is no subfield $a,may also be recorded in field 008/35-37.
Note: The language code(s) for the textual portion of an item is entered in subfield $a....
[008 35/37 geo
041 0# $3 Megrelʹskie pesni $d geo $h geo
041 1# $3 Guriĭskie pesni $d rus $h geo
[Recording contains two works, one sung in Georgian, one sung in Russian]]
In the field 008 Guidelines for Applying Content Designators for Character Positions 35-37 (Language), revise the fourth paragraph and add a supporting example as follows:
If more than one language code is applicable, the code for the predominant language is recorded in 008/35-37, and the codes for all of the languages, including the predominant language, are recorded in [one or more] field[(s)] 041 (Language Code). The code recorded in 008/35-37 is always the same as the language code recorded in the first occurrence [(in the first 041 field if multiple 041 fields are present)] of subfields $a or $d (for sound recordings).
…
[008/35-37 jpn
041 1# $3 Gojira $a jpn $j eng $h jpn
041 0# $3 Godzilla $a eng $h eng
546 ## $3 Gojira $a In Japanese with optional English subtitles.
546 ## $3 Godzilla $a In English.]
008/35-37 ger
041 0# $3 Mozart work $d ger $h ger
041 1# $3 Verdi work $d ger $h ita
245 00 $a Wenn der Freude Tränen fliessen : $b aus "Entführung aus dem Serail" / $c [Mozart]. Dass nur für mich dein Herz erbebt : aus "Troubadour" / [Verdi].
546 ## $3 Mozart work $a Sung in German.
546 ## $3 Verdi work $a Sung in German; originally in Italian.
008/35-37 jpn
041 1# $3 Gojira $a jpn $j eng $h jpn
041 0# $3 Godzilla $a eng $h eng
245 10 $a Gojira = $b Godzilla / $c Toho Co., Ltd.
546 ## $3 Gojira $a In Japanese with optional English subtitles.
546 ## $3 Godzilla $a In English.
008/35-37 eng
041 1# $3 Clyde and Bonnie ; Busstopkisser $a eng $h ger
041 1# $3 Helver's night $a eng $h pol
245 00 $a Theatre Café : $b plays three.
546 ## $3 Clyde and Bonnie ; Busstopkisser $a In English; translated from the German.
546 ## $3 Helver’s night $a In English; translated from the Polish.
505 00 $t Clyde and Bonnie / $r Holger Schober ; translated by Zoë Svendsen -- $t Helver's night / $r Ingmar Villqist ; translated by Jacek Laskowski -- $t Busstopkisser / $r Ralf N. Höhfeld ; translated by Vanessa Fagan.
008 35/37 geo
041 0# $3 Megrelʹskie pesni $d geo $h geo
041 1# $3 Guriĭskie pesni $d rus $h geo
041 0# $3 Program notes $g rus
245 10 $a Megrelʹskie pesni ; $b Guriĭskie pesni / $c O. Taktakishvili.
546 ## $3 Megrelʹskie pesni $a Sung in Georgian.
546 ## $3 Guriĭskie pesni $a Sung in Russian.
500 ## $a Program notes in Russian on container.
As is the case with subfield $3 in other MARC fields, use of non-controlled textual vocabulary in subfield $3 may be difficult to convert from MARC.
6.1. Has the need for defining subfield $3 for the 041 field been sufficiently demonstrated?
6.2. Has the repeatability of field 041 in circumstances other than the accommodation of non-MARC language codes been sufficiently justified? Are there circumstances other than the use of more than one type of language code in a description, or the presence of multiple works with different language information, where the ability to repeat the 041 field might be beneficial?
6.3. Would the presence of multiple 041 fields in a bibliographic record create additional ambiguity or confusion? If so, how might the situation(s) be rectified?
6.4. Are there other potential issues that need to be taken into account?
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