A Complex Standard and Its Use Results from an empirical analysis of MARC 2004 Texas Library Association Annual Conference, March 18, 2004, San Antonio, TX William E. Moen School of Library and Information Sciences Texas Center for Digital Knowledge University of North Texas Denton, TX 72603

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 2 Overview Context for the analysis -- interoperability Findings from the analysis Indexing and MARC More questions …

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 3 Context for the analysis Interoperability across library online catalogs Indexing of MARC records to support searching Richness of MARC content designation available Indexing guidelines prepared for the Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed (Z-Interop) Implications for indexing guidelines and policies

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 4 Interoperability testbed project Realizing the Vision of Networked Access to Library Resources: An Applied Research and Demonstration Project to Establish and Operate a Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed A Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant Goal: Improve Z39.50 semantic interoperability among libraries for information access and resource sharing FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT THE PROJECT WEBSITE…

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 5 Components of the testbed Test dataset 400,000+ MARC 21 records from OCLC’s WorldCat Z39.50 reference implementations Z-client (Bookwhere), Z-server & information retrieval system (Sirsi Unicorn) Test scenarios & searches Searches with known result records from dataset Benchmarks Results of test searches using reference implementations

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 6 Z-Interop test dataset Books: 91% Cartographic Materials: < 1% Electronic resources: < 1% Archival/Mixed Materials: <1% Sound recordings: 4% Visual Materials: 1% Serials: 3% Approximately 1% sample of MARC records from OCLC’s WorldCat database Weighted sampling based on number of libraries “holding” the object represented by the record 419,657 total MARC records 89% of records “full level” cataloging Formats represented in test dataset

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 7 MARC 21 content designation MARC 21 Field Groups Currently Defined ObsoleteTotalMARC 1972 (Books Format Only) 00x6173 0xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx TOTAL

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 8 Content designation in dataset MARC 21 Field Groups Currently Defined ObsoleteUnlikely Used Total 00x6006 0xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx TOTAL

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 9 Summary frequency results Frequency# of Fields/Subfields% of All Occurrences > 600, % 500,000 > 599,99900% 400,000 > 499, % 300,000 > 399, % 200,000 > 299, % 100,000 > 199, % TOTAL3679.5% Total number of fields/subfields occurring in dataset = 13,849,499 Only 4% of all fields/subfields account for 80% of all occurrences or 96% of all fields/subfields account for 20% of all occurrences

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 10 Characteristics of top 36 Most frequently occurring: 650 $a [Subject data] 2 nd most frequently occurring: 040 $d [Cataloging source] 3 rd & 4 th most frequently occurring: 260 $a & $b [Publication information] 5 th most frequently occurring: 245 $a [Title] Contain data useful to end users: 28 Contain control numbers, etc.: 5 Contain data useful to catalogers: 3

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 11 Indexing & MARC Indexing Guidelines to Support Z39.50 Profile Searches Indexing Guidelines to Support Z39.50 Profile Searches Identified all MARC 21 fields/subfields that may contain author, title, or subject data Author-related fields/subfields : 119 AuthorTitle-related fields/subfields: 21 Title-related fields/subfields: 253 Subject-related fields/subfields: fields/subfields contain author, title, subject data Usefulness of indexing all possible fields? How often are these fields/subfields used?

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 12 Occurrences in test dataset 381 occur one or more times in Z-Interop dataset Author, title, or subject fields/subfields in Z-Interop dataset Author-related fields/subfields : 86 AuthorTitle-related fields/subfields: 16 Title-related fields/subfields: 178 Subject-related fields/subfields: of the 381 (5%) account for 80% of all occurrences 9 of 19 are subject-related 5 of 19 are author-related 5 of 19 are title-related The 19 fields/subfields

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 13 Implications for indexing What difference does indexing decisions make? Preliminary testing using the 19 fields/subfields: 95% - 100% of correct records retrieved! Is there a systematic method to identify the “best” fields/subfields to index? Per format of materials? Per user (librarians and end users) needs? Good enough search results?

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 14 Inquiring minds want to know… What is the extent of catalogers’ use MARC 21 content designation as indicated by analyses of large random samples of MARC records? What does the empirical evidence of MARC 21 content designation use suggest about a set of common or core elements in bibliographic records per format or type of material What is the relationship between the availability of new MARC content designation and its subsequent adoption and use? What methodology is appropriate to identify and understand factors contributing to cataloger’s utilization of available content designation and the interplay between MARC and the entire cataloging enterprise?

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 15 To the future and beyond Given solid empirical data on use of MARC content designation… The records are artifacts of the cataloging enterprise – what can we learn about cataloger practices? Are records complete enough to support FRBR applications? What are the implications for standards developers for the evolution of metadata and encoding schemes? Will we XML’ize MARC content designation whether it is used or not?

Moen TLA Annual Conference -- March 18, San Antonio, TX 16 References Assessing Metadata Utilization: An Analysis of MARC Content Designation Use  al2003pdf.pdf al2003pdf.pdf Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed  Indexing Guidelines to Support Z39.50 Profile Searches  es1Feb2002.pdf es1Feb2002.pdf