BCC2004/SMF/4

Subcommittee on MARC Formats
2004 Annual Report

Members: Paul Cauthen (Chair), James Alberts , Bruce J. Evans, Grace Fitzgerald, Kevin Medows, Mark Scharff , Lois Schultz, Jay Weitz (OCLC rep.), Stephen Yusko (LC rep.)

As the MLA representative, Paul Cauthen attended the MARBI/MARC Advisory Committee meetings during the ALA Midwinter and ALA Annual meetings. Of significant interest to the music library community was the approval of a new field in the MARC format (031) for music incipits. The proposal was developed the Subcommittee at the request of and in coordination with the RISM-US Office and was presented by the MLA representative to MARBI. The new field is expected to be implemented by the end of 2004.

At the Subcommittee's joint open meeting in Crystal city with the Authorities Subcommittee, Paul summarized MARBI actions of particular interest to MLA and the new music incipits field; Mickey Koth and Jim Zychowicz made a presentation on the web version of the Music Cataloging Bulletin.

Most noteworthy among the other issues considered by the Subcommittee were an examination of indexing issues surrounding the MARC field for manufacturer’s numbers (028) and some initial discussions of possible ways to make the authority record format more effective in machine authority processing.

The 2005 open meeting, to be held in conjunction with the Subject Access Subcommittee, will feature a presentation on the new MARC field for music incipits.

Submitted by Paul Cauthen

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Last updated January 29, 2005