BCC98/SMF/2

Subcommittee on MARC Formats
Report on the Boston Open Meeting

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 proposed changes to the 028 and 037 fields. These changes were approved at January’s MARBI meeting and are expected to be published by late 1998 with implementation expected in 1999. With this implementation, the definition of the 028 will be expanded.

A discussion of Proposal 98-6, a complicated set of options intended to permit the identification of electronic items in a way similar to that of microforms, was led by Jay Weitz. Steve Yusko brought attendees up-to-date on the implementation, at the Library of Congress, of the change in the indicator values for multiple surnames. The issue of linking fields was revisited during this meeting as well. This technique was approved by MARBI, in theory, in the summer of 1994. The Subcommittee requested and is still receiving feedback from the music library community regarding their interest in having the Subcommittee pursue this technique for music materials.

At this meeting feedback was also gathered on the March 1996 announcement that "Compact disc" should be included in the Systems Detail Note (538 field) rather than a general note field. General concensus was that this change was not desirable. This perspective will be communicated to appropriate personnel at the Library of Congress. Comments on these or other MARC Format related issues are welcomed by any subcommittee members.

Karen Little
Past Chair, Subcommittee on MARC Formats

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Last updated April 18, 2000