BCC2005/SMF/1

REPORT OF THE MARBI/MARC ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
Boston, Mass.
Jan. 15-16, 2005

MARBI and the MARC Advisory Committee met concurrently in two sessions during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston. Chair Adam Schiff (University of Washington) led the sessions.

Summary:

This year’s meeting was occupied primarily with new proposals and discussion papers.

Highlights:

Apart from a secondary discussion of the concepts of “ofness” and “aboutness” and whether music can be “about” something (see Discussion Paper 2005-DP01), and the possibility of a minor change to the MARC documentation instructions for recording standard numbers in field 024, such as the ISMN (see Proposal 2005-02), there was nothing else of significant interest to the music library community.

Proposals:

2005-01 : Definition of Field 766 in the MARC 21 Classification Format (approved as presented)

Provides fields for secondary tables for breaking down classification number spans.

2005-02 : Definition of Subfield $y in Field 020 (International Standard Book Number) and Field 010 (Library of Congress Control Number) in the MARC 21 Formats (rejected)

The principal goal of the proposal was to provide a means of recording standard numbers that appear on an item, but that do not apply to the item, in order to prevent improper overlay of catalog records. After a lengthy discussion, MARBI recommended that LC revise the MARC21 documentation to make it clear how such numbers should be entered in the existing subfields. As part of the discussion, the MLA representative indicated that any changes made in the documentation for field 020 (ISBN) should also be made in field 024 (other standard number, which includes the ISMN)

2005-03: Definition of Subfield $2 and Second Indicator value 7 in Fields 866-868 (Textual Holdings) of the MARC 21 Holdings Format (approved with minor amendments)

The proposed change will make it possible to use other holdings notation standards, such as that used by the USNP (United State Newspaper Program)

2005-04: Hierarchical Geographic Names in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format (revise and re-present)

MARBI recommended that any changes in field 662 also be made in field 752. Other outstanding issues include the use of indicators to distinguish between jurisdictions and geographical features and the repeatability of subfields

2005-05 : Change of Unicode mapping for the Extended Roman “alif” character (approved)

Another step in the move to complete Unicode compliance, this change will make the treatment of the “alif” consistent with that of the “ayn,” which was changed a number of years ago.

Discussion Papers

2005-DP01: Subject Access to Images (revise and return as a proposal or discussion paper)

The paper documents the need of the visual resources community (and others) to distinguish between subject access that represents what a resource is about and subject access that represents what a resource depicts (aboutness and ofness) . After 2 days of wide-ranging discussion, MARBI expressed a preference for the use of relator codes ($4 and/or $e) over the creation of a new subject field block (66x)

Reports

Library of Congress (Sally McCullogh):

Of interest in the brief LC report is the announcement that LC plans to bring a proposal to MARBI at ALA Annual in Chicago outlining the changes necessary in MARC21 to achieve full Unicode compliance.

Respectfully submitted,

Paul Cauthen
Chair, Subcommittee on MARC Formats
Music Library Association Liaison to MARC Advisory Committee

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Last updated March 5, 2005