Library Cataloging
LJ has the article MARC Must Die by Roy Tennant. He says that the numbered tags are a problem. I like to think of them as language independent. He suggests that XML may be a replacement. However, XML records are very much larger and XML only specifies the carrier not the tags and content of those tags. There is a MARC XML standard available, but that is only useful for some tasks, I'd hate to work with that monster. Granularity is a problem with implementation, not MARC. If a cataloger does not use the necessary fields and subfields, it is poor cataloging, not a problem with MARC. I'll not go through the other arguments against MARC. The ability to nest fields may be useful. Rather than moving to XML, I'd like to see a MARC-like implementation of FRBR.
- Marc Rtp
A while back I posted that the MARC Record Translation Program (MARC RTP) had disappeared. Now it is back, though at a temporary home.MARC RTP was especially developed so that catalogue data contained in MARC format files could be converted, and selectively...
- Marc Field Usage
A few days ago I mentioned the UNT MARC study of field usage in MARC records. It seems a similar study was done in 1997 in Germany. They found 33 elements that appeared in more than 1% of the records. Only 5 fields were used in 100% of the records (245,...
- Marc Content Designation Utilization
Seymour Lubetzky asked "Is This Rule Necessary?". Now a study is being done asking "Is this field necessary?" The MARC Content Designation Utilization study is examing just what fields are being used. This could inform decisions on what fields to include...
- Marc21
Now available on-line: Martha M. Yee, New perspectives on the shared cataloging environment and a MARC 21 shopping list (2004). Library Resources & Technical Services. 48 (3), pp. 165-178.This paper surveys the cataloging literature to collect problems...
- Mods
The Metadata Object Description Schema is now at version 2.0. MODS is basically MARC lite expressed as XML.[It] is intended to be able to carry selected data from existing MARC 21 records as well as to enable the creation of original resource description...
Library Cataloging
MARC
LJ has the article MARC Must Die by Roy Tennant. He says that the numbered tags are a problem. I like to think of them as language independent. He suggests that XML may be a replacement. However, XML records are very much larger and XML only specifies the carrier not the tags and content of those tags. There is a MARC XML standard available, but that is only useful for some tasks, I'd hate to work with that monster. Granularity is a problem with implementation, not MARC. If a cataloger does not use the necessary fields and subfields, it is poor cataloging, not a problem with MARC. I'll not go through the other arguments against MARC. The ability to nest fields may be useful. Rather than moving to XML, I'd like to see a MARC-like implementation of FRBR.
- Marc Rtp
A while back I posted that the MARC Record Translation Program (MARC RTP) had disappeared. Now it is back, though at a temporary home.MARC RTP was especially developed so that catalogue data contained in MARC format files could be converted, and selectively...
- Marc Field Usage
A few days ago I mentioned the UNT MARC study of field usage in MARC records. It seems a similar study was done in 1997 in Germany. They found 33 elements that appeared in more than 1% of the records. Only 5 fields were used in 100% of the records (245,...
- Marc Content Designation Utilization
Seymour Lubetzky asked "Is This Rule Necessary?". Now a study is being done asking "Is this field necessary?" The MARC Content Designation Utilization study is examing just what fields are being used. This could inform decisions on what fields to include...
- Marc21
Now available on-line: Martha M. Yee, New perspectives on the shared cataloging environment and a MARC 21 shopping list (2004). Library Resources & Technical Services. 48 (3), pp. 165-178.This paper surveys the cataloging literature to collect problems...
- Mods
The Metadata Object Description Schema is now at version 2.0. MODS is basically MARC lite expressed as XML.[It] is intended to be able to carry selected data from existing MARC 21 records as well as to enable the creation of original resource description...