format designation in marc records a look under the hood michael doran systems librarian

Format Designation in MARC Records

A Look Under the Hood

Michael DoranSystems Librarian

• Type• Medium• Format• Form

TerminologyFirst, a few words about…

overlapping meanings

AACR2 (1976) and AACR2R (1988) use format to mean a “particular physical presentation of an item”

but the term does not appear in AACR (1967, 1970). *

* http://www2.archivists.org/glossary/terms/f/format

Book

Printed book

Intellectual form

Physical forms

E-book(computer file)

Audio book

(e.g. on CD)

Abstract => Concrete

Movie

Film strip

Intellectual form

Physical forms

DVD

Streamingvideo

Abstract => Concrete

This object is a…?

• Book• (Bound) Serial• Manuscript• Artifact

From a bibliographic perspective…

Concrete => Abstract

• Data• Music/sound• Video• Software• ???

• CD ROM• DVD

Containing…

Concrete => Abstract

This object is a…?

User interfaces

Patrons see two“format” choices:• Type• Format

Voyager OPAC

• Jargon-y• Unclear• Ambiguous• Imprecise

“Why are there two lists?”

“Which choice is for movies on DVD?”

• Jargon-y• Unclear• Ambiguous• Imprecise

“Why are there two lists?”

“Which choice is for movies on DVD?”

Voyager Staff Client

Staff see two“format” choices:• Medium• Type

Huh? Whaa? Why?

MARC RecordLeader and

Control Fields(mainly fixed-position fields)

Variable Fields

MARC Record

Important: Fixed field positions start at “0”

MARC record Leaderhttp://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/

“Type”

15 x 7 = 105 possible combinations(in theory)

MARC record Leader

“Type”

How many “type” combinations actually

exist in a typical database?

In UTA’s Voyager database (of ~ 1,600,000 bib records):

53However the 12 used for type limitsencompass 99% of our bib records.

Count Voyager “Type” limit Count Voyager “Type” limit

Count of bib records per Leader/06-07 combination(UT Arlington Library - Voyager ILS)

Count Voyager “Type” limit Count Voyager “Type” limit

Count of bib records per Leader/06-07 combination(UT Arlington Library - Voyager ILS)

Using 12 Leader/06-07 combinationsfor “type” limits in Voyager

LDR/06-07

Type Limit

WebVoyage HTML code

LDR/06-07

limits.xml

Add, remove, or rename “type” limits in the limits.xml file.

BIB_TEXT.BIB_FORMAT• 2-character field• value is Leader/06-07

Reports.mdb Voyager Indexing

MARC Record

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed FieldPositions of most interest are the 00, 01, (and 04)

00“Category of material”

Character position

007/00

WebVoyage HTML code

limits.xml

Add, remove, or rename “Format” limits in the limits.xml file.

“Category of material”

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed FieldPositions of most interest are the 00, 01, (and 04)

00Character position

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed Field00 Character position

01 Character position

Once you choose a particular “Category of material” value, the remaining values in the 007 field are specific to that category.

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed Field

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed Field

007/04 Videorecording format

007/00 Category of material

007/01 Specific material designation

BIB_MEDIUM.MEDIUM• 1-character field• value is field 007/00

Reports.mdb

Voyager Indexing

Missing out on valuable format information.

BIB_MEDIUM.MEDIUM• 1-character field• value is field 007/00

Missing out on valuable format information.

Voyager Indexing

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed Field

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed Field

36.8% of the

collection

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed FieldCount of bib records per 007/00

(UT Arlington Library - Voyager ILS)

Seems to suggest that the 007 field is seldom used for books and serials.

Mandatory if applicable(In “National Level Full”)

What do we know so far?

“Type” format

• Based on the MARC Leader positions 06/07.

• Not all “types” are represented by default.

• Although there are additional “types” these 12 will likely cover about 99% of your collection.

• Not very user-friendly.

• Based on the 007 field, but only on the first position – so missing a lot of granularity.

• Not all possible “formats” are represented.

• Probably roughly 1/3 of your collection will be included in the search if this is used as a limit.

“Format” format

Traditional catalogs are not very user-friendly inregards to format limits.

How about discovery tools?

AquaBrowser

“This looks better!”It is better.

But not as quite asgood as it appears.

two lists

Full selection of format limits

How can they do that?

MARC records

MARCrecords

MARCdata

ILSDiscovery tool

exportingest

The data is the same…

…but the indexing is more granular.

Format 1st criteria 2nd criteria

Format configuration matrix

Format 1st criteria 2nd criteria

Format configuration matrix

Format 1st criteria 2nd criteria

Format configuration matrix

and

Field [Position(s)]

Code snippet from VuFind (SolrMarc) format-mapping algorithm

E.g.: Checking the first two positions of the MARC 007 field

…more VuFind format mapping code:

MARCrecord

MARC 245 Title StatementSubfield $h Medium

Variable fields tend to be… well, variableA keyword search in UT Arlington’s WebVoyage OPAC for "dvd videorecording" (sans quote marks) yielded these 245 h variations -- within the first 10 search results:

Human readable, and useful for retrieval via keyword searching. However non-normalized variable fields are problematic for indexing purposes and therefore for utilization in limits and facets.

When MARC records are imported into Voyager, these are the values

that get indexed as “format”.

Terms like this also get indexed.

However (in Voyager), they get indexed as

keywords, not as formats.

MARC 008 Fixed-Length Data ElementsOne character position is “Form of item”

Character position 23 for:• Books• Computer files• Music• Continuing resources• Mixed materials

Character position 29 for:• Maps• Visual materials

The 008 field itself is mandatory for all records and the “Form of item” position is mostly mandatory for National Level Full records*.

* National Level Full and Minimal Requirements, Control Fields http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/nlr/nlr00x.html

M

MMM

MM

008 positions 18-34 definitions determined by “Form of material”

MARC 008 Fixed-Length Data ElementsValues for “Form of item”

• Books• Maps• Music• Continuing Resources• Visual Materials• Mixed Materials

Computer files

MARC 008 Fixed-Length Data Elements008 positions 18-34 definitions determined by “Form of Material”

And “Form of Material Level I” is defined by?…our old friend, Leader positions 06-07*

Form of Material Level I

* 008 - Fixed-Length Data Elements-General Informationhttp://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd008.html

Form of Material… continued

Format Integration: http://www.loc.gov/marc/formatintegration.html

15 Level II formsget collapsed into

7 Level I forms

+07

Form of Material… continued

15 Level III forms. But varies from the15 Level II forms.

… and additionalgranularity with007/02 (and 04)

Count of bib records per 008/23 value for “Books” Form of Material

(UT Arlington Library - Voyager ILS)

(1,079,587 + 22,371) / 1,369,004 x 100 = 80%For most items, we only really know what it’s not.

MARC 006 Additional Material Characteristics(Repeatable field)

Because the 008 is not repeatable and is dependent on the Leader 06 and 07 for its definition, only one 008 can be included in a record…. The 006 field was created, as part of “format integration”, to record “additional aspects of an item”. [1]

[1] For details see: “Format integration and its effect on the USMARC bibliographic format” / Library of Congress. Network Development and MARC Standards Office

MARC 006 Additional Material Characteristics

Count of bib records per 006/00 value

What else have we learned?

• Discovery tools employ a more sophisticated format mapping, but are still dependent on the underlying MARC data

• Format data exists in MARC variable fields as well as control fields

MARC… and other records

Voyager records

Bib

MFHD MFHDMFHD

Item Item Item

Voyager records

Bib

MFHD MFHDMFHD

Item Item Item

MARC… and other records

We’ve been looking at

Holdings

Items

Is there format designation at

this level?

Yes

???

(MARC Format for Holdings Data)MFHD Records

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed Field

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed Field

007/04 Videorecording format

007/00 Category of material

007/01 Specific material designation

Bib

MFHD

Yes

Yes

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed Field

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed Field

MFHDs

MFHD 007 is not going to be very useful!

Count of MFHD records per 007/00(UT Arlington Library - Voyager ILS)

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed Field

No “Mandatory if applicable”requirements for

MFHD 007 categories

MFHD 007 Physical Description Fixed FieldIndexing in Voyager

However, not aware of Voyager utilizing the MFHD 007 for any WebVoyage functionality.

Bib

MFHD MFHDMFHD

Can holdings with different formats be attached to the same bibliographic record?

Sure!

print electronic microform

Are they? And should they be?(for your library)

??????

Voyager - Item Record Level

Voyager uses item-record-level item types for circulation purposes.

Is dependent on how formatsare designated in MARC records.

Ability to effectively search and retrieve by the desired format.

And how well the MARC format data is mapped and indexed.

Cataloging practice

Cataloging records

Catalog

Process

Product

Technology

Hat tip to Allyson Carlyle

FRBR/RDA will make search and retrieval by the desired format simple and easy. True False

Clip art credit: http://clairc-artstuff.deviantart.com/

Patrons see two“format” choices:• Type• Format

Voyager OPAC before FRBR/RDA

Patrons see five“format” choices:• Type• Format• Content• Media• Carrier

Voyager OPAC after FRBR/RDA

Three new “format” choices

The End

doran@uta.edu