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Concise Formats - 2008 Archive >> Community Information >> Directory

Directory (NR)

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This is an ARCHIVED VERSION of the 2008 electronic edition of the MARC 21 Concise Formats.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

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 ASCII numeric or ASCII alphabetic characters (uppercase or lowercase, but not both) that identify an associated variable field.

03-06 - Field length

Four ASCII numeric characters that specify the length of the variable field to which the entry corresponds. This length includes the indicators, subfield codes, data, and the field terminator associated with the field. A Field length number of less than four digits is right justified and unused positions contain zeros.

07-11 - Starting character position

Five ASCII numeric characters that specify the starting character position of the variable field relative to the Base address of data (Leader/12-16) of the record. A Starting character position number of less than five digits is right justified and unused positions contain zeros.

Concise Formats - 2008 Archive >> Community Information >> Leader

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(02/08/2008)