MARC 21 Concise Holdings: Leader and Directory

This is an ARCHIVED VERSION of the 2002 electronic edition of the MARC 21 Concise Formats. Please see www.loc.gov/marc/concise/ for the most up-to-date version of the electronic MARC 21 Concise Formats.

• LEADER
• DIRECTORY

Information for Translators and Other Users
Items highlighted in red indicate changes made after the 2001 edition of the MARC 21 Concise Formats was published and are included in the 2002 printed edition of the MARC 21 Concise Formats.

LEADER

A fixed field that comprises the first 24 character positions (00-23) of each record and provides information for the processing of the record.

Character Positions

• 00-04 - Record length
  The computer-generated, five-character numeric string that specifies the length of the entire record. The number is right justified and each unused position contains a zero.
• 05 - Record status
  Indicates the relation of the record to a file.
  • c - Corrected or revised
  • d - Deleted
  • n - New
• 06 - Type of record
  Indicates the characteristics of and defines the components of the record. When holdings information is embedded in a MARC bibliographic record, this information may be contained in field 841 $a (Holdings Coded Data Values, Type of record).
  • u - Unknown
  • v - Multipart item holdings
  • x - Single-part item holdings
  • y - Serial item holdings
• 07-08 - Undefined character positions
  Each contains a blank (#)
• 09 - Character coding scheme
  Identifies the character coding scheme used in the record.
  • # - MARC-8
  • a - UCS/Unicode
• 10 - Indicator count
  The computer-generated number 2 that indicates the number of character positions used for indicators in a variable data field.
• 11 - Subfield code length
  The computer-generated number 2 that indicates the number of character positions used for each subfield code in a variable data field.
• 12-16 - Base address of data
  The computer-generated, five-character numeric string that specifies the first character position of the first variable control field in a record. The number is right justified and each unused position contains a zero.
• 17 - Encoding level
  Indicates the level-of-specificity of the holdings statement. Codes 1, 2, 3, and 4 reflect the requirements of Levels 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Holdings Statements for Bibliographic Items (ANSI/NISO Z39.71) formerly Serial Holdings Statements (ANSI/NISO Z39.44)) and Holdings Statements for Non-Serial Items (ANSI/NISO Z39.57) and codes 1, 2, and 3 reflect the requirements of Levels 1, 2, and 3 of Holdings Statements-Summary Level (ISO 10324). The MARC content designators given in the description of each holdings level are the ones required by Z39.71. Optional data elements for each level are not mentioned here; they are given in each standard. A single-part item holdings statement is normally recorded at level 1. A multipart or serial item holdings statement may be recorded at any level.
  When holdings information is embedded in a MARC bibliographic record, this information may be contained in field 841 (Holdings Coded Data Values), subfield $e (Encoding level), which is also embedded in the bibliographic record.
  • 1 - Holdings level 1
  • 2 - Holdings level 2
  • 3 - Holdings level 3
  • 4 - Holdings level 4
  • 5 - Holdings level 4 with piece designation
    Physical piece designation is contained in subfield $p (Piece designation) of field 852 (Location) or one of the 863-865 Enumeration and Chronology fields, or in subfield $a (Textual holdings) in one of the 866-868 Textual Holdings fields.
  • m - Mixed level
    Holdings are recorded at more than one level. The value in the first indicator position (Field encoding level) of the applicable 863-868 field indicates the level for each holdings data field.
  • u - Unknown
  • z - Other level
• 18 - Item information in record
  Indicates whether item information is in the record, contained in one or more occurrences of fields 876-878 (Item Information fields).
  • i - Item information
  • n - No item information
• 19 - Undefined character position
  Contains a blank (#)
• 20-23 - Entry map
  Four computer-generated, single-digit numeric characters that indicate the structure of each entry in the Directory.
• 20 - Length of the length-of-field portion
  Contains a 4
• 21 - Length of the starting-character-position portion
  Contains a 5
• 22 - Length of the implementation-defined portion
  Contains a 0
• 23 - Undefined
  Contains a 0

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DIRECTORY

A computer-generated index to the location of the variable control and data fields within a record. The Directory immediately follows the Leader at character position 24 and consists of a series of fixed-length (12 character positions) entries that give the tag, length, and starting character position of each variable field.

Character Positions

• 00-02 - Tag
  Three numeric or alphabetic characters (uppercase or lowercase, but not both) that identify an associated field.
• 03-06 - Field length
  Four numeric characters that indicate the length of the field, including indicators, subfield codes, data, and the field terminator. The number is right justified and each unused position contains a zero.
• 07-11 - Starting character position
  Five numeric characters that indicate the starting character position of the field relative to the Base address of data (Leader/12-16) of the record. The number is right justified and each unused position contains a zero.

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