Format Designation in MARC Records A Look Under the Hood Michael Doran Systems Librarian

Type Medium Format Form Terminology First, 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). * *

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 Streaming video 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 Record Leader and Control Fields (mainly fixed-position fields) Variable Fields

MARC Record

Important: Fixed field positions start at “0” MARC record Leader “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): 53 However the 12 used for type limits encompass 99% of our bib records.

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

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

Using 12 Leader/06-07 combinations for “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 Field Positions 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 Field Positions of most interest are the 00, 01, (and 04) 00 Character position

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed Field 00 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

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

36.8% of the collection

MARC 007 Physical Description Fixed Field Count 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”) 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 in regards to format limits.

How about discovery tools?

AquaBrowser

“This looks better!” It is better. But not as quite as good as it appears. two lists

Full selection of format limits

How can they do that?

MARC records MARC records MARC data ILS Discovery tool exportingest

The data is the same…

…but the indexing is more granular.

Format1 st criteria 2 nd criteria Format configuration matrix

Format1 st criteria 2 nd criteria Format configuration matrix

Format1 st criteria 2 nd 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: MARC record

MARC 245 Title Statement Subfield $h Medium

Variable fields tend to be… well, variable A 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 Elements One 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 positions definitions determined by “Form of material”

MARC 008 Fixed-Length Data Elements Values for “Form of item” Books Maps Music Continuing Resources Visual Materials Mixed Materials Computer files

MARC 008 Fixed-Length Data Elements 008 positions 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 * Fixed-Length Data Elements-General Information

Form of Material… continued Format Integration: 15 Level II forms get collapsed into 7 Level I forms 15 Level II forms get collapsed into 7 Level I forms +07

Form of Material… continued 15 Level III forms. But varies from the 15 Level II forms. 15 Level III forms. But varies from the 15 Level II forms. … and additional granularity with 007/02 (and 04) … and additional granularity with 007/02 (and 04)

Count of bib records per 008/23 value for “Books” Form of Material (UT Arlington Library - Voyager ILS) (1,079, ,371) / 1,369,004 x 100 = 80% For most items, we only really know what it’s not. (1,079, ,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 Item

Voyager records Bib MFHD 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

007/04 Videorecording format 007/00 Category of material 007/01 Specific material designation Bib MFHD Yes

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 No “Mandatory if applicable” requirements for MFHD 007 categories

MFHD 007 Physical Description Fixed Field Indexing in Voyager However, not aware of Voyager utilizing the MFHD 007 for any WebVoyage functionality.

Bib MFHD Can holdings with different formats be attached to the same bibliographic record? Sure! printelectronic 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 formats are 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:

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