Establishing MARC 21 Coding for Digital Files
This activity is now closed. The information on this page is provided for historical purposes only.
At the beginning of 1997 RLG appointed a Working Group
on Preservation and Reformatting Information that drew on
preservation and cataloging experts within and beyond our membership.
This group focused its efforts on effectively describing digitally
reformatted materials in the MARC 21 format.
The MARC (MAchine Readable Cataloging) formats are
standards for the representation and communication of bibliographic and
related information in machine-readable form, used in systems and
online catalogs around the world. In 1997 the USMARC and CAN/MARC
(Canadian MARC) formats were "harmonized" into MARC 21.
In early 1999 the working group's proposal of a set of
values for control field 007—Electronic
Resource—was adopted into the MARC 21 Concise
Format for Bibliographic Data maintained by the Library of
Congress. This update to MARC 21 accommodates better identification,
retrieval, and management of digitally reformatted materials. It helps
guide decisions in digitizing materials for preservation purposes.
This use of the 007 field spread to libraries in Europe
and beyond through changes in UNIMARC that were instigated by the
European Register of Microform Masters—a long-time
contributor to the RLG Union Catalog of microfilming
preservation information.
Background
As part of RLG's early work on brittle materials
microfilming preservation, our RLIN® cataloging system has
enabled users to record, share, and support preservation-driven
reformatting and retention decisions. Through arrangements with OCLC,
the European Register of Microform Masters (EROMM), and others, we have
received additional records for the RLG Union Catalog that provide
information about preservation planned and accomplished.
This preservation support rests on agreed-on conventions
and protocols for how to use and interpret information conveyed
primarily via MARC (MAchine-Readable Cataloging) communication formats,
defined MARC data elements, and RLIN functionality. In 1996 we were
concerned to ensure that RLG efforts and the RLIN system support the
internationalization of preservation decision making, the approaching
harmonization of US/CAN/UKMARC formats, and the particular requirements
of digital preservation.
The RLG Working Group on Preservation and Reformatting
Information was specifically composed of experts in collections
conservation and preservation, reformatting issues, and bibliographic
control and technical processing:
Nancy Elkington
RLG
Paul R. Green
University of Leeds
Edmund King
British Library
Barbara Lilley
New York State Library
Jan Lyall
National Library of Australia
Ralph W. Manning
National Library of Canada
Debra McKern
Library of Congress
Hans Rutimann
Commission on Preservation & Access
Werner Schwartz
Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen (representing the
European Register of Microform Masters)
Karen Smith-Yoshimura
RLG
Karen Turko
University of Toronto
Robert Wolven
Columbia University
The original scope anticipated for this group was
extremely wide-ranging. They were expected to look at current practice
within the international preservation community to describe actions and
decisions taken in support of preservation, conservation, and even
retention policies. They were instructed to "analyze and specify
preservation and reformatting requirements (current and near-term
future) for an effective and resource-efficient system of support
mechanisms and protocols." They were to identify how best RLG efforts
and RLIN design changes could contribute to such a reconceptualized
system.
As work progressed it became clear that, with the time
and resources available, it was not feasible to tackle and combine such
general preservation descriptive requirements with specific support for
digitally reformatted computer files. Instead, the group successfully
refocused on the changes in cataloging rules necessary to enable the
MARC Computer Files 007 field to carry information about digitally
reformatted items.
RLG's RLIN Database Advisory Group [now the RLG Union
Catalog Advisory Group]—representatives from Cornell, Emory,
Harvard, New York, Princeton, and Yale Universities, Getty Information
Institute, and University of Cambridge—reviewed and advised
on earlier drafts of the working group's successful proposal. (For more
see What
Went Into
RLG's Proposal to MARBI.)
Spectrum of issues in the original working group charge
[This statement, excerpted from the 1996 charge
originally posed to the RLG Working Group on Preservation and
Reformatting Information, paints the landscape of the time.]
The RLG preservation information environment has been in
place for a number of years. Much has changed in practice and theory
during those years:
- Growing use of digitization as a reformatting
technique;
- Growing consideration of digitization as a
preservation technique;
- Desire among UK and Australian institutions to
develop national methods to record and share long-term retention
decisions;
- Changing nature of record exchange between local and
national bibliographic databases;
- Evolution of USMARC holdings format and its use;
- Modification of USMARC, UKMARC, CANMARC, and UNIMARC
to accommodate new kinds of information about preservation,
reformatting, and retention decisions;
- Increased use of record linking and consideration of
the role of metadata in information delivery worldwide;
- Championing by some of the multiple-version technique
for presenting information in online catalogs;
- Recent recommendations on use of USMARC field 583
submitted to the American Library Association's Preservation and
Reformatting Section's Intellectual Control Committee;
- Recent work by preservation specialists in the UK to
define minimal data elements in UKMARC to facilitate sharing of
preservation decisions;
- Recent work by the National Library of Australia's
National Preservation Office to explore use of the Conspectus as a
means of sharing collection-level information about preserved,
reformatted, and retained materials.
Charge to the group
1. Analyze and specify preservation and reformatting
requirements (current and near-term future) for an effective and
resource-efficient system of support mechanisms and protocols.
2. Recommend steps RLG and its members can take to
optimize the system; these may be internal or may involve influencing
national or international standards.
3. Recommend changes to the RLIN® system
accommodating an environment in which use of USMARC holdings and the
multiple-versions technique are growing, not ubiquitous, and evolving.
4. Address the status of digitizing as a preservation
and/or reformatting mechanism, recommending RLG actions and RLIN
support mechanisms that address current practice, but anticipate
near-future developments.
5. Recommend further action by RLG, the PRESERV
community, and the RLIN Database Advisory Group to maximize synergy
among standards development, practices, support mechanisms, and
programmatic activities.
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