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This is an ARCHIVED VERSION of the 2008 electronic edition of the MARC 21 Concise Formats.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

The MARC 21 Format for Community Information is designed to be a carrier for community information. Community information records describe non-bibliographic resources that fulfill the information needs of a community.

Kinds of Community Information Records

MARC community information records are distinguished from all other types of MARC records by the presence of code q (Community information) in Leader/06, Type of record. The MARC 21 Format for Community Information further identifies five kinds of community information records in Leader/07, Kind of data:

• Individual - A community information record in which the data pertain to an individual with a particular expertise (e.g., teacher, interpreter, storyteller, civic leader).
• Organization - A community information record in which the data pertain to an organization or any group (e.g., corporation, association, club, agency).
• Program or service - A community information record in which the data pertain to an offering or activity of a group or institution which carries out the purposes of that group or institution (e.g., driver education, day care placement, toy collection drive, blood bank).
• Event - A community information record in which the data pertain to a scheduled happening (e.g., a lecture, play, concert series, sporting contest, festival, annual celebration, regularly scheduled meeting).
• Other - A community information record in which the data pertain to a kind of Community Information not mentioned above. For example, the data may be for a facility, such as a planetarium on a university campus.

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, 008/09.
• 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.