Page 136 - Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, 2nd Edition

122 Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians
The pre cise struc ture, along with some sub jective de cisions, re -
quires a full knowl edge of on line cataloging, mak ing it nec essary to
understand thor oughly the MARC for mat. These numbers and codes
are not to be memorized, but knowl edge of how to ap ply them is most
important. When cataloging on line, you will have a hand book to
guide you. The Library of Con gress pub lished sev eral cataloging aids
that serve as references for the MARC format. They are for sale by the
CDS (Cat a loging Dis tri bu tion Ser vice) di vi sion of the Li brary of Con-
gress. The com plete USMARC pack age in cludes the fol low ing pub li ca -
tions: USMARC Con cise For mats; MARC 21 For mat for Bib liographic
Data; USMARC For mat for Au thority Data; USMARC for Hold ings
Data; USMARC for Clas si fi ca tion Data; USMARC For mat for Com -
mu nity In for ma tion; USMARC Code List for Lan guages; USMARC
Code List for Coun tries; USMARC Code List for Geo graphic Areas;
USMARC Code List for Re lators, Sources, De scription Con ventions;
USMARC Code List for Or ganizations; and USMARC Spec i fi ca tions
for Re cord Struc ture, Char acter Sets, and Ex change Me dia. For fur ther
information on these pub lications, check the Web page of the Li brary of
Con gress CDS di vi sion <http://lcweb.loc.gov/cds/marcdoc.html>.

ORIGINAL AND COPY CATALOGING ON COMPUTERS

When cat aloging on line, it is nec essary to use your li brary’s com -
puter da tabase to pull up the bib liographic re cord that matches the
item you are cat aloging. This can be accomplished in sev eral dif fer-
ent ways. With many ac cess points to use, correct data are readily
available. In most sys tems, a good start is the ISBN num ber, the
LCCN num ber, the au thor, the title, and some other com binations of
two or more el ements. Also, in most sys tems, you may qualify the
search, such as lim iting it to ma terial type, such as video record ing, or
by date, so that you do not need to browse in efficiently through a lot
of ti tles to find your item. In the OCLC sys tem, you may also search
using a va riety of spe cial methods. One ex ample is the 4, 3, 1 rule,
whereby a user can en ter the first four letters of the au thor’s last
name, add a comma, then the first three letters of the au thor’s first
name, a comma, and the first let ter of the au thor’s mid dle name. An -
other way to search is by ti tle, us ing the first three let ters of the first