Weiss, 'MARC Notes', LITA Newsletter v15n03 URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/lita/lita-v15n03-weiss-marc V15N3.MARCNOTE LITANEWS ------------------------ MARC Notes Paul Weiss Character Sets Proposal 93-10 (Additions to the USMARC Latin character sets) was approved as amended. This proposal had been approved at the last round of MARBI meetings with several additions, but the utilities and LC felt that not enough consideration had been given to its implementation, so LC brought back the proposal in its original form. It called for the addition of the seven ANSEL characters that were not already in USMARC (degree symbol, script l, phono copyright symbol, copyright symbol, musical sharp, and inverted question mark and exclamation point) and three ASCII characters (spacing underscore and opening and closing brace). At the meeting, the three remaining ASCII characters were added (spacing acute accent, spacing circumflex and spacing tilde). Now the USMARC character set will encompass the complete ASCII and ANSEL sets. The very controversial issue of the addition of other characters, such as the law library community's long-awaited and long-promised section symbol was by default felt to be better resolved in the deliberation on Discussion Paper 73 on Unicode. Discussion Paper 73 (UCS/Unicode and USMARC mapping) is being referred to a subcommittee. It was felt that character set issues in all their intricacies are too complex to be discussed appropriately at a full MARBI meeting. Change in Content Designation Proposal 94-7 (Encoding of atlases) was approved as amended. This proposal dealt with the current inconsistencies of cataloging cartographic atlases primarily as books rather than as cartographic material. 007/00 (Category of material) value "a" was changed from "Map" to "Map or atlas" and value "d" (Atlas) was added to 007/01 (Specific material designation). Value "e"(Atlas) was added to Maps 008/25 (Type of cartographic material). Values "q" (Large print) and "r" (Loose-leaf) were added to Maps 008/33-34 (Special format characteristics). Discussion Paper 74 (Defining a new subfield code for form subdivisions) will return as a proposal, using $v as the subfield code. Discussion Paper 72 (Possible changes to treatment of uniform titles) was rejected as too expensive. It discussed the possibility of making the bibliographic 240 and 243 fields obsolete and defining title subfields for bibliographic 1XX fields to parallel authority 1XX fields. The issue of series statements beginning with "His/Hers/Its" was acknowledged as a separate problem. Proposal 94-4 (008/22 [Target audience] code synchronization) was approved as amended. Books and Music had codes only for Juvenile and Unknown or not specified, while Computer files and Visual materials each had eight codes. The two lists were combined into a single list of 9 codes, with clarification that the Juvenile code may be used when a more specific code is not desired or applicable. Linking Data Discussion Paper 75 (Linking fields) will return as a proposal. It discussed the primary way fields are linked by way of linking subfields. Currently, $3, $6 and $8 are used. A combination of the two options will be used, with $0 as the subfield code. New Kinds of Data Proposal 94-6 (Addition of 007 [Physical description fixed field] for Computer files), Option 1, was approved as amended. Byte/01 (Specific material designation) will include a value for remote. Byte/03 will be Color, /04 Sound, and /05 Dimensions. Bytes were not defined for density or operating system. Proposal 94-2 (Addition of subfields $g and $3 to field 856 [Electronic location and access]) was approved with editorial changes. Subfield $g is Electronic name - end of range and is to be used in conjunction with $f as a briefer way of designating a range of names. Subfield $3 (Materials specified) will be used as it is in other fields. Proposal 94-3 (Addition of subfield $u [Uniform Resource Locator] to field 856) was approved. The URL is a draft Internet standard in use that describes the location of a resource in a computer-readable format. Proposal 94-5 (Addition of two subfields to field 654) was approved as amended. Subfields $y (Chronological subdivision) and $z (Geographical subdivision) were added, as was $6 (Linkage) for alternate graphic representations. Proposal 94-8 (Addition of fields 086 [Government document classification number] and 087 [Government classification] to the USMARC Authority Format), Option 1, was approved. To parallel 050/053 and 082/083, 086 in both the Bibliographic and Authority formats will be called Government document call number, and the 087 in the Authority format will be called Government document classification number. New Values for Existing Fields Discussion Paper 77 (Possible impact of new Cooperative Cataloging Council initiatives) was discussed. The only portion that will be advanced to proposal stage at this time is new values for Leader/17 (Encoding level) and 042 (Authentication code). Discussion Paper 76 (Use of interactive media guidelines) will return as a proposal, with both options. The issues are what to code in Leader/06 (Type of record) and in Computer files 008/26 and 006/09 (Type of computer file). Classification Proposal 94-1 (Delete subfield $y [Table identification - schedule] in fields X53, 68X, 76X and redefine in field 763) was approved. The first part of this proposal had been approved in principle last summer. Other The utilities and LC still plan to implement the next phase of format integration (010 and above) by the end of 1994. The FI changes for leader-008 will take effect sometime during 1995. Everyone was reminded to use the USMARC listserv (usmarc@sun7.loc.gov) to discuss MARBI issues. The more that happens on the list, the more productive (and shorter?!) the actual meetings will be. LC will select a discussion paper for the summer meeting to see how much can be accomplished on the list before the conference. MARBI approved a motion to thank Phyllis Bruns (who took advantage of LC's early retirement program) for her good nature and hard work for the committee.