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DATE: December 13, 2016
REVISED:
NAME: Defining a New Subfield in Field 340 to Record Color Content in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format
SOURCE: The Cataloging Advisory Committee (CAC) of The Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA)
SUMMARY: This paper proposes defining new repeatable subfield $g in field 340 (Physical Medium) in order to record the color content of resources in the MARC 21 Bibliographic Format.
KEYWORDS: Field 340 (BD); Physical Medium (BD); Subfield $g, in field 340 (BD); Color content (BD)
RELATED: 2016-DP22
STATUS/COMMENTS:
12/13/16 – Made available to the MARC community for discussion.
01/22/17 – Results of MARC Advisory Committee discussion: Approved, with a slight editorial revision to the proposed definition of subfield $g.
03/21/17 - Results of MARC Steering Group review - Agreed with the MAC decision.
Field 340 is currently defined in the Bibliographic format as follows:
Field Definition and Scope:
Physical description information for an item that requires technical equipment for its use or an item that has special conservation or storage needs.Coded physical information is contained in field 007 (Physical Description Fixed Field). The field is repeated for each subfield $3 (Materials specified).
Following the adoption of Proposal 6JSC/CILIP/4, RDA instructions on color content have recently been modified. According to the new instructions, catalogers must indicate the presence of color, tone, etc. in the content of the resource either by recording the term “monochrome” or “polychrome”, or by using one or several equivalent terms from a substitute vocabulary. In addition, instructions under RDA 7.17.1.4 (Details of colour content) allow catalogers to record specific information concerning the color content of a resource if considered important for identification or selection (e.g. as a free-text note).
The main advantage offered by the revised RDA 7.17 is that it relies on the use of a controlled vocabulary — thus favoring machine manipulation — while providing enough flexibility for catalogers to record important details of color content. The CAC believes that these changes constitute a positive step, especially for the description of art-related resource and visual documents. In order to support adequately the automated manipulation of color-related information, the following proposal suggests that a new repeatable $g subfield, specifically defined for color content, be created in MARC field 340.
As an alternative solution, the CAC considered the possibility of using MARC field 007 (Physical Description), since it provides a position to record color content for certain types of resources. Unfortunately, for textual resources, no such position has been defined to qualify the color characteristics of illustrative matter. As a consequence, it would be impossible to record color content as a separate element for resources like art catalogs, fine press publications and artists’ books, which combine text and images. Furthermore, RDA 7.17.1.4 allows catalogers to record specific colors, yet field 007 does not support this level of specificity. Also, there is currently no provision in field 007 for indicating the source of a term. Since catalogers may want to use terms from specialized vocabularies (e.g. the Art and Architecture Thesaurus), it is important that the MARC field chosen to record color content supports the use of codes to indicate specific sources. Lastly, RDA 7.17 asks catalogers to record controlled terms, i.e. actual words, not codes. Hence, we believe that field 340, which allows the use of natural language, is a better option than field 007.
As a final point, the CAC would like to stress that field 340 already has subfields defined for most material properties of the resource. Yet the definition and scope of field 340 currently limits its use to items requiring technical equipment for their use or having special conservation or storage needs. Considering the importance of color content to support various FRBR tasks, such as to find, identify and select entities that correspond to the user’s needs, the CAC believes that the field scope should be broadened to apply to all types of resources. We therefore propose that the definition and scope of field 340 be modified as follows (changes in bold):
Physical description information for an item that requires technical equipment for its use, and/or more granular description information of an item's material properties to facilitate access and discovery or to support collection management.
Currently, color content information is recorded in field 300 (Physical Description) $b (Other physical details), with several other data elements (e.g. base material, applied material, mount, production method, etc.). For resources falling under the scope of field 340’s definition, most elements traditionally recorded in field 300 $b may also be recorded in separate subfields of field 340. Unfortunately, no specific subfield has been yet defined for color content.
In the MARC 21 documentation for field 340, some examples show color content information being recorded in subfields for other descriptive elements (e.g. 340 $ccolored inks). As a matter of fact, art catalogers generally consider color as a property of applied and/or base material. However, since RDA defines color content as a separate element, we believe it should be recorded in a discrete subfield. We propose defining subfield $g (Color content).
Example 1
For an original poster before letters:
340 ## $awove paper$cink$cgouache$dlithography$dcollage$gpolychrome
For a calotype:
340 ## $asalted paper$dcalotype process$gblack and white$opositive
For a postcard album:
340 ## $acardboard$cprinting ink$dcollotype$gblack and white$gcolor
Example 2
To contextualize the information recorded in subfield $g, a note may be provided in field 500, or field 340 may be used in combination with field 300 $b.
340 ## $awove paper$cink$cgouache$dlithography$dcollage$gpolychrome
500 ## $aColor lithography and collage, with white highlights in gouache, on beige wove paperor
300 ## $a1 poster :$blithography and collage, color inks and white gouache on beige wove paper ;$c …
340 ## $awove paper$cink$cgouache$dlithography$dcollage$gpolychrome[Cataloging agencies may decide to display the information recorded in field 300 $b and/or 340]
Example 3
Finally, subfields $2 and $3 may be used to specify the source of terms (if coming from a controlled vocabulary) as well as the part of the resource to which the characteristics apply. In order to identify RDA terms, the Network Development and MARC Standards Office (NDMSO) will liaise with the RDA Steering Committee (RSC) to establish new codes for RDA vocabularies in the 34X tags as a whole.
For a poster published as part of a larger resource:
340 ## $3poster$awove paper$cink$doffset lithography$gmonochrome
For a color postcard:
340 ## $acardboard$cprinting ink$dcollotype (process)$gmulticolored$2aat
BIBFRAME contains the property colorContent with domain ColorContent, accommodating either a designation of the color characteristic as a URI from a list or as a literal.
In field 340 (Physical Medium) of the MARC 21 Bibliographic format:
5.1. Define subfield $g as follows:
$g - Color content (R)
Presence of color in the content of a resource. Achromatic values (white, gray, and black) are considered to be colors.
5.2. Change the wording of the first paragraph of the Field definition and scope from:
"Physical description information for an item that requires technical equipment for its use or an item that has special conservation or storage needs."
to
"Physical description information for an item that requires technical equipment for its use, and/or more granular description information of an item's material properties to facilitate access and discovery or to support collection management."
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