At the Subcommittee on MARC Formats' open meeting, several topics of interest were discussed. Those attending the meeting were first brought up-to-date on MARBI decisions regarding the harmonization of CAN/MARC and USMARC. The only changes directly effecting music will be the addition of three form of music composition codes (008/18-19 and 047) to the bibliographic format.

A paper outlining a selection of possible new and different definitions of field 028 (Publisher Number) and field 037 (Source of Acquisition) was discussed in detail. Comments received at the meeting, from members of the Bibliographic Control Committee, as well as from OLAC's Cataloging and Policy Committee will be considered as the Subcommittee prepares a paper for submission to LC's MARC Standards Office for their consideration.

Two MARBI proproals on MARBI's agenda for ALA Midwinter in Washington, D.C. were also discussed. Kathy Glennan summarized and led the discussion on Proposal 97-3, a paper that raised the thorny question of cataloging for content rather than cataloging for carrier. Proposal 97-7 was introduced by Ed Glazier who led the discussion on the merits of eliminating the distinction between text and music manuscripts, and published materials.

Comments on these or other MARC Format related issues are welcomed by any subcommittee members.

Karen Little

Chair, Subcommittee on MARC Formats

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Last updated February 10, 2000