TECHNICAL NOTICE (March 17, 2000)

Format for Authority Data

Format Changes List
Base Text (October 1999)

Network Development and MARC Standards Office
Library of Congress

This section is provided for the lists of format changes that accompany each update to the MARC 21 Format for Authority Data. It can also be found in Appendix F of the MARC 21 Format for Authority Data.

This edition of the MARC 21 Format for Authority Data supersedes the May 1993 base text and updates No. 1 (July 1995) and No. 2 (March 1997) to the USMARC Format for Authority Data as well as the 1998 edition of the Canadian MARC Communication Format: authorities. It includes changes resulting from proposals which were considered by the ALA ALCTS/LITA/RAND Machine-Readable Bibliographic Information Committee (MARBI) at its meetings from 1998 through June 1999 and by the Canadian Committee on MARC (CCM) at its meetings from 1998 through June 1999.

LC Implementation Plans
Subscribers can anticipate receiving MARC records reflecting these changes in all distribution services not earlier than June 15, 2000.

• New content designators:
  • Field
    • 856 Electronic Location and Access
  • Subfield codes
    • $b Local GA C code in 043 (Geographic Area Code)
    • $2 Source of local code in 043 (Geographic Area Code)
  • Code value
    • Leader - character position 09 (Character coding scheme): codes (MARC-8), a (UCS/Unicode)

• Changes in content designator field names:
  • Fields
    • 780 Subdivision Heading Linking Entry - General Subdivision
    • 781 Subdivision Heading Linking Entry - Geographic Subdivision
    • 782 Subdivision Heading Linking Entry - Chronological Subdivision
    • 785 Subdivision Heading Linking Entry - Form Subdivision

• Corrections
  • Subfield Codes
    • $e Description conventions in 040 (Cataloging Source) repeatability added Not repeatable (N R)
    • $0 Record control number in field 400 (See From Tracing-Personal Name) removed
    • $5 Institution to which field applies in 480, 481, 482, 485, 580, 581, 582, 585, 700, 710, 730, 750, 780, 781, 782, 785, 788: changed from Not repeatable (N R) to Repeatable (R)

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