Action for Libraries
OCLC Preparing to Implement New
OCLC-MARC Update to WorldCat
By Linda Gonzalez
OCLC is now preparing for the next OCLC-MARC Update to WorldCat and planning for its implementation by the end of June 2006. This
2006 update to the OCLC MARC bibliographic record format will incorporate the MARC 21 Bibliographic and Authority Format Update 4
(October 2003) and Update 5 (October 2004), as well as several other elements that had been postponed while OCLC was migrating to
its new technological platform.
Among the changes this update will bring to OCLC MARC records are:
- Implementation of Bibliographic Level (Blv) code I in bibliographic records for integrating resources. (This is Leader/07 of MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data.)
- Invalidation of ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) fixed field in bibliographic records (Continuing Resources 008/20 and 006/03) in conjunction with a corresponding change to bibliographic record field 022, which will contain subfield 2 for the code representing the ISSN Center which assigned the item's ISSN. You will continue to see the ISSN element in the OCLC fixed field display for some period after June, until existing records are converted.
- Implementation of two new bibliographic record fixed field elements for Scores: Musical Parts (008/21 and 006/04) for items that contain parts (the OCLC fixed field label will be Part and Transposition and Arrangement (008/33 and 006/16), if the item being cataloged is a transposition or arrangement of another work. (The OCLC fixed field label for this will be TrAr.)
- Implementation of a privacy indicator as the first indicator in bibliographic record fields 541 (Immediate Source of Acquisition Note), 561 (Ownership and Custodial History) and 583 (Action Note). The code here will indicate whether the content of the field is sensitive information meant to be kept private and will be used to determine whether the field is retained in the master record in WorldCat.
- Implementation of a new authority record field, the 024 for Other Standard Identifier. This is meant for a standard number or code associated with the entity represented by the authority record, contained in the record's 1XX field.
- Implementation of new field 031 in both bibliographic and authority records, Musical Incipits Information, primarily for manuscript music, although also available for other formats of music material.
- Implementation of new bibliographic record field 258, Philatelic Issue Data, for the jurisdiction and denomination data from philatelic material.
- Implementation of new bibliographic field 648, Subject Added Entry — Chronological Term.
- New and changed codes in the MARC Code Lists for Languages, Countries, Geographic Areas, Relators, Classification Sources
and others. Among the new codes:
- zxx for "no linguistic content" (as for instrumental music) in the Language element of the fixed field, rather than the OCLC practice of encoding N/A here and the MARC 21 practice of encoding three blanks in this element. Existing N/A codes will be converted.
- New codes for individual Australian states and territories in the Country element of the fixed field.
- New codes for Australian regions in field 043, for Geographic Area codes.
- Character Set changes and additions, including the degree sign, phonogram copyright mark, copyright mark, musical sharp, inverted question mark, inverted exclamation point, eszett, Euro sign, left and right curly brackets, spacing circumflex, spacing underscore, spacing grave and spacing tilde.
You may see the new characters appear in some Connexion displays and dropdown boxes before June, but you should not use them until OCLC has announced the implementation of this update. Until the announcement, continue to follow the current version of Library of Congress Rule Interpretation 1.0E, and related rules and RIs, regarding the transcription of certain special characters, where appropriate.
Also, please keep in mind that you should not try to use new fields, subfields and codes until the OCLC-MARC Update implementation is announced.
Some data conversions will not be completed by OCLC until after implementation of this OCLC-MARC Update, such as the conversion of records for integrating resources from Bibliographic Level m (and a Continuing Resource 006) to Bibliographic Level I. Look for future announcements from OCLC about its conversion plans.
Details of this update are included in OCLC Technical Bulletin 252, which will be available at www.oclc.org/support/documentation/technicalbulletins/. Please watch for the announcement of the update's completion on OCLC-CAT (the OCLC cataloging electronic list), within the Connexion cataloging interfaces, on the BCR RSS feed for The Third Indicator and in BCR's Action for Libraries newsletter.