Page 128 - Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, 2nd Edition

114 Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians
In Chap ter 4, you learned about ar eas and el ements that need to be
recorded on the cat alog card. With the MARC format, the el ements
within the ar eas, the main and added en tries, plus sub ject headings
and other rel evant in formation are all pre sented in separate lines in
logical or der. Each line starts with a three-digit num ber called a tag,
followed by two sin gle (sep arated) num bers, called in di ca tors, and
then the de scriptive phrases, called fields, and fi nally subfields,
which give a more de tailed explanation of the fields. Each subfield is
preceded by a subfield code, which con sists of a de limiter and a low-
ercase let ter. A more de tailed ex planation with ex amples is dem on-
strated in Fig ure 8.2.
These are the most com monly used fields, with the pre ceding tag
numbers that a cataloger needs. For ex ample, tag 245 tells the com-
puter that ti tle and statement of responsibility will follow, and the two
indicators ( _ _ ) con tain important in formation about the item. The
first in di ca tor 0 would mean no ti tle added entry is needed, while 1
would mean ti tle added entry is needed. The sec ond in dicator tells the
computer how many nonfiling char acters there are, ranging from 0 to
9. For ex ample, if a ti tle starts with ar ticle the, the sec ond in di ca tor
will be 4, which in structs the com puter to skip four spaces (t, h, e, and
space) when fil ing this ti tle. A few more com monly used in dicators
are listed in Fig ure 8.3.
Figure 8.3, which is adapted from the MARC for mat pub lished by
the Li brary of Con gress, dem onstrates how in dicators are as signed to
lead to a more re fined de scription. When cataloging on line, you
should con sult the OCLC man ual or the manual used by your bib lio-
graphic utility, which pro vides all MARC fields.
Recalling Figure 8.2, af ter the in dicators come the fields, which in -
clude au thor, ti tle, or sub ject ar eas. A sam ple of fields and subfields
are listed in Fig ure 8.4 to dem onstrate how they are or ganized.
Every field has nu merous subfields. A guide to the MARC for mat,
either pub lished by the Library of Con gress or by your bib liographic
utility such as OCLC, should be kept handy when cataloging on line
Pub li ca tions such as MARC For mat Ref er ence Card: Books and
MARC For mat Ref er ence Card: Se ri als are ex cel lent re sources. Very
rarely will you need most of the tags men tioned here. Ac cording to
the Li brary of Con gress, only 10 per cent of the tags are used fre -
quently, the other 90 per cent are used only occasionally.