PROPOSAL NO: 99-05

DATE: December 11, 1998
REVISED:

NAME: Definition of Field 040 in the MARC Holdings Format

SOURCE: Library of Congress

SUMMARY: This paper proposes the definition of field 040 (Record Source) in the MARC Holdings Format. Although defined in all the other MARC formats, it was not defined in holdings. The definition of the field will allow for consistency between the formats and allow for designating the original creating agency, transcribing agency, and modifying agency of the holdings record.

KEYWORDS: Field 040 (HD); Record Source (HD)

RELATED:

STATUS/COMMENTS

12/11/99 - Forwarded to the MARC Advisory Committee for discussion at the January 1999 MARBI meetings.

1/31/99 - Results of MARC Advisory Committee discussion - Approved.

4/15/99 - Results of LC/NLC review - Approved.


PROPOSAL NO. 99-05: Field 040 in Holdings

1 BACKGROUND

Field 040 is defined in the MARC Bibliographic and Authority Formats as Cataloging Source, and in the Classification and Community Information Formats as Record Source. In all formats the field is used to include the MARC code for the organization(s) that created the original record, assigned content designation and transcribed the record, or made any change to an existing MARC record. It is not defined in the Holdings format. In order to align the formats and to allow for this information to be included in the record, this paper proposes that the field be added to the MARC Holdings Format.

2 DISCUSSION

2.1 History

The USMARC Format for Holdings and Locations was developed over several years and was approved by the MARBI Committee at its annual meeting in 1994. Several drafts were discussed in various meetings during 1992-1994. An early draft prepared in 1993 included a field 040 for Source, but it was deleted in a later version of the format. It was assumed that record source was not needed in a holdings record, since the holding institution is recorded in field 852, and that institution would be preparing the record. The field was included in other new formats that were developed (Classification, Community Information), because in the current record sharing environment it was possible for different institutions to exchange records and they need to show which created, transcribed and modified them.

2.2 Need for 040 in Holdings records

Although a holdings record contain local information about holdings in a particular institution's collection, these records can be exchanged between institutions. Currently there are situations where a library consortium may create a holdings record, and then it may be modified by a member institution. Another example might be a large public or university library system with separate branch libraries that update holdings records. Field 040 is needed to record the institutions that have modified the record.

Another example of sharing holdings records and needing to designate institutions that have touched the record is sharing publication pattern information. Although there is not currently a program for large-scale sharing of this information (recorded in holdings field 853), there has been much discussion about its potential usefulness because of the difficulty in establishing publication patterns for serials.

In the case of holdings embedded in a bibliographic record, any change to the record would be included in the bibliographic field 040. Since there currently is no way to show which fields in a record were created/transcribed/modified by a particular institution, it does not appear that there is a need for a separate 040 to show that only the holdings information had been modified by an institution.

3 PROPOSED CHANGES

In the USMARC Holdings Format:

- Define field 040 (Record Source) as follows:

The USMARC code for or the name of the organization(s) that created the original record, assigned content designation and transcribed the record, or made any change to an existing USMARC record. The source of the USMARC code is the USMARC Code List for Organizations that is maintained by the Library of Congress.


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