BCC2007/SMF/2

Subcommittee on MARC Formats
Business meeting
Duquesne Room, Hilton Pittsburgh & Towers
Pittsburgh, PA
March 2, 2007

Attending: Kerri Scannell, Spiro Shetuni, Matthew Wise, Bruce Evans, Joseph Hafner, Jay Weitz (OCLC representative), Steven Yusko (LC representative). Absent: Kevin Medows

The chair called the meeting to order, welcomed guests, and thanked Kevin Medows and Bruce Evans for their service on the subcommittee, as they are rotating off this year. The chair also made introductory comments, noted some technical details regarding the 047/048 proposal, and discussed some of the developments in the larger world of MARC, especially the email discussions regarding MARC’s viability as a long-term metadata solution. John Attig referred those interested to Karen Coyle’s blog at: http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/2006/09/murdering-marc.html.

Jay Weitz gave a report on developments at OCLC. During the course of a detailed discussion, it was suggested that the subcommittee make a recommendation regarding two fixed fields implemented for the scores format in the 2005/2006 OCLC MARC update: presence/absence of parts and arrangement/transposition. These fields have a history in UK MARC usage but there is no consensus on American usage, leading to conflicting coding. It was suggested that the subcommittee officially recommend that U.S. catalogers not use these fixed fields (or use “no attempt to code”). The subcommittee voted and agreed that this should be pursued; we will continue discussing this recommendation.

Steve Yusko gave an extensive presentation on LC practice for cataloging of new audio formats, based on the recently released LC examples for such cataloging. Formats covered included mini-CDs, shaped CDs, Super Audio Compact Discs, and DVD-Audio discs. In connection with this, Kathy Glennan noted the formation of a joint OLAC/MLA task force on best practices for cataloging Playaways.

Other topics briefly discussed included the problem of 13-digit ISBNs associated with 10-digit music numbers. While this is a MARC coding issue, the subcommittee felt that the situation is in flux and a firm recommendation on best practices would be out of place; Jay Weitz also noted that OCLC will be documenting this issue soon. Grace Fitzgerald introduced some work she had done on apparent inconsistencies in MARC documentation regarding MARC additions to 1xx and 7xx fields, including such issues as use of the GMD in 7xx name/title headings. Committee members noted that while these practices are outdated in U.S. coding, other MARC communities may continue to use them, which is why they remain in the documentation.

Reported by Jim Alberts
Chair, Subcommittee on MARC Formats

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Last updated March 19, 2007