The situation that J. McRee Elrod mentions is one in which a field
is *always* suppressed. I agree that MARC 21 does not have to be
concerned with that case.
The situation that RLG has is different, however. The 541 or 583
field from a particular data source does not always require special
treatment in a union catalog display or record export; only when
the contributor deems it is required. A locally defined indicator
value "9" could be used by RLG and all its contributors to mark the
privacy of a field, avoiding the need to modify MARC 21. However,
the problem with using a local defined value is the potential that
some RLG contributors may have already used that indicator value for
their own local purposes. Having a MARC 21 defined indicator value
to mark the privacy of a field would avoid that potential problem,
facilitating the exchange of data between RLG and its
contributors. This seems to me a legitimate matter for MARBI.
Joe Altimus
RLG
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 10:56:54 -0800
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Sender: MARC <[log in to unmask]>
From: "J. McRee Elrod" <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Special Libraries Cataloguing, Inc.
Subject: Re: MARBI proposal no. 2004-03 (Privacy of Fields 541, 561 and 583)
Comments: To: [log in to unmask]
Comments: cc: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
>RLG's proposal makes the case for marking private information in fields
>such as the 541 and the 561 so that it can be masked within the context
>of a union catalog.
It would seem to me that this is *totally* a matter between the local
library and its systems vendor and/or bibliographic utility, and not
properly the concern of MARBI at all. We have customers who what 362
suppressed in their book catalogues because it is mistaken as holdings
for example. That would seem to me to be between us the the library.
The same would apply to what fields are shown in an OPAC MARC display,
whether in a local or union catalogue.
__ __ J. McRee (Mac) Elrod ([log in to unmask])
{__ | / Special Libraries Cataloguing HTTP://www.slc.bc.ca/
___} |__ \__________________________________________________________
To: [log in to unmask]
cc: BL.CJA
