Leader (NR)
MARC 21 Authority - Concise
2008
This is an ARCHIVED VERSION of the
2008 electronic edition of the MARC 21 Concise
Formats. Please see loc.gov/marc/concise/
for the most up-to-date version of the electronic MARC 21
Concise Formats.
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
Computer-generated, five-character number equal to the
length of the entire record, including itself and the
record terminator. The number is right justified and unused
positions contain zeros.
05 - Record status
Relationship of the record to a file.
a - Increase in encoding level
Encoding level (Leader/17) of the record has been changed
from o (Incomplete authority record) to n (Complete
authority record).
c - Corrected or revised
Addition/change other than in the Encoding level code has
been made to the record.
d - Deleted
Used when neither code s nor code x is applicable, or
when an organization chooses not to use code s or x.
n - New
o - Obsolete
s - Deleted; heading split into two or more
headings
x - Deleted; heading replaced by another
heading
06 - Type of record
Characteristics and definitions of the components of the
record.
z - Authority data
07-08 - Undefined character positions
Both are undefined; each contains a blank (#).
09 - Character coding scheme
# - MARC-8
a - UCS/Unicode
10 - Indicator count
Computer-generated number 2 that indicates the number of
indicators occurring in each variable data field.
11 - Subfield code length
12-16 - Base address of data
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
Whether the authority record is complete.
n - Complete authority record
Record meets national-level record requirements for
content and content designation.
o - Incomplete authority record
18-19 - Undefined character positions
Both are undefined; each contains a blank (#).
20 - Length of the length-of-field portion
Always a 4.
21 - Length of the starting-character-position
portion
Always a 5.
22 - Length of the implementation-defined
portion
Always a 0.
23 - Undefined
Undefined; always contains a 0.
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