Action for Libraries
OCLC Moving Local Data Records
to MFHD National Standard
By Linda Gonzalez
OCLC members who have taken advantage of OCLC's Union List functionality in the past are anticipating not just its February 17 move to
the Connexion browser interface, where it will be called Local Holdings Maintenance (see Heather Clark's article, "OCLC Union Listing
Moves to Local Holdings Maintenance Service," in this newsletter). Members also are anticipating the conversion of OCLC's Local Data
Records (LDRs) from their current OCLC proprietary format to a nationally standardized format, MARC 21 Format for Holdings Data
(MFHD). The move to a standardized record format promises more flexibility in how the holdings record (which OCLC will rename Local
Holdings Record) can be used in the future, not just by OCLC, but also by the member libraries creating these records to document what
they actually own.
The history of MFHD (pronounced "muffhead," believe it or not) is rather brief, compared to other bibliographic control standards in place in libraries. Recording information about a library's holdings of a serial publication (newspaper, journal, annual or other periodical) has a history of being problematic, especially for the purpose of sharing that information with other libraries (union listing). At the same time, sharing such data is extremely helpful for resource sharing, increasing efficiency in the inter- library loan process tremendously. Traditionally, in any individual library, holdings were recorded free-style and manually, perhaps in a card file. Automation removed the manual aspect, but each vendor of a local automation system developed its own proprietary format for an electronic holdings record within its system. Such proprietary records are difficult to share between systems, often requiring custom programming, which increases the cost of migrating those records.
The development of these distinct, proprietary holdings records predated MFHD, and the records became entrenched in local automation systems in the 1980s.
It was also in the 1980s that several ASERL (Association of Southeastern Research Libraries) staff, with a strong desire to electronically share their serial holdings information began work on a standardized record format. Their work became the MARC Format for Holdings and Locations (MFHL, pronounced "muffle") in 1986. MFHL was revised and renamed (and assigned a new acronym) MFHD in 1989.
Vendors were understandably reluctant to rewrite their software around a new record format for many years, but have gradually and increasingly come to accept MFHD. Your local system may already do so. OCLC staff, in redesigning union listing, also decided that utilizing a standardized record format was the best route into the future.
What are MFHD's advantages, apart from being a standard format and easy to share and communicate between systems?
A MFHD record contains coding which, if correctly done and fully implemented by a vendor, can be used to make the display of the holdings information in an online public access catalog as full or as minimal as a user wishes. Coding in MFHD can be used to generate reports for acquisitions staff to determine what should be claimed or bound or cancelled. You also may encode your library's lending policies with regard to a specific title in a MFHD record. OCLC users will use that coding in Local Holdings Records to appropriately route ILL requests.
Recording a holdings statement in MFHD can be done several ways. A librarian may use a free text statement such as "Library has 1982- " or detail the individual issues it owns of a publication.
A MFHD record can be daunting to anyone not familiar with MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) records. The structure of a MFHD- style holdings record is based in the international standard Format for Information Exchange (ISO 2709) and the American standard, Bibliographic Information Interchange (ANSI/NISO Z39.2). A MFHD record shares certain characteristics with its sister MARC-style records, including those used for cataloging information (MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data) and authority work (MARC 21 Format for Authority Data). Much of one's comfort in viewing a MFHD record depends on how it is displayed in a local system, whether user friendly labels are provided for each field of data or a "pure" MARC display with only numeric tags identifying the fields is used.
BCR periodically offers the "SCCTP Serial Holdings Workshop," which explores the MFHD record, and gives participants practice with coding one. For information on the class and a schedule, please go to www.bcr.org/training/workshops/SCCTP-serialholdings.html.
The Library of Congress (LC) makes available all MARC 21 documentation. Visit www.loc.gov/cds/marcdoc.html#uffhd for information on ordering the complete MFHD documentation. A free concise version of the documentation is available at www.loc.gov/marc/holdings/echdhome.html.