MARC to Dublin Core Crosswalk

February, 2001

Network Development and MARC Standards Office
Library of Congress

Table of Contents

I. Introduction
II. MARC to Dublin Core (Unqualified)
III. MARC to Dublin Core (Qualified)
IV. Appendix 1--Notes
V. Conversion rules for Leader/06 to dc:Type

I. Introduction.


The following is a crosswalk between core MARC 21 bibliographic data elements and elements in the Dublin Core Element Set. It may be used in conversion of metadata from MARC into Dublin Core. Since MARC is richer in data than Dublin Core, it differs from the Dublin Core/MARC Crosswalk in that multiple MARC fields are mapped to a Dublin Core element. The Dublin Core to MARC crosswalk maps a Dublin Core element to a single MARC field. In both crosswalks there are different mappings for Dublin Core simple or qualified. Not all possible MARC fields are included in this mapping, but only those considered useful for broad cross-domain resource discovery. Applications may wish to include other MARC elements that are prevalent in their data but are not listed here, or they may not include all that are listed.

MARC 21 fields are listed with field number with specific subfields if applicable. In many cases specific subfields are not provided, since applications may differ in subfields used. Applications may not need out control subfields such as $2, $5. Notes concerning implementation are given. Further information about the mapping is given at the end of the document. Definitions of MARC elements may be found at the MARC Bibliographic format site and definitions of Dublin Core elements from the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set Reference Description, Version 1.1 and Dublin Core Qualifiers. In this document MARC 21 elements are grouped together under the corresponding Dublin Core element in the order given at the Dublin Core reference description document. Part II gives a MARC to unqualified Dublin Core mapping, while Part III gives a mapping to qualified Dublin Core. Dublin Core qualifiers with no suitable mappings are not included; these may be reconsidered at a later date.

Note that it is not expected that round-trip mapping is possible using this crosswalk. Once MARC data is converted to Dublin Core, not enough information is retained to allow for mapping back to MARC accurately. This is inevitable when mapping a complex set of data elements to a simpler set. Where a tag is used in more than one place, a decision may need to be made which Dublin Core element to map it to.

II. MARC to Dublin Core Crosswalk (Unqualified).

Conventions: "$" is used to represent the control character subfield delimiter.

DC Element MARC Fields Implementation notes
Title 245  
Creator 100, 110, 111, 700, 710, 711 See Appendix 1 below; Contributor element not used.
720
Subject 600, 610, 611, 630, 650, 653  
Description 500-599, except 506, 530, 540, 546  
Contributor   See Appendix 1 below; Contributor element not used.
Publisher 260$a$b  
Date 260$c  
Type Leader06, Leader07 See Appendix 2 for Leader-Type rules
655
Format 856$q  
Identifier 856$u  
Source 786$o$t  
Language 008/35-37  
546
Relation 530, 760-787$o$t  
Coverage 651  
752
Rights 506, 540  

III. MARC to Dublin Core Crosswalk (Qualified).


DC Element DC Qualifier(s) MARC Fields Implementation notes
Title   245  
Title Alternative 130, 210, 240, 242, 246, 730, 740  
Creator   100, 110, 111, 700, 710, 711 See Appendix 1 below.
720
Subject LCSH 600, 610, 611, 630, 650 Second indicator=0
Subject MeSH 600, 610, 611, 630, 650 Second indicator=2
Subject LCC 050  
Subject DDC 082  
Subject UDC 080  
Description   500-599, except 505, 506, 520, 530, 540, 546  
Description TableofContents 505  
Description Abstract 520 First indicator=3
Contributor     See Appendix 1 below; Contributor element not used.
Publisher   260$a$b  
Date Created 260$c$g  
533$d
Date Issued 260$c  
008/07-10
Type DCMI Type Vocabulary Leader06, Leader07 See Appendix 2 for Leader-Type rules
655 Subfield $2=dct
Format IMT 856$q  
Extent 300$a  
533$e
  Medium 340$a  
Identifier URI 856$u  
Source URI 786$o  
Language ISO 639-2 008/35-37  
041 Multiple codes need to be parsed by threes.
RFC1766 546  
Relation IsVersionOf 775,786$n$t  
Relation IsVersionOf
URI		 775,786$o  
Relation Has Version 775$n$t  
Relation HasVersion
URI		 775$o  
Relation IsReplacedBy 785$n$t  
Relation IsReplacedBy
URI		 785$o  
Relation Replaces 780$n$t  
Relation Replaces
URI		 780$o  
Relation Requires 538  
Relation IsPartOf 760,773$n$t  
440, 490,800,810,811,830  
Relation IsPartOf
URI		 760,773$o  
Relation HasPart 774$n$t  
Relation HasPart
URI		 774$o  
Relation IsReferencedBy 510  
Relation IsFormatOf 776$n$t  
Relation IsFormatOf 530  
Relation IsFormatOf
URI		 776$o  
530$u  
Relation HasFormat 776$n$t  
530  
Relation HasFormat
URI		 776$o  
530$u  
Coverage Spatial 522, 651  
255 Some 255 information equivalent to DC encoding scheme but different syntax
650$z  
752  
Coverage Spatial
ISO 3166		 043$c,044$c Defined in MARC in January 2001.
Spatial
TGN		 651 Subfield $2=tgn
Coverage Temporal 513$b  
033$a  
Rights   506, 540 No qualifiers defined.

Appendix 1--Notes

Creator vs. Contributor. In this mapping MARC name fields are mapped to DC Creator rather than Contributor for the following reasons:

Identifier. DCMI has only defined an encoding scheme for URI for this element.

Element encoding schemes. Some encoding schemes defined by DCMI have not been included because they are not generally found in MARC data. Examples include DCMI Point, DCMI Box.

Appendix 2 - Conversion rules for Leader06 - dc:Type mapping.

Multiple Type fields may be used; conversions below may result in 2 or 3 Type fields. There are several additional sources of type information in the MARC record; only coded values in Leader/06 and Leaader/07 are detailed in this chart. Field 655 may also be used for more specific type information.

Leader/06 value Leader/07 valueType value
a,c,d,t  text
e,f,g,k image
i,j sound
m,o,p,r no type provided
p c,s collection

Institutions may want to consider generating additional type values, such as "map" or "cartographic" for codes e or g; "musical notation" for codes c or d, etc.

Go to:

Library of Congress
Library of Congress Help Desk ( 04/12/2007 )