Page 137 - Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, 2nd Edition

Cataloging on Computers 123

word, a comma, and then the first two let ters of the ti tle’s second
word, a comma, and then the first two let ters of the ti tle’s third word,
a comma, and fi nally the first let ter of the fourth word in the ti tle. This
is re ferred to as the 3, 2, 2, 1 rule. OCLC searches em ploy other com -
binations and other sys tems use dif ferent search techniques. Most im -
portant are un derstanding the ba sics of the MARC for mat, re ferring
to the hand book or man ual of the sys tem your library uses, and learn -
ing the de tailed rules and pro cedures needed to re trieve the re cords.
Let us sup pose that you find a record that matches ex actly the item
you are seek ing to cat alog. At this point, add your li brary’s hold ing
symbol to it and the cat aloging pro cess is done. Your sys tem man ual
will tell you how to en ter the sym bol, which in many sys tems au to-
matically is displayed on the screen, then press the send key to com -
plete the copy cat aloging pro cess. If the re cord dif fers only slightly
from your item, such as hav ing a dif ferent pub lisher, a dif ferent edi -
tion, or is in any other way dif ferent even though the au thor and ti tle
are the same, it is not con sidered a match. The in formation on the
screen, how ever, can be used to build a new en try for the item you
have. Some times you will need to add, de lete, or mod ify data to suit
your lo cal needs.
If the re cord for your item is not found, orig inal cat aloging is re -
quired. In such a case, you will pull up the work form and fill in all the
necessary in formation, care fully matching all your data to the fields
and subfields of the MARC for mat. At this time not only is your
knowledge of the MARC for mat es sential, as discussed in this chap -
ter, but you will also need the skills you learned from the pre vious
chap ters for as sign ing sub ject head ings, clas si fi ca tion num bers, and
the rules for de scribing the item phys ically. Only af ter you have en -
tered all the data can the re cord be called com plete. Finally, your li -
brary’s sym bol is added to the re cord as in copy cat aloging.
In sum mary, no mat ter what au tomated sys tem your library uses, it
is a ver sion of the MARC for mat. As long as you have a thorough un -
derstanding of the MARC for mat, you can catalog on your sys tem by
following the pro cedures out lined in the user’s man ual for the sys -
tem.