NAME: Change of tag 301 to 307 in the USMARC Format for Community Information
SOURCE: Library of Congress; OCLC Internet Resources Project
SUMMARY: This proposal calls for changing the tag used for hours, etc. in the USMARC Format for Community Information from 301 to 307 to avoid the conflict with the obsolete definition of field 301 as Physical Description for Films (Pre-AACR 2) in the USMARC Bibliographic format.
KEYWORDS: Field 301 (Hours, Etc.); Field 307 (Hours, Etc.); Hours, Etc.
RELATED: DP49 (June 1991); DP54 (Jan. 1992); 93-4 (Jan. 1993); DP69 (June 1993); DP78 (June 1994); 94-9 (June 1994)
STATUS/COMMENTS:
12/2/94 - Forwarded to the USMARC Advisory Group for discussion at the February 1995 MARBI meetings.
2/6/95 - Results of USMARC Advisory Group discussion - Approved.
2/16/95 - Results of final LC review - Approved.
PROPOSAL NO. 95-7: Change of tag 301 to 307 1. INTRODUCTION As the result of several discussion papers and Proposal No. 94-9 (Changes to the USMARC Bibliographic Format to Accommodate Online Systems and Services), a field was added to the USMARC Bibliographic format to record hours, etc. associated with the availability of online systems and services. Tag 301 was initially suggested since it was defined in the provisional Community Information format. A review of obsolete data elements in the Bibliographic format revealed that tag 301 had already been used for the physical description of films in pre-AACR 2 bibliographic records. Since obsolete data elements cannot be reused with a different definition, a different tag had to be chosen for hours, etc. in the Bibliographic format. Tag 307 was approved instead of 301. The USMARC Advisory Group recommended that the tag chosen for hours, etc. in the Community information format be changed to align it with the definition in the Bibliographic format. 2. DISCUSSION The USMARC Format for Community Information was approved as a provisional format by MARBI in 1992. The definition of a field in the USMARC Bibliographic format was carried over to the new format for community information when the data was similar. In the provisional format, field 301 was defined for information about the days and/or times pertaining to the operation of the community information entity (such as a program or service). It did not appear to overlap with any valid 3XX field in the Bibliographic format. The field was also to accommodate additional information, such as the number of staff available during the period(s) specified. Although the Community Information format is separate from the Bibliographic format, it was designed to carry over the same meaning of content designators from the Bibliographic format where similar data needed to be accommodated. New data was assigned field tags that were not already defined differently in the Bibliographic format. The data elements for hours, etc. is an exception to this design principle and represents an oversight of an obsolete field in the Bibliographic format. The change to the Community Information format now will avoid problems later since it is still provisional and has not been widely implemented. The advantage of making this change is that it would eliminate the use of an obsolete Bibliographic format field in the Community Information format. Since field 307 has been defined in the Bibliographic format for hours, etc., the change would also keep the Community Information format in sync with the Bibliographic format from which many of its field tags have been borrowed. The disadvantage is that any implementations of the provisional USMARC Community Information format will need to be changed and records including field 301 will need to be corrected to use tag 307 instead. Attachment A provides page 1 of the description for the field as it would be modified by this proposal. 3. PROPOSED CHANGE The following is presented for consideration: * Change the tag used for hours, etc. in the USMARC Format for Community Information from "301" to "307". _________________________________________________________________ ATTACHMENT A [301]<307> Hours, Etc. (R) Indicators First Display constant controller # No information available 8 No display constant generated Second Undefined # Undefined Subfield Codes $a Hours (NR) $b Additional information (NR) $6 Linkage (NR) _________________________________________________________________ FIELD DEFINITION AND SCOPE This field contains information as to the days and/or times pertaining to the operations of the community information entity (such as when the office of a program or organization is open, when a club is to meet, when an event is to take place, when a person is available for hire), as well as to special information, e.g., the size of the staff, whether or not a translator is available. When displayed/printed as a note, hours, etc. information is in some instances preceded by an introductory term or phrase that is generated based on the first indicator value. _________________________________________________________________ GUIDELINES FOR APPLYING CONTENT DESIGNATORS * INDICATORS First Indictor - Display constant controller The first indicator position contains a value that controls the generation of a display constant preceding the note. # - No information provided Value # specifies that no information is provided. When no information is provided, the display constant Hours: may be generated. [301]<307> ##$aM-F, 9:30-3:30. 8 - No display constant generated Value 8 specifies that no display constant is to be generated. [301]<307> 8#$aDate: Dec. 1, 1993, 2 p.m.