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Concise Formats - 2008 Archive >> Bibliographic >> Introduction

Introduction

This is an ARCHIVED VERSION of the 2008 electronic edition of the MARC 21 Concise Formats.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.

MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data is designed to be a carrier for bibliographic information about printed and manuscript textual materials, computer files, maps, music, continuing resources, visual materials, and mixed materials. Bibliographic data commonly includes titles, names, subjects, notes, publication data, and information about the physical description of an item. The bibliographic format contains data elements for the following types of material:

• Books (BK) - used for printed, electronic, manuscript, and microform textual material that is monographic in nature.
• Continuing resources (CR) - used for printed, electronic, manuscript, and microform textual material that is issued in parts with a recurring pattern of publication (e.g., periodicals, newspapers, yearbooks). (NOTE: Prior to 2002, Continuing resources (CR) were referred to as Serials (SE)).
• Computer files (CF) - used for computer software, numeric data, computer-oriented multimedia, online systems or services. Other classes of electronic resources are coded for their most significant aspect. Material may be monographic or serial in nature.
• Maps (MP) - used for all types of printed, electronic, manuscript, and microform cartographic materials, including atlases, sheet maps, and globes. Material may be monographic or serial in nature.
• Music (MU) - used for printed, electronic, manuscript, and microform music, as well as musical sound recordings, and non-musical sound recordings. Material may be monographic or serial in nature.
• Visual materials (VM) - used for projected media, non-projected media, two-dimensional graphics, three-dimensional artifacts or naturally occurring objects, and kits. Material may be monographic or serial in nature.
• Mixed materials (MX) - used primarily for archival and manuscript collections of a mixture of forms of material. Material may be monographic or serial in nature. (NOTE: Prior to 1994, Mixed materials (MX) were referred to as Archival and manuscript material (AM)).

Kinds of Bibliographic Records

MARC bibliographic records are distinguished from all other types of MARC records by specific codes in Leader/06 (Type of record) which identifies the following bibliographic record types.

Fill Character

A fill character (ASCII 7C hex), represented in this document as a vertical bar (|), may be used in bibliographic records in fields 006, 007, and 008, and subfield $7 of field 533 (Reproduction note) and the linking entry fields (760-787). A fill character may not be used in the leader, or in tags, indicators, or subfield codes. The use of the fill character in records contributed to a national database may also be dependent upon the national level requirements specified for each data element. The presence of a fill character in a bibliographic record indicates that the format specifies a code to be used but the creator of the record has decided not to attempt to supply a code.

Typographical Conventions

Throughout this document, the following typographical conventions are used:

• 0 - The graphic 0 represents the digit zero in tags, fixed-position character positions, indicator positions, and other places numerics are used. This character must be distinguished from an uppercase letter O in examples or text.
• # - The graphic symbol # is used for a blank in coded fields and in other special situations where the existence of the character blank might be ambiguous. (In most textual examples, the blank is represented in the conventional way, by the absence of a character.)
• $ - The graphic symbol $ is used for the delimiter portion of a subfield code. Within the text, subfield codes are referred to as subfield $a, for example.
• / - Specific character positions of the Leader, Directory, field 007, field 008 are expressed using a slash and the number of the character position, e.g., Leader/06, 007/00, 008/12.
• 1 - The graphic 1 represents the digit one (hex 31). This character must be distinguished from a lowercase roman alphabet letter l (hex 6C) and uppercase alphabetic letter I (hex 4C) in examples or text.
• | - The graphic | represents a fill character in MARC examples. When this mark appears in the left margin, it indicates areas of the text of this document where changes have been made.