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DATE: May 27, 2016
REVISED:
NAME: Designation of the Type of Entity in the MARC 21 Authority Format
SOURCE: German National Library
SUMMARY: This paper proposes a way of coding which type of entity is described in a given MARC Authority record.
KEYWORDS: Type of Entity (AD); Field 075 (AD)
RELATED: 2016-DP14
STATUS/COMMENTS:
05/27/16 – Made available to the MARC community for discussion.
06/26/16 – Results of MARC Advisory Committee discussion: Approved, with the following amendments: 1) Field 075 (Type of Entity) definition will be amended by substituting the phrase "systems, models or styles of subdividing" with "methods of subdividing"; 2) Subfields $a (Type of entity term) and $b (Type of entity code) will be made non-repeatable for the present; changes could be handled by the MARC Fast-Track process.
08/10/16 - Results of MARC Steering Group review - Agreed with the MAC decision.
09/01/16 - UPDATE: The German National Library requested that subfields $a and $b in field 075 be made repeatable, as written in the proposal, because multiple entity type terms/codes can be used to describe an entity in an authority record. The request was approved by the MARC Steering Group via the MARC Fast-Track process. Examples will be included in the MARC documentation of field 075.
When four large authority files used in German speaking countries were merged into one "Integrated Authority File" ("Gemeinsame Normdatei" or "GND") in 2012, MARC 21 was chosen as the format for cataloging, with some additions and modifications, based on cataloging traditions in German speaking countries. On the level of the exchange format, librarians have encountered the use of several local fields and subfields. After three years of consolidation, these elements were evaluated to determine their potential appeal as part of the MARC 21 communication standard. The German National Library presented a series of discussion papers during the meetings of the MARC Advisory Committee in January 2016. Based on the valuable discussion, this proposal has been written and is now presented to the MARC Advisory Committee.
In MARC Authority records of the GND there is information about what type of entity is described by the record. In each record the broader type of entity is given, out of a list of 7 options: person, name of a person, corporate body, conference/meeting, work, topical term or geographical place name.
In addition a list of narrower types or sub-types of entities is used, comprising about 50 entries: A geographical place name can be a city, a country, or a planet; a corporate body in the broader sense can be a real corporate body or a fictitious one; a person in the broader sense can be a natural person, a god or deity, a spirit or a pseudonym; a topical term can be a language, a product or an ethnographic topical term; a conference/meeting can be a single one or a sequence of conferences/meetings; a work in the broader sense can be a musical work or a collection.
The list of narrower types of entities defined in the GND is available online at:
http://www.dnb.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/DNB/standardisierung/inhaltserschliessung/entitaetenCodes.pdf (PDF, 3 pages, 33 KB, in German language only)
Up to now the designation of the broader type of entity described in a MARC Authority record can be derived from the presence of the field in the 1XX range. But there are criteria that have to be taken into account when a broader or a narrower type is to be distinguished: A person has a field 100, but a 100 with one or more of the additional subfields from the title portion group (according to http://www.loc.gov/marc/authority/adx00.html) designates that the record describes a work. The same is true for the fields 110 (Corporate Name) and 111 (Meeting Name). In field 100 the first indicator "Type of personal name entry element" set to value "3" indicates a "Family name", so the entity described in the record is a family. Distinguishing some of the narrower types of entities is possible by the presence of specific format elements, and by the textual content of specific subfields. However, for most of the narrower types of entities no exact designation is possible in MARC.
The MARC Leader and field 008 of the MARC Authority format were analyzed to determine whether there is a position which already holds the information intended, or which could be extended. The Leader does carry the general information at position 06 "Type of record" with a code "z" for "Authority data", but no more specific types.
In 008, there are the following positions with certain type information:
Position 32 codes cover the distinction between:
a - Differentiated personal name
b - Undifferentiated personal name
n - Not applicable
| - No attempt to code
It is thus able to distinguish between the GND types "person" and "name of a person", but no other types are covered here.
Position 17, in particular, has a list of possible values that seem to resemble the broader types from the GND:
17 - Type of subject subdivision
a - Topical
b - Form
c - Chronological
d - Geographic
e - Language
n - Not applicable
| - No attempt to code
The definition, however, makes it clear that position 17 is restricted to subdivision types: "Type of authorized subject subdivision contained in the 1XX heading field in a subdivision record, an established heading and subdivision record, or a reference and subdivision record. Code n is used in all other kinds of records."
With the need for both a broader and a narrower type of entity in the GND, to be used in combination, a flexible format solution is to be developed, to accommodate these both sorts of types, and potentially every way of subdividing an authority file along types of entities.
During the discussion in the meeting of the MARC Advisory Committee in January 2016 the paper’s value and usefulness was recognized in anticipating the need to parse out entity information. The preference was to record this information in a variable field, rather than a fixed field such as the Leader. It was suggested that field 072 (Subject Category Code) could be extended to encompass type of entity information. However, the overall preference was to define a new 075 field for this purpose.
An analysis of field 072 (Subject Category Code) showed some parallel intentions and structures. Field 072 can carry a "Code for the subject category that is associated with the 1XX field in an established heading record or a node label record." In field 072, the possible values in subfield $2 (Code source) are taken from the list of "Subject Category Code Source Codes", online at http://www.loc.gov/standards/sourcelist/subject-category.html . This coded approach would have to be extended by a textual aspect, and by a control mechanism using a link, i.e. a subfield $0, carrying an authority record control number, or a standard number, such as a URI.
The new solution may be used by other systems, models or styles of subdividing an authority file into different types. Conceptual models, sets of rules, and carrier standards and formats may find it useful to flexibly designate their specific types in the proposed way.
We now propose the definition of a new field as follows:
Field number: 075 - Type of Entity (R)
Definition: Type of entity that is described by the authority record as a whole. The field can be repeated if different systems, models or styles of subdividing are used to describe an entity. The source from which the type of entity is taken is given as a MARC code in subfield $2.
First Indicator: # - Undefined
Second Indicator: # - Undefined
Subfield Codes
$a - Type of entity term (R)
A term which describes the type of entity that is described in the authority record.$b – Type of entity code (R)
A code which is taken from a controlled list of entity types.$0 - Authority record control number or standard number (R)
Authority record control number or standard number of the type of entity. See description of this subfield in Appendix A: Control Subfields.$2 - Source (NR)
MARC code that identifies the source of the term or code used to record the type of entity.
Example 1:
001 118639560
024 7# $ahttp://d-nb.info/gnd/118639560$2uri
075 ## $aPerson$bp$2[code for GND broader type]
[Translation: "person"]
075 ## $aGott$bpxg$2[code for GND narrower type]
[Translation: "god" or "deity"]
079 ## $ag$bp$c1$qs$qg$uw$uo$vpxg
100 0# $aHermes
Example 2:
001 1077218117
024 7# $ahttp://d-nb.info/gnd/1077218117$2uri
075 ## $aName$bn$2[code for GND broader type]
[Translation: "name of a person"]
079 ## $ag$bn$c3$qf
100 1# $aJepsen, Julie Bakken
400 1# $aBakken Jepsen, Julie
Example 3:
001 1077117965
024 7# $ahttp://d-nb.info/gnd/1077117965$2uri
075 ## $aWerk$bu$2[code for GND broader type]
[Translation: "work"]
075 ## $aWerk der Musik$bwim$2[code for GND narrower type]
[Translation: "musical work"]
079 ## $ag$bu$c3$qm$qf$vwim
100 1# $aCreston, Paul$d1906-1985$tRhapsodien$mSax$mOrg$nop. 108a
380 ## $0(DE-101)041779819$0(DE-588)4177981-2$aRhapsodie$2gnd
382 ## $0(DE-101)041792505$0(DE-588)4179250-6$aSaxophon$2gnd
382 ## $0(DE-101)040438449$0(DE-588)4043844-2$aOrgel$2gnd
400 1# $aCreston, Paul$d1906-1985$tRapsodie
Example 4:
001 1072468999
024 7# $ahttp://d-nb.info/gnd/1072468999$2uri
075 ## $aKörperschaft$bb$2[code for GND broader type]
[Translation: "corporate body"]
075 ## $aProjekt$bkip$2[code for GND narrower type]
[Translation: "project"]
079 ## $ag$bb$c1$qf$vkip
110 2# $aSnow and Ice Hydrology Project
670 ## $aLCAuth
Example 5:
001 963332740
024 7# $ahttp://d-nb.info/gnd/416078-2$2uri
075 ## $aKongress$bf$2[code for GND broader type]
[Translation: "conference" or "meeting"]
075 ## $aKongressfolge$bvif$2[code for GND narrower type]
[Translation: "sequence of conferences" / "sequence of meetings"]
079 ## $ag$bf$c1$qf$vvif
111 2# $aInternational Conference on Digital Libraries
Example 6:
001 040451046
024 7# $ahttp://d-nb.info/gnd/4045104-5$2uri
075 ## $aSachbegriff$bs$2[code for GND broader type]
[Translation: "topical term"]
075 ## $aSprache$bsis$2[code for GND narrower type]
[Translation: "language"]
079 ## $ag$bs$c1$qs$uw$uz$vsis
150 ## $aPennsylvaniadeutsch
450 ## $aPennsylvania Dutch$9v:Wikipedia
Example 7:
001 040938832
024 7# $ahttp://d-nb.info/gnd/4093883-9$2uri
075 ## $aGeografikum$bg$2[code for GND broader type]
[Translation: "geographical place name"]
075 ## $aGebäude$bgib$2[code for GND narrower type]
[Translation: "building"]
079 ## $ag$bg$c1$qs$uw$uz$vgib
151 ## $aAlhambra$gGranada
451 ## $aStadtburg Alhambra$gGranada
Impact would be on MADSRDF. An additional subproperty of Real World Object might be added.
In the MARC 21 Authority Format, define field 075 as follows:
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