Re: MARC 856 question

It's completly unpredictable. Actually existing data has a varied motley of inconsistent notes and text spread accross $y, $z, and $3, and actual systems do all manner of things with them.  Makes it very difficult to display 856's in any reasonable way at all. 


________________________________________
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries [NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of David Jones [djones_at_SCU.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 8:23 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] MARC 856 question

>>> On 5/10/2011 at 04:58 PM, Karen Coyle <lists_at_KCOYLE.NET> wrote:
> I know that this is a "maybe, sortta" kind of question, but in
> creating an 856 field that needs a particular display ("Click here
for
> x"), can I assume that most systems will take that from a 856 $y?
Does
> anyone use the $i for display?

Actually, I don't think either the $y or $i are prominent. Not even LOC
thinks that $y is:

http://www.loc.gov/marc/856guide.html#data_elements
Subfield $y (Link Text). Subfield $y contains link text which is used
for display in place of the URL in subfield $u. Often URLs are difficult
to read and most systems do not display them to the user. Since subfield
$y was not approved until June 2000 (see Proposal 2000-07), there have
been various practices in terms of systems using data in the field as
link text. Some systems have used subfields $3 or $z in the past for
this purpose. It is not clear how widespread the use of subfield $y is
since its approval.

AFAIK, $i is not meant for public consumption and is probably obsolete.
OCLC seems to agree given their one example:

http://www.oclc.org/bibformats/es/8xx/856.shtm
‡i Instruction  The instruction or command needed for the remote
host to process a request.
856     0               uccvma.bitnet ‡ f IR-L ‡ h Listserv ‡ i
subscribe

AFAIK, most systems still use $z and/or $3 for the public link text.

HTH,
David


_____________________________________________________________________
David Jones                                     mailto:djones_at_scu.edu
Library Systems Manager                  http://www.scu.edu/library/
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Logic must take care of itself.
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