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Concise Formats - 2009/2010 Archive >> Authority >> Directory

Directory (NR)

MARC 21 Authority

1999

This is an ARCHIVED VERSION of the 2009/2010 electronic edition of the MARC 21 Concise Formats.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 alphabetic characters (upper case or lower case, 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, including 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 - 2009/2010 Archive >> Authority >> Directory

The Library of Congress >> Librarians, Archivists >> Standards >> MARC

(10/20/2010)